Was this book perfect, no. But did I stay up way too late to finish reading it, yes!

I loved the Hollywood setting, the LA hidden gems, the young aspiring cinematographer vibes. I liked the characters, at least the ones I was supposed to like, (forget about Alice and Steven!). It felt very youthful in a way I don't remember being at 24. I liked the queer coming of age, I didn't love the repeated virginity/what is sec discussions which never really resolved completely for me. I didn't love Luna, again, she felt younger than 24, but who knows what todays 24yo are like.

I liked the dialogue, the pacing, the setting. I look forward to reading more from Carlyn Greenwald.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The blurb made this book sound like it would be exactly my kind of jam. Not only am I the same age as the main protagonist, but we’re both queer and interested in Hollywood, films, and cinematography! Oh, if only my reading experience had matched my expectations.

My first major issue lies with the plot. Luna just came out as bisexual, and when she meets celebrity actor Valeria Sullivan at the talent agency she works at, she is instantly smitten and falls hard for her. As readers, we’re supposed to buy into that and root for her… which is pretty hard to do considering that as early as CHAPTER 1, we’re met with early hints of ‘love triangle’ and set on the path of a storyline whose course any half-seasoned YA/romance reader could deduce without so much as reading chapter 2.

When the reader is introduced to Romy, Luna’s nonbinary long-term bestie and roommate, Luna describes her as having “rose-covered cupid’s lips”; when Romy hands her a coffee, Luna can “clearly see the tattoo behind her ear”; and brushing their hands makes Luna’s “stomach flip”. Is it just me, or is anyone else capable of predicting the entire rest of the novel based on these lines alone? My prediction just about looked like this: Luna likes Valeria, wants to date her, doesn’t think it’ll work out because Valeria is a celebrity, ends up working out with Romy’s help, Romy is in love with Luna but doesn’t say anything, Luna is confused about their change of dynamic, things end up not working out with Valeria, Luna learns she was in love with her best friend all along, they have a fight before ending up together.

“But romance books aren’t about figuring out the plot! It’s about the journey of self-discovery and change the characters go on!”, some of you might say. Yeah, let me tell you, I have zero interest in a character’s journey if I can see every hurdle they have to overcome to achieve their HEA from MILES away. Not if I can accurately predict every major plot point, and the only thing I have to do to confirm my prognostication is wade through a slog of semi-interesting-verging-on-the-mediocre writing.

It's also super funny how the ‘tension’ between Romy and Luna was so covert and passive that it took me 7 days to realise that what I’d read was basically a friends-to-lovers book. Friends-to-lovers is one of my favourite tropes, but what does it say about a book if it can’t even get across its FtL theme to someone who loves that trope???

Second major issue: writing and supporting characters 🤩
The writing wasn’t to my taste at all. I find it difficult to describe what exactly I didn’t like about the style other than it felt very choppy. I was often missing thematical links and connections between the sentences. The book is also very obviously meant to appeal to today’s generation of 20-something queers which seems to be the reason why the author threw in trendy terms like ‘bisexual disaster’ or ‘gay crisis’ and whatnot ever so often. It’s giving TikTok and tumblr and made this read like a YA novel instead of an adult novel. It also feels weird to see those terms used outside of internet speak.

Luna, Romy and Valeria were the most three-dimensional characters of the bunch. The rest was just meh:

- Luna’s boss, for example, just had to be the ice-cold office manager bitch à la Miranda Priestly. Her character traits are treating people like shit, being ignorant, and homophobic, and shouting when something doesn’t go her way. If there’s anything I’m tired of it’s the “main character’s boss is so mean, boohoo” trope. 🥱
- The relationship between Wyatt, the third person in the friendship group, and Luna was also super weird. They used to date but are already broken up at the start of the novel. Does it have any relevance to the plot? No. Could this have been left out? Yes. It comes up once or twice that Luna feels a bit jealous when she hears Wyatt is dating other girls, but for the rest of the novel, he and she behave like good friends, and whatever her unresolved issues with her relationship with him are; they get dropped pretty soon.
- Luna’s relationship with her brother felt forced, and their dialogues were very stilted and unnatural. A completely unbelievable sister-brother relationship based on awkward and forced communication.

