This premise was something i was frothing for, and i was hooked for like the first half of the book. Then, it just became so much work to keep up with.

A ‘queer rizzoli and isles’, is a dream and this fell a bit short. It was mixed with genres i love — a cozy mystery, gossipy podcast element with ex-costars, queer and yet, none of the developments felt satisfying enough.

I truly think if they kept it to the salacious gossip segments, where characters were brought back together by tragedy. Truly, taking their time focusing on the relationship development between the main characters and learning about the parallels of the on-screen relationship to the present podcast one, I would’ve eaten it up the suspense.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kensington Publishing for this eArc, in exchange for my honest review.

I’ve had so many mixed feeling about this book, the actual plot was great I enjoyed it but the writing a lot of information was in there that wasn’t needed or was duplicated throughout the book.

I really wanted to love this book because how amazing does a queer tv show about detectives turn into real life detectives on a podcast sound!? That’s what I mean about the plot. The authors ideas were great.

Overall I did enjoy some of it and it was a finish

*full disclosure I was given this book in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley*

Big Name Fan is the third book I've read by these authors since summer (they also publish under the pseudonym Mae Marvel). Like their other books, Big Name Fan features a pair of intelligent, talented, beautiful women trying to come to terms with their feelings for each other. In this case, they are both famous actresses who starred together in a popular television detective series and are coming together after several years to celebrate an anniversary of the show by producing a podcast and refilming some of the episodes.

Bexley Simon and Sam Farmer always had a spark between them, and the reunion tests their resolve to avoid falling (back?) in love. In addition to the dynamics between our duo, the book examines the backstage intrigue of working on a television show and the fan fiction that results, As they reminisce, they also remember one of their crew members who died from a fall during the filming of the original show. They start to think that her death might not have been an accident, and their reunion preparations begin to include a plan to flush out the person they suspect may be the murderer. With all of this, there is a lot going on. I'm glad there was a cast of characters listed at the beginning of the book, as I was having trouble keeping some of the plots and subplots straight. To top it off, we are always aware of the fact that this is taking place within the context of Hollywood's treatment of queer characters and their fans. An impassioned argument between one of our stars and their director sets this context starkly: Hollywood was just not ready to accept a lesbian romance on their most popular show.

I always love it that Ruthie and Annie don't just present queer characters, they educate the straight readers like me about the conditions under which gay people work, live and love. I wish there had actually been more of that in this book, given the "will she, won't she" way the show's finale ended, and the fact that it's still a message that people need to hear.

Many thanks to Kensington Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this eARC.

I loved the premise of this book, but I couldn’t connect with the storytelling. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, and at the same time, the pace was too slow for me. DNF.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

It kills me to write this review because I was sooooooooo looking forward to this book – fic! celebrity gossip! amateur sleuthing! all things I love – but this just did not work for me. And I think the very centrality of fic to the story is what ended up dooming it.

Because . . . ok. I consume a reasonable amount of fic. And while I am not trying to karensplain fic to anyone, I think it’s fair to say that one of the reasons it can be so addictive and compelling is that readers—even those not particularly versed in canon – are already attuned to the characters and their basic story and their vibes. Like, to take a recent example, I saw Inception back when it came out, have almost no memory of it, but a quick youtube primer and I am equipped to read literally thousands of pages of Arthur/ Eames slash, because – regardless of how AU it is, whether we’re in viking times or a modern-day conservatory – the authors are playing off the same dynamic between these two characters, picking up on their traits and characteristics and bits of interaction that, while each author puts their own stamp on it, come through strongly enough to form the basis for the ship. (jfc I really am karensplaining fic now.) Arthur/ Eames have barely any screen time together but the resonance is there, and it’s strong enough to bear the weight of the stories that authors weave around them.

That, I assume, is what the authors are going for: Bex and Sam (or in their alter-ego form, Cora and Henri) being compelling enough to hold up the rather twisty, trying-to-do-all-the-things narrative. The fatal flaw here is that they’re not. And that plays out on two levels.

