Two timeline (early 2002, 2006-7) between Cassidy and Gabe. Cassidy working as PA in reality show Honeymoon Stage; Setting remind me of Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson's Newly Weds reality show even though I didn't watch with little twist and turns in this book.
Gabe ran into Cassidy's car as their meet cute and didn't think much until she needed his signature for her show. Cassidy and Gabe kept things casual (pretty long time) until they decided to give it a go.
Cassidy's work place wasn't what she expected. It was more toxic and everything seems to be scripted even though it suppose to be reality TV. And star of Honeymoon Stage was her cousin and she was her boyfriend's biggest crush since they both worked together when they were teenagers and he was still pining for her until he met Cassidy.
Death, betrayal and suspense keep the book little more interesting however, it started really slow and I couldn't get into it for long time.
This wasn't what I was expecting after reading little synopsis.
It did remind me of 2000 since I grew up in that time period.
I wish there were more reference of that time and I wasn't sure of the ending as well.

5/5 Well worth the read!

Honeymoon Stage follows Cassidy Baum from her time as a Production Assistant on the reality TV show “Honeymoon Stage” through her own wedding to (former child actor turned musician) Gabe several years later. Written in a dual timeline, this book captured me from the start. And Eliot does a stellar job of tying the timeline details together in a way that feels natural and not at all contrived.

As someone who never watched The Newlyweds (on which this is apparently loosely based), I found this book easy to read and fun. A perfect summer read. Margaux Eliot (who also writes as Julia Fine) is an excellent writer, and I do not use that term lightly.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

This book was a fun, nostalgic summer read - perfect for those who grew up watching early 2000’s reality TV! The story alternates between the past and present lives of a young couple, from their first meeting to their wedding day - which is being televised for all of the world to see. This book was light-hearted and fun while still touching on bigger issues like reality TV culture, especially with how it affects women.

The characters felt real and the story kept me interested all the way to the end. I would have liked if the story went a little more into detail of Cassidy and Gabe getting to know each other. It seemed to kind of breeze through the beginning of their relationship, so I only started to feel any connection between them toward the end of their relationship. But otherwise I really enjoyed it!

Margaux Eliot’s Honeymoon Stage is a page turner from start to finish. A must read for anyone, especially millennials who came of age during the rise of pop stars and reality TV. The somewhat lost main character and her twists and turns in career and love are very relatable. Add some juicy secrets and made for TV drama and this story will have you looking for answers until the very end. While behind it all lies the fact that our reality is largely shaped by the lies and truths we tell ourselves.

I *DEVOURED* this book. It was a full-steam ahead, no one talk to me, miss my bedtime to read more kind of a book.

Perfect for fans of Britney Spears or those who watched NEWLYWEDS back in the day and wondered what was really going on behind the scenes -- plus is has Julia Fine's always smart and excellent writing.

So happy to have gotten my hands on this book!

The premise sounded intriguing but I could not connect to Cassidy or the other characters and neither of the two timelines were compelling to me, though I was more interested in the present day/pre-wedding story. I think readers interested in reality dating show production and relationship dramas may enjoy.

Thank you to Little A and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

˗ˏˋ 5 stars ⟡ ݁₊ .

this was such a unique book and i thoroughly enjoyed reading it. i loved the little mystery subplot as well. i literally did not know who the trust whilst reading it. if you love watching reality tv shows, this book is for you! 10/10 would recommend!!

⤷ thank you to netgalley, the publisher and the author for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF. could have done with a little more reality tv comedy, a little less romance, but that’s on me for not taking a closer look at the description (and cover, for that matter).

(will refrain from posting publicly unfavorably, as i suspect its more of a genre preference for me.)

Honeymoon Stage follows Cassidy Baum across two timelines - as a production assistant for an early 2000s celebrity reality show and on the eve/day of her to-be televised wedding in 2007. The show Cassidy works on, called Honeymoon Stage (loosely based on MTV’s The Newlyweds) follows popstar Maggie McKee and former baseball player Jason Dean as they navigate their first years of marriage. Maggie and Jason have turned over the rights to any privacy in their new home in exchange for a chance to make a name for themselves on television. As Cassidy dives further into the world of reality tv and celebrity, she realizes that the shiny images onscreen are far from the truth, and that both fame and spinning stories come at a cost.

I thoroughly enjoyed this! The dual timelines were very engaging and it was satisfying to see how all the pieces from the earlier timeline came together to form Cassidy’s wedding day. The story had a fun beach-read feel but was anchored by razor-sharp writing and a strong feminist lens. I loved reading a story that really felt like the early 2000s pop culture moments, but felt steeped in a 2025 point of view. Eliot’s point of view on the cost of fame and pitfalls of reality television felt present throughout. She handled the character of Maggie McKee with clear care and empathy, while still giving Maggie the necessary sparkly and wild air of celebrity as seen through Cassidy’s eyes. Also - truly no one writes a complicated female relationship quite like Margaux. I’m a big fan and definitely recommend! 4.5/5 stars

Honeymoon Stage is a dual time period novel, following Cassidy through her first big TV job as a PA on a Newlyweds-like show in 2002, and on her televised wedding day in 2007. We follow all the gossip and dirt of a celebrity couple and Cassidy’s love life, including her overhearing her fiancé make a suspicious remark the night before the wedding. A fun callback to to the naughts!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the arc!

I would give a 3.5. While I wanted to love this book since the 00’s were a prime time in my life, it was incredibly difficult to get into. I did enjoy the two time lines, and the 2000s references.