As a queer reader who couldn’t care less about sex, I was also annoyed by how for Luna, everything queer seemed to revolve around sex and/or sexual intercourse. There are interesting tidbits in there, especially when Romy and Luna discuss the concept of straight vs queer virginity and how it shouldn’t be that when two straight people of the opposite sex sleep with each other and the woman is penetrated, it counts as having had ‘real sex’ even though she might not have climaxed while when two members of the same sex sleep with each other without penetration, yet still orgasm, it doesn’t count as ‘real sex’ but serious discussions in the nature of this topic fell too short for my taste. That’s where the novel could have shone, but it was too often reduced to Luna’s internal dialogue about how “it sucks being a virgin”. Maybe I just felt this way because I’m ace, and it seems like own-voices readers could empathise and connect with Luna, but I wish there had been more exploration of queer life through a non-sexual lens.

I did like Luna’s internal dialogue whenever she thought about how she would frame her surroundings, what lighting she would use, where she would position the camera, etc. It all felt very natural and real, so you get the impression the author really knows what she’s talking about in terms of writing about and describing cinematography. Also huge bonus points for the scene where Romy gives Luna a list of all the films starring lesbians/women that women interested in women love. My lesbian friend and I, too, love watching Cate Blanchett, Florence Pugh, Gillian Anderson, Tessa Thompson, and Sarah Paulson, and so does the entire wlw internet community.

Given that these are the only good things I have to say about “Sizzle Reel”, I can't in good faith give this novel more than two stars. The blurb sounded interesting, and the subject matter initially enticed me, but I ended up not enjoying this very much.

This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This title publishes April 18, 2023.

This was a cute f/f romance debut! We’re following our main character Luna who is an aspiring cinematographer currently working as a personal assistant for a Hollywood manager. She pines for an independent film star, Valeria, who is represented by the same management office at which Luna works. Luna has recently discovered she is bisexual, so she is navigating her sexuality, her feelings for Valeria, as well as her film career.

Positives:
-Main character exploring her sexuality. Luna’s self discovery journey is explored throughout.
-Focus on friendship. Luna has two friends in the book that have a lot of page time. These friendships are given as much page time and care as the romance is
-Pining for the love interest. The pining was well paced and well written - particularly the built up and tension in the relationship
-Fun Hollywood setting with high stakes film industry backdrop
-The MC coming out to her family was given care, time, and attention
-Three well written smut scenes
-The book balances the elements of career, friendship, romance, and coming out well

Criticisms:
-Only one POV. I would have enjoyed a Valeria (love interest) POV. She was absolutely my favorite character.
-Naivety. The MC was 24 but read more like 18. The coming out and sexuality elements made sense because she was new to those experiences. However the immaturity with which other elements were handled such as career, friendship, and romantic decisions were frustrating to read at times. I think the point was for the main character to be messy, but these elements were what held me back from giving this five stars

Overall an impressive debut!

feels so amazing now i’ve fully realised that i’m bisexual to read about a bisexual mc! this was great, especially considering it was the first book from this author and an uncorrected proof. i am on a queer book reading binge recently and really enjoying it :)

Debut novel from Carlyn Greenwald, Sizzle Reel is a fun, messy Hollywood romance paired with a coming-of-age story centered on a newly-out bisexual, Luna.

Set in Hollywood, Luna is an aspiring cinematographer who is trying to find her way in the world of film with terrible hours and an even worse boss. Along with this, Luna is going through the process of coming out as bisexual and experiencing all the life changes that come with such a big realization-- who does she tell, how does this impact her relationships, and how do you even flirt with girls? Luna has her best friend Romy who is her biggest support system, but meets movie star Val and has immediate chemistry.

This was a wonderful story about romance-- with all the fun angst and tenderness that comes with the genre-- and self-discovery. Such a great late bloomer coming of age novel that many queer readers will be able to find themselves in. It's relatable while still being enjoyable and cheesy with the romance genre. It definitely is for younger audiences and may not be for more mature audiences because some people simply do not know how to have fun! My main issue was that at times Luna was not a narrator we wanted to root for. While that is something so important for this genre, I think there are so many other redeeming qualities that makes this a great read. Also, yay to Sapphic Jewish representation!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

Thanks to NetGalley for sending me this arc.
So, let's get down to the nitty-gritty, this book is good. It's well-written, it has good pacing, and it's just overall solid. The issue for me personally was that it fell more along the line of New Adult romance than romance. The romance was young and fresh, but so much so that it reminded me of the grandness of high school emotions but set in a higher stakes real world situation. There were times when I laughed, times when I swooned, but also times when I physically had to cover my eyes to spare myself from second-hand embarrassment.