First is the basic problem that BEX IS SO FUCKING DULL, MY GOD!!!!! How?! How can you have such a boring narrator?!!? HOW????? And we are supposed to believe that she is a theater kid??? No! NO!!! Every part of my being rejects this spiritless creature as a theater kid. Anne Hathaway is a theater kid! Ariana Grande is a theater kid! TOM HOLLAND IS A THEATER KID!!! You, Bex Simon, are not a theater kid. And it’s not the list-making or the fretting or the need for predictability and stability. It’s the flat emotional register, the not being in touch with her emotions, and the extreme sexlessness. And this is not meant to shame or slam people who do not, or rarely, experience sexual attraction. Bex, as far as I can tell, is not written as ace. She is just written like a Ken doll; girl might as well have plastic genitals. After a while I noticed that every time she sees Sam, she starts enumerating what Sam is wearing with salivating thoroughness. I am forced to conclude that the real object of desire here is Sam’s wardrobe. We never get any sense of Bex as a sexual being, or as someone who has ever had a sexual or romantic relationship. Which, again – she is not written as ace or aro. She is supposed to be one-half of the most shipped, most UST-y (non-) couple on television. She is, according to the lore we’re being force-fed, sending off heat waves of “rip my clothes off and have your way with me”; she is also, supposedly, captivating audiences with her sexy funky loud theater ways. But this just does not jibe AT ALL with the character we’re getting on page who, it must be stressed, is paint-drying levels of boring. (Super weird as well, given that Ruthie Knox’s Big Boy is so fucking hot, my god – so it’s not like one of these authors doesn’t know how to write scorching.) While Sam is just . . . there. Literally. That’s pretty much all I can say about Sam. She is there. I guess she’s supposed to be a grrrrl boss, hear her roar, but she’s more symbol than fleshed-out character. Sam is written so thin and unconvincing; there’s just so little to grab onto.

And this leads to the second level of not-working, and loops back to the fic-karensplaining above. Because these authors have set an excruciatingly difficult task for themselves by putting the reader in a fic-centric world without any of the shortcuts that make fic so compelling. Which is to say: they have to construct a show-world (with the storylines and characters and lore and fic) and a real-world world (Bex, Sam, Bex’s family, and the – very much too many – characters populating it) and, on top of that, a mystery binding the two. It is a gorgeous idea –I know I’m going hard in this review, but seriously, hats off to the premise – but in terms of execution, it requires SO MUCH exposition. The first 20 percent was nothing but Bex backstory, show backstory, Bex’s annoying sisters’ backstory, more show backstory, death backstory, crew backstory, fic backstory/ explainers, holy shit it was so much!! Some of that stuff, there’s just no getting around it: because the authors decided to write a murder mystery that depends on understanding both the show and real worlds, they have to give us a shitload of info to make the mystery make sense. But a lot of it is also stuff that fic (by which I mean actual fic, not the in-story fic) doesn’t have to spend time on because the reader is already primed and has some sort of shared understanding of the characters, even if the story is AU or non-canon-compliant. It felt like the authors were just shoving so much exposition and backstory in our faces, which is always tough, but especially tough in a story that is so self-consciously playing off fic norms and tropes.

And this is where it really matters that what we’re being told about Bex and Bex/Sam is so jarringly different from how they’re written. Because we are being told that their connection is so hot and magnetic and true that it’s captivated millions and femslashed its way to the top. But it’s just not there on-page – I’ve read tweetfic with more sexual tension than these two manage in 300 pages. And even such a dumb thing as Bex supposedly being a theater kid: the whole point of having a character who’s a theater kid is to be able to draw on that shorthand of Tom Holland dancing to Rihanna, Anne Hathaway dragging James Franco through the Oscars on sheer grit, Jonathan Bailey doing everything he does [pause to hose down self]. This doesn’t mean that all actors who perform on stage have the same personalities or traits. It’s simply to point out that “theater kid” has become a trope, and the whole point of tropes is either shortcut or subversion. I guess being boring as fuck is subversion of the theater kid trope, but is that really what they’re going for? And in such a packed book – with, again, the need to create the show world and the real-world world from scratch – wouldn’t it be easier to lean into the tropes rather than work against them? Give the reader somewhere to rest!

Part of me thinks it’s interesting that the authors created characters that are so unlike their fic-ified counterparts, like a sneaky commentary on how fic communities invest so much imagination and invention and care into characters/ people who, as written or acted, are not intended to be/ are not actually that interesting. But I feel reasonably confident that such was not their intention, because these authors clearly ARE fans and consumers of fic, and I love that for them. Which, sadly, means that the chasm between the fun, sexy fic-ified versions and the dull, sexless actual characters is unintentional and undermines what the book is going for.

