Val isn't just satisfied to be an award winning actress. She wants more. She takes on a new challenge as a professor and tries to transition into directing. In the process she meets a beautiful partner but can she really have it all? I really enjoyed this one and rooting for her to have it all.

Thank you #vintage and #netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I will never not be a sucker for a sapphic romance.
I love love love women.
This was a really cute sapphic romance!
I think this is the kind of book, you get exactly what you expect, and that's not always a bad thing!
If you're looking for a fun filled sapphic romp, this is it!

Thank you to Vintage Books for the eARC.

Director’s Cut had potential. It has forced proximity with co-professors, queer angst, academia. It sounds like all the things I love!

But I eventually realized the only parts I found interesting were when Val was teaching her class—the descriptions of the actual lecture—I realized this book maybe wasn’t for me. I felt no connection to Val or Maeve and I didn’t see any draw between them.

Side note—Val, letting a crush on someone drive your career-changing decisions seems like a bad call.

So alas, I DNF.

Loved this book. The dynamic between the characters made it unputdownable. I can’t wait to read future books by this author and recommend on my platforms

First of all, I started reading “Director’s Cut” and was SUPER confused and realized it’s because I didn’t read Sizzle Reel. Not quite sure why these weren’t marketed as a series. So I picked up Sizzle Reel and it was terrible. So bad that 30% in, I requested a refund. Luna was annoying as hell, her ex was annoying and her best friend was clearly jealous and in love with her. I skipped to the two sex scenes and they were medicore at best. I also didn’t like that the FMC of DC was telling her “strap on sex” at 2 mnoths of coming out was too soon?? like what?? you can not be out and have strap sex. plus the whole virginity quest was obnoxious considering EVERY other page she’d go on and on about how virginity is a social construct. WIth all this, the first few chapters of DC did not entertain me and in fact bored me. I don’t care what happens so I’m calling this a DNF.

Thank you Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Vintage for the free e-book. My opinions are being left voluntarily. This was fun, celebrity / director romance. Loved the forbidden co-worker grumpy sunshine sapphic romance fun, flirty and fabulous

4.5/5☆

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book!

Eh. This was fine, it had some cute moments, but also a lot of issues that were actually such non-issues that it was painful to read about how long it took to resolve them.

As a bisexual woman, I liked the representation that Maeve gave us, and as someone with anxiety, I found the main character’s to be so weird - I can’t even explain what was wrong with it, but the way it felt like a plot device rather than something the mc was constantly living with just felt off.

Overall, a fun quick read that I’ll forget in no time.

I wanted to love this one I really did… but between ALLLLL that movie theory talk and miscommunication I had the worst time trying to push forward.

A sapphic movie star who falls for a professor had the potential to be such a good book. But sadly the chemistry was not there for me between these two. Val and ??? (shit I already forgot the other persons name and I literally just finished it) just didn’t have the chemistry that I hoped for.

I feel like I was also attending their class because I learned way more about movie theory than I cared to. There’s also the problem of the miscommunication - JUST TELL HER THE ISSUE. literally the whole third act breakup could have been fixed with a simple convo. It really irks me when characters are this stupid.

Someone might love this one more than I did but unfortunately after taking LITERAL MONTHS to get through this one it just wasn’t for me.

2 stars
1/5 spice

Big thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

Thank you to Vintage and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel. I had read the other book in this series as an ARC as well and did enjoy the writing. This was also good and a sweet love story. I did have times of annoyance with Val as she would self sabotage but she also has clinical anxiety that requires medications by the end of the novel and so I feel the need to give a bit of leeway. It is a romance so wraps up in a neat bow at the end but a good way to spend a day. 3 stars.

This was a cute, fast listen (I ended up doing the audiobook). I unfortunately do not think it was exceptionally memorable, but it was cute!

I had really high hopes for this book! I thought the premise was excellent and was excited to read it. Unfortunately, I didn’t come around on the main character until the end. I found her lack of awareness of the effect her actions had on others more due to a lack of self awareness than her struggles with her mental health. Her realizations of all of this were too close to the end. I would have preferred it slowly to unravel throughout the book. That being said, I did quite like the other characters and thought their development was fantastic. It just didn’t quite make up for how frustrated I was with Valeria for most of the book.

