About the Book
A ghostwriter and a struggling actor help each other on the page and in the bedroom in this steamy romantic comedy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Ex Talk.
Chandler Cohen has never felt more like the ghost in “ghostwriter” until she attends a signing for a book she wrote—and the author doesn’t even recognize her. The evening turns more promising when she meets a charming man at the bar and immediately connects with him. But when all their sexual tension culminates in a spectacularly awkward hookup, she decides this is one night better off forgotten.
Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done. Her next project is ghostwriting a memoir for Finn Walsh, a C-list actor best known for playing a lovable nerd on a cult classic werewolf show who now makes a living appearing at fan conventions across the country. Chandler knows him better from their one-night stand of hilarious mishaps.
Chandler’s determined to keep their partnership as professional as possible, but when she admits to Finn their night together wasn’t as mind-blowing as he thought it was, he’s distraught. He intrigues her enough that they strike a deal: when they’re not working on his book, Chandler will school Finn in the art of satisfaction. As they grow closer both in and out of the bedroom, they must figure out which is more important, business or pleasure—or if there’s a way for them to have both.
My Review
When I read the synopsis and learned our main character Chandler is a ghostwriter, it was an immediate yes for me. I spent many years in my early writing career ghostwriting and still find it such an interesting profession. I wanted to get Chandler’s take on how it feels to dedicate so much time to making a book great – and seeing someone else get all the praise for it. That’s exactly how the story opens up, with Chandler being snubbed by the author she wrote the bestselling book for – who didn’t even recognize her (or her name) at a book signing. I settled in comfortably with my Kindle, eager to see where this would take me. After the disastrous book signing, Chandler ends up having a spectacularly awkward hookup with a man she meets at a bar – who has no idea what he’s doing in bed. While she sneaks out before he wakes up, she’s relieved it was just a one-night stand – until it’s not.
Her one-night stand turns out to be Finn Walsh, a C-list actor and the man whose memoir she is next slated to ghostwrite. While she begins to learn about his career on a cult classic werewolf show and how he now travels the country to attend fan conventions, she also learns more about Finn the person – why he got into acting and why his memoir is so much more than just writing about his career in the spotlight. But while it seems like there’s at least a soft burn between the two, Chandler can’t get his less than stellar bedroom performance out of her mind. Finally deciding to come clean with him, Finn is horrified to learn he’s not great in bed and enlists her help. The two start to play with fire when the lines blur between teaching and wanting, business and pleasure.
Both characters I felt were strongly developed – I love that we got a gender reversal here when it came to the bedroom scenes – usually it’s the strong male showing the meek female how to make him happy, so I was pleased that Chandler was the one in charge here. While Finn had his moments where he could seem a little rough around the edges, for the most part he was eager to learn and had a lot of depth to him beyond the stereotypical actor ideations. There are some sexy scenes in here and the whole time I was rooting for Chandler to not only find what she wanted in a relationship, but also in her career. As a ghostwriter but also author myself, I could understand her desire and also her fear of writing her own novel and putting her name on her own work. I was a big fan of this one, great for your summer reading list.
5 stars