I did finally get into the story and was able to finish it and enjoyed it. Because of that I want to make sure to give it a 3.5. I do look forward to seeing future books by this author though

Thank you Netgalley for send me an arc of this book♡

4⭐️
This was a very unique story. I've never read anything like it before. I did have a good time reading it and I'd defenitly reccomend it to people!

This book has a then and now timeline. In the now timeline you follow the main character's wedding, and in the then timeline you follow the main character as she is starting her career in the reality TV world as the production assistant of a show called "Honeymoon stage".
As drama unfolds and secrets get discovered, you don't know who to trust anymore.

I honestly wasn't really connected to the characters and the pacing was a bit slow. At first I was loving it, but then farther into the story I got a bit bored, because not a lot was happening. I did really want to know what happened in the past, so that kept me invested.
I read it in 3 days, but it honestly feels like I've been reading it for longer.

I don't know what genre to put this in. Literary fiction with a little bit of mystery and a sprinkling of romance?

If you ever watched Newlyweds with Nick and Jessica or find yourself yearning for more gossip about behind the scenes on The Hills, you must must must pick this one up. As a reality TV junkie, this story was right up my alley and was so fun to read. I loved that at moments, you could tell where the inspiration from a character action came from, and I so appreciated that at the end of the story, the author acknowledged all the early 2000's girlies that suffered in the public eye. The pacing on this one is really good – once you start, there's really not a slow moment. There are two POVs (one past, one present) and I think the way those POV changes are interspersed was super well done.

This was a fun quick read. I enjoy realty tv and this felt like a behind the scenes sneak peek. The characters are fun and the writing gives you all the feels about each one. I stayed up late into the night reading and woke up early thinking about reading more.

Honeymoon Stage is told from the point of view of Cassidy, a PA on a reality TV show in the early aughts, and it brings with it a ton of nostalgia for the days of “is it chicken or tuna?” Millennials will appreciate the nods to our favorite reality shows and the gritty drama they showed before being overly scripted and mass produced. I also loved that the email correspondence includes aol and hotmail addresses—not a Gmail in sight! The author’s attention to these small details is impeccable.

I enjoyed the commentary on reality TV culture and Cassidy’s struggle to differentiate reality from Reality TV, but I found that the book left me wanting more. Overall, this was an enjoyable read that provides food for thought for those of us who lived through the start of reality TV.

3 ⭐️

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Little A for an advance digital reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book was not for me I could not get into this I would love to read something else from this author

Sadly this was a DNF for me, and not because it was bad, but it just didn’t hold my attention the way I’d hoped. I’m sure there’s a group of readers who would like it.

The early 2000s, before the death of MTV, were a lawless land for Hollywood. With he advent of reality television, people were invited into the homes of celebrities and “normies” alike—for better or worse. Watching Jessica Simpson mistake tuna for chicken and reading about how “narcissistic” it was for Britney Spears to do a 5-episode “reality show” with her husband was truly the norm. Throughout Hollywood Stage, Margaux Eliot manages to recreate the feeling of watching early reality shows play out. There were no Instagrams to follow, no Tik Tok comments to peruse, or YouTube pop culture commentaries to watch. Fans had tabloids and reality shows, glimpses into Hollywood lives that felt comforting at best (Celebrities: they’re Just Like Us!), to deeply uncomfortable to watch (Britney Spears being mentally and emotionally tortured). Honeymoon Stage leans more into the uncomfortable feeling that comes with watching relationships and people unravel, and it’s done in a way that only 2000s reality TV had. Eliot’s celebrity couple—Jason Dean and Maggie McKee are prefect representations of early 2000s celebrities on reality shows. There was nothing like a pop star/athlete relationship in 2002. Even Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce pales in comparison to the fervor surrounding David and Victoria Beckham, Kim Kardashian and Reggie Bush, and of course, Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo. The women were always portrayed as good-looking but dumb, and the men the ones that loved them and corrected them.

Of course, all the public really saw was what the producers and editors wanted it to see. Good television typically doesn’t just happen, and with few exceptions, that is still true today. Reality TV is more scripted than not, and while viewers are catching on to the weird edits, continuity issues, and poorly disguised production interference, in the early 2000s, viewers were left to believe the women really were that dumb and the men just that blindly in love. Hollywood Stage asks the ever-present reality TV show question: “How well do we really know the people on our TV screens?” However, instead of the public asking that question, it’s a production crew member, a person who readers would think would know more about what’s real and what isn’t on the show than an average viewer. At first approach, the reader is tempted to believe that the production crew knows and sees all, but just as the recent-ish scandals on reality TV shows that clearly caught even production off-guard (“Scandoval” of Vanderpump Rules” and the Jen Shah arrest of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City come to mind) show, humans are very good at hiding their secrets.

Well-formulated and well-researched, Hollywood Stage brings the toxic and dangerous side of reality TV to light.

I wanted to love this one but a combination of lack of formatting and writing style made my brain very confused. This is a book I’d definitely pick up again but for now it’s not the book for me.

Romance lovers I think will enjoy this one as I giggled and smiled the portions I did read and sample. Around 12% in is when it became a bit too difficult for me to continue trying. I’m excited for this one’s release though!

Thank you for the eARC. I am leaving this honest feedback voluntarily.

Perfection. Every single part of this book was perfection! It was a 5 star read just from the first paragraph! Definitely pick this up if you're a fan of romance and reality tv!