So, yeah, this was a huge bummer, especially because I had such high expectations. Maybe it will work better for non-fic-readers; but if you’re tuning in expecting a fic-centered book that plays with and reads like the form it so sincerely admires, you’re not going to find it here.

I got an ARC from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A cozy podcast mystery about two former TV stars whose on-screen chemistry was scorching, but was never allowed to develop fully due to studio politics, investigating a mystery during a reunion five years after the show was cancelled. This was fun, very light, and the podcast angle put a real contemporary spin on it.

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this book but I do have some feedback as to why. I wanted to read this because I was a huge fan of network TV crime shows in the 00s and 10s (and today) and thought that I would recognize some of my experiences in the book. That was not the case.

I watched pretty much every major cop show in the 2010s and was an active part of some of their fandoms, and the culture that's described around Craven's Daughter is simply not a fan culture I recognize as existing at that time. It's close to the fan culture of 2024 than of a show that ended in 2019, if I did the math right. When they talk about licensing deals, merch, and spine offs (like an animated show popular in New Zealand?) I just don't recognize those as things that were ever really a thing. This shows barely produce t-shirts even when fans beg. Merch made by fans, however, IS a thing -- I just didn't see that distinction made, and the selling of fan merch would not help put Bex's sisters through school.

On top of that, on multiple occasions fandom words were missused -- the first example of which was saying "head canon". It's one word ("headcanon") and the description given was wrong as well.

I was left unclear on the target audience for this book as it doesn't seem to be network tv fans who wanted a sapphic romance and I'm not sure people who don't know fandom things would be into the premise? I hope that I'm wrong and the book does do well, though.

"When two A-list celebrities famous for their on-screen chemistry as TV detectives (think: sapphic Mulder and Scully, or queer Rizzoli and Isles) are reunited to investigate a real-life Hollywood murder, fans who have been 'shipping the leading ladies for years might just get the ending they've always wanted...

Bexley Simon and Sam Farmer aren't detectives, but they play them on TV. Well, played, past tense. The iconic cult hit that was Craven's Daughter ended five years ago, and their friendship died along with it. Fans were disappointed that the pair's legendary chemistry went unfulfilled - and crushed that the actual spark between actresses Bex and Sam didn't pay off, either. The network never intended for two women to get romantic, in life or onscreen, despite the fans. But the bigger tragedy was the loss of their dear friend, makeup artist Jen Arnot, whose accidental death cast a pall over the series' last episodes.

Now the network has decided on a reunion special, and Bex and Sam are thrust together once more as hosts of a rewatch podcast that will feature favorite episodes. Their first guest - a megawatt star who played a murder victim early on - drops a bombshell. Among the millions of pixels of fanfic written about the show online, one truly prolific author, known in the fiction world as the show's Big Name Fan, was an insider, almost certainly someone from the cast or crew.

As the podcast moves along - and the spark between Bex and Sam threatens to burn down the studio - the pair realize they're faced with two actual mysteries: Who is their Big Name Fan? And was Jen's death an accident, or did someone want her dead? Sifting through clues as they question cast and crew, the duo will need to separate fact from fiction as they make their personal partnership into unmistakable canon..."

I love that this is a mysterious romantic twist on the ubiquitous trend of stars doing rewatch podcasts.

𝐓𝐈𝐓𝐋𝐄: 𝗕𝗜𝗚 𝗡𝗔𝗠𝗘 𝗙𝗔𝗡 𝗕𝗬 𝗥𝗨𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗘 𝗞𝗡𝗢𝗫 & 𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗘.
𝙴𝚇𝙿𝙴𝙲𝚃𝙴𝙳 𝙿𝚄𝙱𝙻𝙸𝙲𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽: 𝙼𝙰𝚁𝙲𝙷 𝟸𝟻, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟻⁠
𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗦: 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝗲𝗿. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗿𝘆. 𝗠𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘆. 𝗥𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲. 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲.
📖ᴀʀᴄ 🏳️‍🌈⁠

𝗦𝗨𝗠𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗬:⁠
The sleuth part was good, a little everywhere but still good, though I still wonder how Jen passed because it was all everywhere. One could certainly see how the authors had a whole lot of directions in which the mystery could go.

The podcast part was more entertaining because it was describing scenes from the series that admittedly had a better plot than this book despite the queer-baiting. I was rather invested in the little scenes and also the big name fan's fan-fiction work.


𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘼𝙍𝘾 𝙘𝙤𝙥𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙫𝙞𝙖 𝙉𝙚𝙩𝙜𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙮 𝙨𝙤 𝙄 𝙖𝙢 𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙮 𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬.