Did I try to go in blind? Yes.
Could I figure out where the love triangle was heading by chapter 3? Yes
Did I like this novel? Overall yes
Would I recommend it? Yes

Sometimes we just need to read a book that's fun and Sizzle Reel is certainly that.

Thank you NetGalley, Vintage, and Carlyn Greenwald for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! This was a fun book that follows Luna Roth who has recently come out as bisexual as she meets Valeria Sullivan. I loved the bisexual representation because I feel like there’s not enough in literature. However, I did have a couple things I didn’t like about the novel. I definitely feel like this one will appeal to a younger audience and fits in the NA category. It’s relatable and a lot of things are handled well, but I didn’t really like the virginity plot line and the pacing was a little weird at times. It’s not one of my favorite books of the year, but it’s a solid read and I think fans of NA romance will enjoy it.

I would say I liked this book, but didn’t love it. Romy is super unlikeable and I found myself cringing whenever she’d enter the scene. Absolutely loved Val though and Luna was a fun character to root for!

Sizzle Reel is the debut novel from Carlyn Greenwald, and she has done a fantastic job. I’m always a fan of celebrity romance, but this one is done a little differently and it sets it apart nicely.

Told in first person POV, and set in LA, twenty-something Luna dreams of being a cinematographer and has been working a menial job to get her foot in the door. The hours suck, her boss is a psychopath, and she is in the process of coming out as bisexual. Her best friend is Romy, who is her biggest support system as well as her sounding board. She is always available to give advice, but not always appreciated. Then Luna meets movie star Val, and the pair become friends while discovering they share some wicked chemistry. Luna has questions, thoughts, ideas and plans. They don’t all go smoothly, because that would be boring and the happily ever after does come eventually, but I won’t say more because I don’t want to spoil it.

Greenwald’s characters are witty, dramatic and very cool. Unlike me, who isn’t, and is maybe a little too old to be reading books like this…I did find myself having to google the acronym DTR which was used several times without any explanation of what it stood for, but I got through that little obstacle and really enjoyed the story.

Thank you to NetGalley, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, my rating: 1 star

There were many things that didn't work for me with this book, starting with the fact that we do not share the same humor, I didn't connect with the writing and the characters almost at all, and I really do not understand any of their logic and the conclusions they reach. Having said that, since this is an ARC, I hope the author and publisher read my criticism and use it to improve the book before it's released- which is still possible!!!!

I'll start with the good and then move on to the bad.

The good:
Valeria, Valeria, Valeria and again Valeria!!! The only character in this book I can well and truly say I loved!!! She's great!! Almost any scene she's in is fun and something I was waiting for!
Another good thing in this book is that the sex scenes are written really really well (*when* they are intended to be good!!!! Be warned there is one specific instance where that is not the case and could be triggering!)

Now the bad:
1. I personally think this is the most important one and seriously hope this will be changed by the time the book is released!!!! - according to the current synopsis of this book, Luna, the main character of this book is a 24 year old bisexual virgin with "no sexual history to build off" who is looking for a "route to losing her virginity". These are quotes taken directly from the published synopsis. It's also blatantly a lie.
Whoever wrote that in the synopsis quite frankly hasn't read the book. The main character of this book for some unclear reason in today's world, especially considering she's into women, defines losing her virginity specifically as penetration with the male appendage/strap-on. Other than doing specifically that, she did anything she possibly could do with guys, including penetration done in other ways, and actually has plenty of sexual history to build off! It is very unclear to me why the synopsis claims otherwise.

The biggest problem with this - is that it targets the book at the wrong audience! I'm going to get personal now - I am a 24 year old bisexual virgin.
Yes, a real one with no sexual history to build off. Yes, you'd be surprised we do exist.
As you can imagine, when I read the synopsis of this book, I was really excited and pleasantly surprised! a book with a character *my age*, with *no sexual history*, who has *my fears* - wow. That's the kind of book I was waiting a long time for, because yeah, virgin girls my age (who aren't asexual) really are non-existent in media and at some point, you do start to feel a bit like a freak. Only apparently, we ARE freaks, cause even this book doesn't believe we exist if they define a character who has so much sexual experience as a virgin with "no sexual history to build off", just because she's 24 and hasn't had someone put a very specific male appendage in her. I cannot emphasize how I was *seriously personally offended* reading this book, and even if I ignore my own personal feelings about this subject, I do not believe lesbians reading this book will appreciate virginity being defined around the male appendage.