A enemies-to-lovers romance with a compelling mix of Hollywood and academia, Director's Cut makes for a fun read.

Valeria "Val" Sullivan is an academic turned Hollywood actor who is dipping her toes back into academia with a guest teaching spot at USC. There she meets Maeve Arko, her co-professor, who instantly judges her designer clothes and refuses take her seriously. As the semester continues, respect and attraction build, and Val and Maeve grow closer. But can this professor find a way to deal with the realities of fame?

I loved how this book rather seamlessly flows between the daily realities of a working actor, and the life of a professor. I felt drawn to both worlds, and I feel like the author did a great job of making it accessible while also shining a light on something I don't often see in romances.
Both main characters were refreshingly unique, as were the supporting cast of characters. I loved the pairing and rooted for them.

All in all, a little spice, a little romance, and a lot of fun.

How much did I love DIRECTOR'S CUT? It was bold and heartfelt, sweet, a little steamy, and just an overall great read. I really identified with Valeria. Although our lives couldn't be that different--she's a Hollywood starlet, adjunct professor of film, and emerging director--her struggles felt real and very relatable. She's facing the cutthroat press circuit, all who seem more interested in her sex life now that she's no longer closeted, rather than talking about her acting or directing accomplishments, and that was so rightfully frustrating! GAH. I just wanted to hug Val and also fight everyone who looked down on her or tried to make her feel trivial.

And oh, Val and Maeve. Such chemistry! I think I went in expecting a fun, light-hearted rom-com and what I actually got was something deeper with far more heart and emotion, and by the end I was crying happy years. Watching Val and Maeve take down their walls for each other, get past their misconceptions of each other, and begin to fall for each other, was truly beautiful. Carlyn Greenwald is a great writer and I was thrilled to realize that she has more books out for me to check out. Yay!

My one quarrel with the book was that it fell back on the miscommunication trope and a third-act breakup that you saw coming a mile away. There were so many times I wanted to tell Val to just TALK to Maeve, to trust her and trust what they had. Gah, that was maddening. But even that was all well-done enough that I'm able to give the book a solid four-star rating.

Filled with lots of character growth, DIRECTOR'S CUT is a great sapphic romance for fans of Hollywood romances with a lot of heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

I've always loved romance novels that somehow involve the film industry as well as romances set in academia, and I'd been looking for a sapphic read -- so I thought this would be the perfect thing to pick up. In the end, I think it was a generally enjoyable story, and I'd give it 3.5 stars if I could! The pacing felt a bit inconsistent to me and I thought the miscommunication was more stretched out than it needed to be, but otherwise fun overall.

I liked sizzle reel enough to give Carlyns next book a chance. But it just didn’t feel realistic to me. Love the film study of queer art but this wasn’t it for me

Thank you for providing me the opportunity to read this ARC.

I was hoping for a good sapphic romance, and this book delivered. It felt very organic for how Val and Maeve met and then became friends. Once they started falling for each other, they fell pretty fast. Normally this would bother me, but I'll let it slide for these two.

What does bother me is the miscommunication trope. I kept thinking "come on, Val!" Because so much could be avoided if she would have just spoke up. It kept dragging too and I just wanted Maeve to find out so we could squash it.

There's also talk of mental health in this book and past abusive relationships. I think this helped to explain why the characters were so hesitant in the beginning of their relationship. You can practically feel Val's anxiety leak off the pages. I think this really brought me into the story, that I could feel her emotions for how well written they were.

Lastly, Charlie really made this book for me. I would love more of his story.

CUUUUTE. Giggled and kicked my feet all the way through this. For all the film loving sapphics looking for a cute romance!!

Better than the first novel. Great mental health rep and how your mental illness can prevent you from enjoying the small and the big moments of life. The romance was really cute and stable, even though i'm a little skeptical about the elevated rivalry at the beginning!

I love reading Greenwald's romances—the opposites attract, star-and-academic, academia romance was a delight! And so fun to follow up with characters from her adult debut!

Although I enjoyed this book, I had a hard time connecting with the characters' voice and tone and felt that there was a disconnect in seeing the full backstory and emotions of the characters.