When you can’t make it as an actress in New York, what’s the next best thing? Work in advertising! Jill Barber takes on a job at a large ad agency while working to finish her degree at New York University. After failing her final exam and then refusing to sleep with her professor in order to pass, she is forced to attend summer school. Jill doesn’t think it’s so bad once she finds out her instructor is the gorgeous young novelist Jonathan Wunder. The drama begins once Jill enters a possible relationship with Wunder, all while studying to pass her class, keep her job when layoffs threaten the ad company, and fight off advances from another co-worker.
I’m sad to say I really didn’t enjoy Her Latest Supporting Role, the debut novel from Cynthia Ashworth. I had a hard time developing any sort of a connection with the main character, and felt at times the story was moving along too fast for me to understand why certain scenes were happening. The supporting characters didn’t motivate me at all, and I sometimes wondered what the point of the best friend was. One thing that really displeased me was about halfway through, the story turned to all emails. Pages and pages of emails between the characters, and once that happened, I was totally out of it. Some important realizations were happening to the main character, but instead of feeling any of it or realizing those same points alongside Jill, I was just being told about them in a short email. I was disappointed with this rom com debut, and I hope Ashworth’s future writing will be more inspiring.
Rating: 2/5