Personally, I would rewrite anything and everything in this book relating to this plotline, but at the very least change the synopsis and issue some clarifications and trigger warnings on the subject because as it is the book is being targeted at the wrong audience and I really hope no other 20+ virgins will end up reading this. I personally, while seriously offended and angry, know better than to believe the harmful opinions this book perpetuates and is built around, but someone in my situation with lower self-esteem or confidence in her virginity - will be absolutely destroyed while reading this book and possibly sent spiraling into harmful activities and situations. If you don't want to take responsibility for that, you need to make some very serious changes and fast, starting with immediately deleting the current synopsis and writing a clarification that the book actually deals with a sexually experienced girl who has very wrong opinions about how virginity is defined + adding a trigger warning explaining the harmful stereotypes around virginity that this book deals with.

2. The wokeness. Believe it or not, there is apparently such a thing as being TOO WOKE. The number of times this book referred to cis het white men and how awful they are is at this point honestly appalling.
I'm a bisexual woman with many queer friends so you bet that me and my friends joke about cis het white men from time to time. So when the first reference to cis het white men and how they suck showed up I laughed. And when the 2nd one showed up, I laughed. Then it happened for the 3rd time and I thought a bit repetitive but ok. But then it happened again and it wasn't funny anymore. And again, and again and again, I honestly lost count. Believe it or not, when I read a book about a sapphic couple, it's not because I want to read about men and how much we should hate them if they are cis and white. Especially considering the main character is presented as bisexual and supposedly the love interest could've been a man just as much as a woman.

3. Talking about repetitiveness, Luna is Jewish. She mentions that in the first chapter. As well as almost every chapter after that. For no reason. Seriously, FOR NO REASON. I am Jewish. When she first mentioned she's Jewish I thought it was very cool - another thing we have in common! And even though I'm secular, being Jewish is a very important part of my identity, actually - even more than my sexuality and that means A LOT. But then it just kept being mentioned again and again for just no reason, really no reason. As far as I could tell, being Jewish isn't significant at all in Luna's life other than her struggle with the fact her parents want her to find a Jewish man and it's ok she isn't as connected to her roots as me, but then why does she keep randomly mentioning she's Jewish?? I just don't get it. At some point it started to feel like Jews aren't just normal human beings like everyone else.

4. Luna's parents. Talking about Judaism, any Jew will tell you that the most important law in Judaism is "respect thy mother and thy father". Any Jew besides Luna that is because it certainly didn't seem like she was familiar with the concept. And yeah - not every parent deserves to be respected, respect needs to be earned. But Luna's parents, as far as we've seen, are wonderful! Sure, they annoy her sometimes like every parent does, and they try to push her a bit in regards to finding a job and a man, again like every parent does, but mostly they just really really care about her and want her to be happy. They make sure to call her and ask how she's doing, they help her financially, they let her know when they see something they think she'll like, they try to give her advice (some really good ones too!), and when they push her in regards to her job or relationships it is very clear they are only doing it out of worry and concern for her happiness because they know (and are right) that she isn't happy. They also have no bad intentions with it in regards to her sexuality, since they have no idea she isn't straight and at no point make any kind of homophobic comment. Basically, as far as we as readers can tell - Luna couldn't have asked for better parents. And she is AWARE of it too.
So if that's the case, why does she keep treating them like they are nothing but a bother??! Usually, when a character is angry at their parents, you are angry at them too and you relate because who isn't angry at their parents sometimes? But Luna doesn't actually have anything to be angry ABOUT, she's just plainly ungrateful and disrespectful over and over again while all her parents want is to just talk to her cause they miss her. I honestly felt really, really, bad for them.

5. Luna's brother. There was this one specific scene with her brother and his best friend. Luna was in a really bad mental state in that scene. Her brother noticed. You would think he would help. Cue another scene that I really don't understand. He basically asked her why she came to him and that she should go talk to someone else. In case you are wondering, her brother was actually nice before this scene, no there was no reason for that to have changed, no they didn't talk about this again later to clear the air or make it clear what her brother did wasn't ok, and as if all that wasn't enough - the next time we see her interact with her brother she actually magically trusts her brother more than ever and their relationship is in the best place it has ever been. WHAT????

