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ergaich's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
All the characters were so one dimensional. The main character was very immature with no arc. It makes sense that she was immature to start with but she didn’t grow until one magical moment when she transformed into an enlightened gay at the very end. Some of the writing felt unnatural, especially during romantic or spicy scenes. Just felt like the author was trying too hard
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Biphobia, Alcohol, Mental illness, and Outing
Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Transphobia
micaelamariem's review
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I finished my first full read of 2024! Last year, I won this ARC in a Goodreads giveaway, and have been excited to read it since as I love queer romances. Unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations.
Sizzle Reel follows 24 year old Luna Roth, an aspiring cinematographer who recently discovered that she's bi, and is struggling to come to terms with that identity while pursuing a romance with an actress.
I thought it was a great concept. Like I said before, I love queer romances and I love the attempts at representation, like having a bi main character, a nonbinary supporting character, etc. The beginning of the book was strong, and I also would have loved to have the author explore the friendship dynamics more between Luna, Romy, and Wyatt. I also would have liked to see more about the struggles in the film industry that someone who is queer might face.
I really loved Luna's interest in cinematography and photography and how she was able to capture scenes in her mind, thinking about how she would adjust the colors and saturation of certain moments. That really added to her character and provided a unique point of view at times.
However, somewhere, this narrative fell flat for a few reasons.
More often than not, the dialogue was cringey and unrealistic. And...I can't believe I'm saying this as a hardcore liberal person but...both internal and external dialogue got "too woke." By that, I mean it seemed like the author was trying to hard to push these liberal ideas out (and liberal ideas are great, don't get me wrong!) and using trendy new terms to appeal to the audience. I think it would have worked better if it was more subtle, like a gentle nudge that goes "hey check this out" instead of the blaring neon signs that was just too much in this book.
I also didn't think the writing as a whole was that engaging. A lot of the supporting characters were static with forced relationships with the main character. Like the stilted conversations between Luna and her brother. Or well-meaning Wyatt who made some mistakes--I would have loved to see more depth to their friendship and how forgiveness might be achieved after a big event that happens.
There was supposedly a love triangle, but I think it should have been more obvious and not as passive on the part of the second love interest.
Finally, the book was too much about sex. That might be weird to say for a romance, but I don't mean that it was spicy (though there a bit of spice!) What I mean is that there was a whole quest for the main character to figure out what defines virginity and for her to lose hers; there was too much pressure on the concept, and even though many of the supporting characters said that virginity was a silly construct, the main character never seemed to believe it and put way too much emphasis on it, which just left a bad taste in my mouth. And in the last sex scene, it's like the main character was magically ready to do something she previously had an aversion to just because she was in love--and I'm pretty sure that's not how it works in real life.
All in all, I'm afraid I have to give this book two stars. I wouldn't recommend it unfortunately--it's cringey and, at times, problematic.
TWs: Alcohol, Biphobia, Cursing, Outing, Sexual Content
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Cursing, Outing, and Sexual content
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia
shaipanda's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
While this was overall a solid read for me and I really really appreciated the Jewish representation (especially within a queer contemporary book), I ended up being fairly disappointed by this overall. I'm not sure exactly why but I had a hard time getting through this and overall did not feel that connected to the story. While it wasn't done badly, I didn't love the love triangle aspect of it and did not find the characters to be that compelling or likeable. Additionally, while I didn't like the love triangle aspect I think I would have disliked it even more if I hadn't caught on to Valeria not being the only love interest. If I hadn't realized I bet (and based on others reviews it seems that this is true) that it would have found it to be very abrupt and odd shift especially because we spend so much of this book with Valeria.
I also found the spice to be very out of place? I'm not sure why exactly but this is not a book that I expected to have explicit scenes for some reason and as a result I tended to skip past them. I also thought this was especially true given Luna's weird ongoing obsession with sex and what virginity means throughout the book. While I feel that this is an important discussion to have and it can be very complicated and confusing, it felt like it came up too many times and became too repetitive and also infiltrated the sex scenes at times , making it kinda uncomfortable at times to read.