I was not connecting with the characters and the plot, and it was moving very slowly. The plot sounded good but needed some polishing in order to make it more easy to read. A lot of info-dumping and telling, not showing.

The premice was good, but it was a bit overwhelming for my simple brain. The story would gain clarity with choices is narratives and characters

This book has a really interesting premise and was relatively well written, but the problem for me was there was just too much going on and I very quickly found myself confused and having trouble following the story. I think it would have been a lot more successful if the authors had paired down a lot of the “fluff” and then focused on fleshing out what was left.

While I can’t really recommend this book, I will give the authors another shot due to the fact that I enjoyed the writing itself and can definitely see myself being immersed in a different story.

i want to start with the positives. the best part of this book is the dialogue. quick and witty, with just the right amount of flirtation between the two leads. unfortunately, now this brings us to the negatives. the plot dragged and the mystery was too predictable. the guy you think is the bad guy halfway through...is the bad guy. no exciting plot twists or really anything at all to make the story more interesting. the romance felt out of place in the investigation, and didn't even lead to a satisfying conclusion. [SPOILER] the book ends with the leads in a long distance relationship. overall, i was just a little underwhelmed by this one. maybe i just wasn't the right audience.

While I enjoyed this story, I wanted more from it. I never felt immersed into the world or inside the characters feelings. I know this is a mystery novel but I wish there could have been more in the romance subplot, especially since it was a huge focus. I honestly feel like a Craven’s Daughter fan in wanting a more satisfying ending for Bex and Sam than what the epilogue gave us. But overall I’m all here for criticizing queerbaiting in entertainment and a second chance romance.

While I really wanted to like “Big Name Fan” by Ruthie Knox & Annie Mare, it didn’t work for me. As a fan of Rizzoli and Isles and growing up watching “queerbaiting” shows, I felt like this book could be right up my alley. I did enjoy the quirky writing and humor, and it felt like a fun insight into the television industry. The side plot of the mystery of what happened to their friend, Jen, felt on and off as the main plot. I wish the book dove into that more or let it go. Additionally, this book isn’t listed as YA and includes adult characters, but the overall feel for me was YA.

I did not realize that these authors also write under the pen name Mae Marvel and wrote “Everyone I Kissed Since You Got Famous”, which I really enjoyed. I loved “Big Name Fan”. I found this book to be a really interesting mix of mystery novel and romance novel, which is not something I have read before. I am a big reader of both of these genres so I was really excited to read this book. I feel like Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare did a good job of mixing the two together. The book had a really interesting cast of main and supporting characters. I absolutely loved Frankie and Vic. Sometimes when the book was referring to events that happened in the past was a little confusing to separate from the current events going on. I did enjoy reading this book, but overall I think it needed a little more editing to create a story that flowed better. Thanks to Ruthie Knox, Annie Mare, Netgalley and Kensington Publishing for an e-arc in exchange for my thoughts. I hope that this isn’t the last book with Sam, Bex and her sisters and I look forward to reading their next book.

The plot was fun and interesting, it hooked me in. The characters were lovable; Sam and Bex were two wonderful people, the family relationship with Bex's sisters were wonderful. The writing style was quick and easy with a fast-paced romance with some mysterie. The deeper themes brought depth and emotional impact to the read with the themes of family, saphic love and more. The story was original and fun. Some more deep conversation within the story had an emotional impact. I enjoyed the overall read and story with a happy ever after.

I was excited for the premise of this as I am a big fan of Rizzoli & Isles, but it fell flat for me. The characters were boring, the plot was predictable, and the last half of the book was a slog for me to get through. It definitely could’ve used some extra tightening on plot points and more showing versus the mostly telling.

From the very first few chapters, the reunion between our two main characters, Bex and Sam, I was hooked! While I think the first half of the book definitely felt a little stronger than the second half, I still think there was so much to love:
The murder mystery plot
The character backstory
The setting

I found myself rooting for Sam and Bex’s romance but I didn’t find myself enthralled…not enough slow burn, maybe? And I would have loved for the mystery to keep me guessing just a bit more. Overall, this was a fun story with so much potential. It’s definitely worth a read and I would love to see these two authors team up again!

This was a fun, quick mystery romance novel. While the mystery itself was easily predictable, it was only slightly less enjoyable a read for it. The humor and the romance more than made up for the okay mystery plot