6. As I've said Val was my favorite character and so every scene with her was fun. The other side of that is that I just didn't enjoy almost any scene she wasn't in, which happened more often than you would expect. I didn't actually like any character other than her, some of them I even hated, especially one character - Luna. Luna is privileged, shallow, spoilt, ungrateful, opportunistic, disrespectful, indecisive, greedy, ignorant, irresponsible, judgmental, stubborn, selfish and thinks she's better than everyone and entitled to everything and cannot deal with any hardship. I hated her. The fact she at times also mistreated the only character I actually liked in this book didn't help. I couldn't stand the fact that one second it seemed like she actually cared and was interested in Val and the next she was just interested in losing her supposed virginity and Val was just coincidently the person along for the ride (and there are even other characters that she would've been ok with instead of her), and she just kept going over and over again between these two states, which leads me to firstly say Val deserves better, and secondly what the hell do you want??? She also didn't start liking Val because she got to know her, she started liking Val because she saw her movies. Again, Val deserves better.

7. Romi. Romi ends up being a pretty important character in this book, but there are several problems with that.
First, we don't know her and Val's history. It is mentioned vaguely several times throughout the book, but it's not like we actually see it, there aren't any actual flashbacks or any proper building of their relationship that we get to see. We simply take it at face value that they are best friends and that any time Luna needs some sort of advice she goes to Romi.
Second, Romi is unlikeable. Not because of her personality, but because people reading this book are obviously simping for Val and so when Romi is very clearly jealous, sometimes to the point where she even gives Luna bad advice or mistreats Luna and Val, you inevitably start disliking her. At certain points even Luna starts noticing it and getting angry with Romi because that's how it is purposely written - you are intended to dislike Romi.
Third, there is no proper building of Luna's and Romi's relationship in the present as well. There are no deep talks between them and really all of their scenes alone together are based on Luna needing advice in regards to Val, which as I've said, are scenes that only cause you to dislike Romi. There is no building of their relationship because it was already built by the time the book starts and we have no real connection or sympathy for Romi even knowing why she's jealous. All of this doesn't work well for Romi's eventual role in this book. We are basically meant to start magically liking her in the end after being made to intentionally dislike her for the entire duration of the book.

8. Unrealistic and crude dialog, that just makes you feel like all the characters are fake. Considering Luna has "no sexual history" she actually has a lot of sexual history to tell her friends about. And so do her friends. And wow do they talk about it and VERY explicitly. I don't know who in their right mind will tell someone who isn't their sexual partner the things that they just seem to talk about freely, for example, at the barber with several people who know you around. I really hope there weren't any kids there getting a haircut? But seriously, my friends and I talk sometimes about certain sexual experiences, specifically if we need advice, but we don't do it this detailed nor this explicit, nor in public with several people listening and especially not if we don't actually need any kind of advice. I'm sorry but all of these overtly sexual talks were just unrealistic, and don't even get me started on going with your friends to a sex shop because your vibrator broke and you need them to help you pick a new one???? (and she's supposed to be a virgin with no experience you say???)

9. Who comes out 4 days after realizing their sexuality while they are evidently still really REALLY confused. I'll tell you who - no one. I'm sorry but the way that was presented was just very unrealistic. Coming out is hard, it takes time, it takes some soul searching with yourself - all things that Luna clearly feels and needs throughout the book, so it's just unrealistic that wasn't the case before she came out. Maybe there are people who are capable of that, but Luna just isn't one of them.

10. There were all kinds of abbreviations thrown around of terms used in the film industry. The problem is people who aren't part of that industry don't know those terms and abbreviations and most of them were just used without being properly explained. The terms A.P., A.D. and D.P. for example, tell me nothing. Why do I have to google them to understand the book?