While this was overall a solid read for me and I really really appreciated the Jewish representation (especially within a queer contemporary book), I ended up being fairly disappointed by this overall. I'm not sure exactly why but I had a hard time getting through this and overall did not feel that connected to the story. While it wasn't done badly, I didn't love the love triangle aspect of it and did not find the characters to be that compelling or likeable. Additionally, while I didn't like the love triangle aspect I think I would have disliked it even more if I hadn't caught on to Valeria not being the only love interest. If I hadn't realized I bet (and based on others reviews it seems that this is true) that it would have found it to be very abrupt and odd shift especially because we spend so much of this book with Valeria.
I also found the spice to be very out of place? I'm not sure why exactly but this is not a book that I expected to have explicit scenes for some reason and as a result I tended to skip past them. I also thought this was especially true given Luna's weird ongoing obsession with sex and what virginity means throughout the book. While I feel that this is an important discussion to have and it can be very complicated and confusing, it felt like it came up too many times and became too repetitive and also infiltrated the sex scenes at times , making it kinda uncomfortable at times to read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Outing, Sexual content, and Biphobia
Moderate: Homophobia and Acephobia/Arophobia
Minor: Sexism
katebrownreads's review against another edition
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia, Sexual content, and Biphobia
meganeorcx's review against another edition
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Loved the film industry setting and how openly queer it is but I'm mostly disappointed. The love triangle doesn't work at all, especially with the awful pacing, and the main character is annoying. The baby bisexual thing is relatable and funny but gets too much too quickly. It should have focused more on Luna's career and less on losing her "gay virginity", which seems to take up the entirety of the book, including each and every one of the main character's therapy sessions. Cute cover, I just wish it had a better story and romance.
*Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday for a chance to read an ARC of this book for free, in exchange for an honest review.*
*Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday for a chance to read an ARC of this book for free, in exchange for an honest review.*
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Biphobia and Acephobia/Arophobia
bookedbymadeline's review against another edition
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Thank you to Netgalley and Vintage for the eARC!
I thought it was a cute and funny story at the beginning but it started to drag a little bit and I found myself getting bored (and a tiny bit annoyed with the MC). I did enjoy the bi and anxiety rep plus it was interesting to learn about Luna’s Cinematography work!
I thought it was a cute and funny story at the beginning but it started to drag a little bit and I found myself getting bored (and a tiny bit annoyed with the MC). I did enjoy the bi and anxiety rep plus it was interesting to learn about Luna’s Cinematography work!
Good bi rep especially showing both the struggles of coming out/being a baby gay while also showing lots of queer joy! At times I related to Luna because some of her thoughts on coming out reflected how I felt when I came out, and was trying to figure out what that meant for me (plus like Luna, I also came out in my mid twenties!)
The conflict in the third act was well done, it made sense for the relationship and characters; plus most important of all it didn’t involve miscommunication! These characters are all 24+ so for once they communicated like their age (take note other romance authors).
One of the biggest issues I had with the book is Luna’s obsession over losing her virginity and what “real sex” was, which got annoying quickly. At times it felt almost like she was invalidating Romy’s experiences and explanations because Luna kept insisting that penetration needed to happen for it to “count.” There’s was so much emphasis on sex defining your sexuality. She has queer friends and uses terms like comphet or allosexual-terms I wouldn’t think someone who’s got a lack of LGBTQ+ knowledge would know and use so often-Luna has a surprisingly narrow minded view on sex! Also the amount of acephobia acting as if you can’t have a relationship without sex is extremely harmful and I think the author tried to be so inclusive that she completely missed the mark instead. We can have bi rep without putting down/shaming/erasing other LGBTQ members!
The dialogue and inner monologues are kinda disjointed and felt like someone who is not Gen Z thinking that’s how Gen Z talks (and I say this as a millennial 😅 it’s painfully obvious and not how any Gen Z person I know sounds). The slang and terms thrown around just felt forced and at times cringey.