11. There were all kinds of weird logic and conclusions used in this book. Some of them include (but aren't limited to): Luna promising Romi to not spend any time with Val outside of work even though Romi never asked for such a promise and there is no logical reason for that to even be needed, Luna concluding she's a virgin for the aforementioned reasons, Luna thinking she has to have sex to be "a real bisexual" as well as concluding that's what her parents will say if she ever comes out to them (even though we've never seen any actual reason for her to believe that's what will happen!), her deciding to trust her brother more than ever after he basically abandoned her at her worst, Wyatt thinking once someone told you they are gay it's ok to out them to everyone else, that career is more important than a relationship and you must choose between them, that you're older and wiser after having sex, that you're still a virgin because your sapphic partner used methods that didn't include penetration, that het men don't ever make girls come (and they didn't say it in just the regular joking way in the instance I'm talking about but rather as a fact that is just true for all het men out there apparently, though I'm a virgin so who am I to know, but Luna was also a "virgin" with some strong opinions on the matter), and unfortunately there are many more examples where these came from...

12. Luna is described as Jewish and "white". Jews aren't white - the entire holocaust is literally based on the fact that we aren't white. We can be white-passing sometimes, but Jews being white is a misconception and I would've expected a Jewish character to know better.
Jews are not Caucasians and we are not Europeans, we are our own separate ethnicity that originates in the middle east and that has been haunted and persecuted for no reason besides our ethnicity for centuries and are unfortunately still being targeted for reasons of racial prejudice even today, including in the US in general and in LA specifically. So no, we are not white.


-So. In conclusion, I came to this book with high expectations. I was supposedly the exact person this book was intended for, and at face value according to the synopsis am basically the exact person Luna is described as. But the truth is the description is highly misleading and actually makes this book *really harmful!*
I really hope the author and publication will go over all the things I pointed out and fix them, and most importantly make sure this book doesn't end up causing real harm to its audience.

P.s. Romi is an Hebrew name while Luna is a Spanish one. So why is Luna Jewish and "white" while Romi is Christian and Spanish??? It's not a bad thing, just something I found really weird??

Sizzle Reel is messier than most of the romances I've read, and I absolutely loved that about it. It's raw, and tender, and the questions Luna grapples with as a newly-out bisexual are super relatable. There's a lot of angst (both interpersonal and personal-identity-based) that makes this book definitely not fluffy-- but impactful, and important.
Luna has just come out to her two closest friends-- which is exhilarating, and scary. As is the realization that she's attracted to one of the actresses repped by the management company she works for. When things go south at Luna's job, she turns to the actress Valeria. Their friendship is exciting, but Luna wants more-- and suspects that Valeria might be gay. She turns to her best friend Romy for advice on how to approach the Val situation, but Romy has been acting strange lately.

I loved the turns this book took, and that it didn't shy away from the hardest questions we ask ourselves as we consider our identities-- who should we be out to, and when? What counts as sex when penetration isn't a given? When are we bisexual enough-- and is that even a real thing to take into consideration?
I absolutely adored this book, and it helped me realize some specific questions I'm still struggling to answer for myself. Sizzle Reel is sweet, and angsty, and so damn real it took my breath away.

Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

CW: bipphobia, homophobia, forced outing

This was a gorgeous debut new adult fiction. The writing was smart and voicey and just sucked me in. Filled with Hollywood, and self-discovery. This is entirely Luna's story as she comes out as a baby bi and tries to figure out what that means, where she is with her career, and the relationships in her life, and is virginity even a real thing.

Luna was confused, oblivious and just very authentic as she asked so many questions and learned from those around her. What she wanted out of her career, how to be her authentic self. This book felt like a deep dive into Hollywood, an appreciation for the people behind the scenes and the art of it all.

Romy was just so lovely as a best friend, pining away quietly as she also walked Luna through her discovery and accepting of sex and intimacy.

Very excited to see what comes next from this author.

Steam: 3

Sizzle Reel is such a wonderful coming of age tale wrapped inside a romance. It’s the late bloomer story that I have been craving and even better, its SAPPHIC. It is warm and inviting, pairing first kisses and artistic angst and beautiful (at times lol) LA scenery. It's such an enjoyable read.

Luna Roth has come out as bisexual at twenty-four and its more difficult than she expected. Despite working as a lowly assistant in L.A., she dreams big, wanting to work under a director of photography one day. When she meets twenty-eight-year-old A-list actress Valeria Sullivan around the office, Luna thinks she’s found her solution to her career and girl problems. Enlisting Romy, her best friend, for help, Luna starts the juggling act of her life. But when Valeria begins to reciprocate romantic interest in Luna, the act begins to fall apart—straining her relationship with Romy and leaving her job prospects unknown.

A Jewish sapphic romance is everything I have ever asked for!!! As someone who works in Canadian television doing publicity, I really enjoyed the background into the American film industry and cinematography, specifically, that "Sizzle Reel" brings. My vision for Valeria was definitely of queer icon Kristen Stewart and I enjoyed every single moment she was on the page. I will happily read her story next because she deserves everything unlike Luna.

From the beginning, Luna is very in her head. I understand queer panic, but the intrusive thoughts and focus on the correct way to lose her sapphic virginity comes off as cringy. While I enjoy smut, I don't think sexual intimacy needs to be discussed as much as it was in this book; there was a huge focus on what constitutes as sex for those who are gay. It took away from the story in my opinion. There were a lot of on page explanations/insights into sexuality and gender that I think are really important. That said, it does make the book move more slowly for those who are already educated on such things, however, this may also be why it reads like YA despite being open door.

I had a hard time connecting with Luna. She's a bisexual disaster (I thought I was one too until I realized I was just a lesbian), messy, anxious, flawed, annoying, misguided and selfish. As someone else said before me, "Is the main character confused to the point of being borderline-irredeemable? Yes." and I agree. I eventually hope for a middle ground in books where their characters make problematic choices like in real life, but they're also likeable and redeemable in other ways. I just hate Luna (sorry!).

"Sizzle Reel" is definitely more of a coming-of-age novel than a romance for new adults. It touches upon harmful stereotypes, internalized homophobia, public outing, abusive bosses, removal of consent (which is respected) and, struggling with queerness, relationships and building a career. Luna's motive got lost in the middle since her career goals and romance intertwined. It was cleared up closer to the end when the love triangle and endgame came into play. There was slight hinting and jealously to foreshadow what would happen with Romy, but I didn't want it to. I was not compelled by the final romance and much preferred their platonic relationship.

Fingers crossed we'll get to see more of Valeria Sullivan one day because she is easily the most compelling character. I think all the gays will love her like I did.

This was a solid three star book for me. I didn’t dislike it and was able to sit and read huge chunks of it at a time, but it didn’t capture my heart enough to be a favorite that I’ll want to reread. I can see this being picked up by readers but not being as memorable as other queer romance books. It’s being marketed as adult romance, which feels a little misclassified. It’s certainly about love and dating, but at times it feels a lot more like a coming of age story and adult fiction. While there is explicit sexual content, making it appropriate for a mature audience, I feel like it’s a bit young for a lot of adult romance readers who usually read books about main characters in their late 20s to early 30s. In fact I’ve often seen romance readers comment that they would like to see stories told about people who find love later in life. This book is about a gen Z main character, which did throw me for a loop when I came across that information only a few pages into it. I would put Sizzle Reel firmly in a New Adult category if NA was a broadly recognized genre.

Diving into the story, again I feel like this is more about Luna’s coming of age as a baby gay than a typical rom com. I found her experience with her new-found bisexuality to be very relatable and I think readers will empathize with her journey, but I really didn’t like the narrative about her virginity. I appreciate that Romy consistently challenges the patriarchal ideas of virginity and points out how much it’s actually a social construct. But we never get a huge moment of revelation from Luna about what constitutes sex and loss of virginity. She spends SO MUCH of the book hyper-fixated on having sex and what sex is defined as, but when she has a moment with Val in which they talk about it, I feel like it was a missed opportunity to show a moment of enlightenment on Luna’s part. I would have loved to see her have more of a conversation about it with her therapist or even just a deeper internal thought process about it, and see her come to a healthier conclusion about all of it. Unfortunately we never really get that and I still don’t think Luna has a healthy view on sex and virginity. Her arc feels incomplete.

Wyatt’s character is a strange addition to me. He didn’t serve much purpose other than linking Luna up with Val and then outing Luna in the workplace (I don’t think this was handled as well as it could have been. I think we could have seen more remorse and responsibility on Wyatt’s part). I could never really get a read on him. Luna and Romy treat him like the typical straight cis male of their friend trio, but he came across so queer coded in all of his interactions with them. The way he would converse never felt genuine or like something a real life person like him would say. This is most apparent towards the middle of the book when Wyatt is talking to Luna about her karaoke date with Val. The advice he gives her is so much like the way Luna’s therapist gives advice, that it didn’t feel realistic to me and took me out of the story.