Lastly, the pacing is all over the place-it started off well but by 35% it slowed down quite a bit, and then had a rushed/abrupt ending. The idea was there but the execution fell flat and I started slowly losing interest by the second half. I’m sad I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I thought I would, especially since this was one of my most anticipated sapphic releases for 2023 😞
Spice: 🌶️🌶️ (2/3)
Rep: anxiety, Jewish MC and side character, bi MC, non-binary lesbian side character (uses she/her pronouns), lesbian side character
Tropes: Friends to lovers, celebrity, slow burn
TW/CW: biphobia, outing, sexual content
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Biphobia, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Outing
kaylierian's review
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
rep: jewish bi mc
romance: f/f + f/nb
okay. I understand (kinda) how the author wanted to present this book. It focuses on Luna who is completely a mess and questioning everything about her sexuality. This comes with a TON of internalized homophobia/biphobia/acephobia all that. Not even internalized, she openly expresses it with her VERY OUT & QUEER LESBIAN NONBINARY BEST FRIEND. The insensitivity is wild and isn't touched on until the end.
So what's the issue? It's the constant, and I mean CONSTANT conversation (internal and external) about how "you aren't gay unless you have gay sex", "you're not bi if you haven't had sex with a woman", "the only real sex is straight sex, gay sex doesn't count" blah blah blah. It's exhausting. I know Luna is struggling with the heteronormative structures of society but I promise you there is a better way to handle it. It's excruciating to have to dump all these homophobic/biphobic thoughts onto her non-binary best friend, Romy, and then immediately shut Romy down when she criticizes her. I don't think Luna actually ever acknowledges that her thoughts are wrong or hurtful, just accepts that her sex won't include penetration.
I wish I was joking.
Oh and the fact that she "wants to have sex like every other allosexual person on Earth." Essentially, "allosexual" is a controversial term used to describe people who are not asexual or people who don't experience sexual attraction. My problem with this is that it completely excludes people who fall under the asexual umbrella and DO experience sexual attraction (i.e. demisexuals). I understand the author's intentions with the sentence, but please do basic research on a term before you use it in a published book. Or even sensitivity readers!
Luna's whole quest in this book is to have sapphic sex to confirm her sexuality. That is it. It's not even a romance because all the romance that happens is in the last three chapters of the book. The book would work AMAZINGLY as an f/nb best friends to lovers book that it tried to be at the end.
I was so excited to read this book and just disappointed.
P.S. there is a very dramatic scene of public outing at the beginning. It comes out of nowhere, so please be aware of that before reading!
Regardless of my feelings, thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley for the chance to read and review this early!
romance: f/f + f/nb
okay. I understand (kinda) how the author wanted to present this book. It focuses on Luna who is completely a mess and questioning everything about her sexuality. This comes with a TON of internalized homophobia/biphobia/acephobia all that. Not even internalized, she openly expresses it with her VERY OUT & QUEER LESBIAN NONBINARY BEST FRIEND. The insensitivity is wild and isn't touched on until the end.
So what's the issue? It's the constant, and I mean CONSTANT conversation (internal and external) about how "you aren't gay unless you have gay sex", "you're not bi if you haven't had sex with a woman", "the only real sex is straight sex, gay sex doesn't count" blah blah blah. It's exhausting. I know Luna is struggling with the heteronormative structures of society but I promise you there is a better way to handle it. It's excruciating to have to dump all these homophobic/biphobic thoughts onto her non-binary best friend, Romy, and then immediately shut Romy down when she criticizes her. I don't think Luna actually ever acknowledges that her thoughts are wrong or hurtful, just accepts that her sex won't include penetration.
I wish I was joking.
Oh and the fact that she "wants to have sex like every other allosexual person on Earth." Essentially, "allosexual" is a controversial term used to describe people who are not asexual or people who don't experience sexual attraction. My problem with this is that it completely excludes people who fall under the asexual umbrella and DO experience sexual attraction (i.e. demisexuals). I understand the author's intentions with the sentence, but please do basic research on a term before you use it in a published book. Or even sensitivity readers!
Luna's whole quest in this book is to have sapphic sex to confirm her sexuality. That is it. It's not even a romance because all the romance that happens is in the last three chapters of the book. The book would work AMAZINGLY as an f/nb best friends to lovers book that it tried to be at the end.
I was so excited to read this book and just disappointed.
P.S. there is a very dramatic scene of public outing at the beginning. It comes out of nowhere, so please be aware of that before reading!
Regardless of my feelings, thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley for the chance to read and review this early!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia, Outing, Biphobia, and Homophobia
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