As for the romance, I enjoyed the slow burn of Luna and Val, and seeing their relationship evolve. I think their “breakup” is handled beautifully and it did make me emotional to see that they continue to be friends after determining they are better off not being romantically involved. I did like Luna and Romy together as a couple, but I think there could have been more development with them. We see so much tension between them throughout the book and then it feels like they get together very quickly at the end. Maybe because the book spends so much time developing Luna and Val (ultimately…for what purpose?? Since they don’t end up together) that it takes away from the development we could have seen between Luna and Romy on the page.

Overall, this book is consumable and I think readers will reach for it and like it well enough. But I do think it’ll appeal more to a younger audience than an older one.

Also as someone who has lived in Pasadena… who hurt this author??? Calling Pasadena the most objectively boring city in LA??? Oy!

Thank you to NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

A cute queer style rom com in a Hollywood setting? Sign me up!

A special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me this e-arc!

Luna Roth is a twenty-something who recently came out as BI (we love bi girl representation) but its not exactly been a walk in the park. Her best friend Romy is in an abusive talent manager relationship and she too is queer, but soooo not going to come out to her parents. This book talks about the film industry and all the feelings of being queer. I really had a fun time with this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to read a fun and fast paced queer book!

This was a fun and very delightfully messy new adult romance; overall, a super solid debut from an author to look out for, with a lot of really good bits, and just a few minor hiccups.

Let’s start with the good: this was overall just extremely charming. The plot was fun, the romance was fun, the queer found family was really, really fun. Luna’s struggles with her queerness and her mental health were dealt with realistically and frankly and compassionately, and everyone’s struggles as “young person in a horrible job” were deeply, deeply relatable. the conflict in the romance aspect was also handled SO well — without spoilers, it felt realistic and natural and was perfectly integrated into the plot, which is often hard to do in romance, and which I admire enormously. The main characters were super well developed and very human, and I loved loved *loved* the femme-non-binary rep in Romy (as a femme non-binary person myself)!

I did have a couple reservations, especially about the character development; some of the side characters, most notably Wyatt, felt to me a little underdeveloped, and I found myself having a hard time caring about them, or Luna’s relationship with them. I also felt like the pacing was a little uncertain at times; some parts felt like we were going at breakneck speed and others felt a little slow. Those things stopped this from being a five-star read, but don’t let them stop you from reading the book; at the end of the day they were relatively minor concerns in the face of a great story.

All in all, certainly recommended, especially if you like NA romance, stuff set in Hollywood, natural conflict in romance, and queer found family. I’m really glad I had the chance to read this early, and really excited to see what Carlyn Greenwald does next! Thank you so much to Netgalley and Vintage for the ARC!

3.5⭐️

I really enjoyed this book at first. I really liked the characters and the romance between Luna and Valeria. For the first third of the book I was super hopeful and was expecting it to end up being at least 4 stars. but it got kind of slow during the middle and I felt like there were
so many different storylines that none of them went super deep. maybe it’s just because I couldn’t relate to the stage and part of life that the mc was in, but I felt like her coming out and sexuality felt kind of surface level?? I vaguely remember her saying that she thought that she was queer a week before she came out? the book was also super focused on the sex part of her sexuality and didn’t really cover any of the other aspects of being queer. even the romance once you got into the middle of the book felt like she was just trying to check something off of her list. also, I felt like the love triangle was kind of thrown in just to change up the plot some more. I was super excited to read this book after reading the plot, but it was a little different than I though it would be. it was still a good book and i wouldn’t not recommend it, I think it just want what I was really expecting and looking for. Overall, this was a good debut book and it was fun to read!

thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I LOVED this book. As a queer adult who's had a difficult time navigating her sexuality during adulthood, I really identified with Luna and I thought that her journey was portrayed so well.

Luna is unhappy at her job as an LA assistant while dreaming to be a cinematographer and her love life is almost non-existing. She’s also just come out as bisexual. The only parts of Luna’s life that she enjoys are around her best friend and roommate Romy and former boyfriend turned friend Wyatt.
And then comes Victoria, a Holywood movies star and the prospect for Luna’s career to take off…and to have her first sexual encounter with a woman.
The book has a significant amount of thoughtful discussions about sexuality and gender.
And what about that twist at the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this free ARC.