You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
Thoroughly enjoyed it. The behind-the-scenes Hollywood stuff, the slow re-burn romance, the characters, the twists - Ava Wilder write the hell out of a book, and I'm here for every one!
This one was so cute!!! I enjoyed this more than I was expecting to. The character development, the mental health representation, and the side characters made this one an incredible read.
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
they defnitely broke up again in future 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Content Warnings
pure ragebait
the mmc needs to die no joke he's so beyond irredeemable he pisses me OFF
I liked this more than I thought I would… their hatred in the beginning had me hesitant but as their tension kept building up and the yearning (!!) it won me over. It’s a bit frustrating to see how they could’ve gotten together sooner but I understand they had to work through their individual issues to finally do it, overall I did enjoy it but a bit too much back and forth and too many things happening between them for me to love it. The build up was perfect though
I've given this an A- at AAR, 4.5 stars
When I read AAR's DIK review of Ava Wilder’s début romance novel, How to Fake it in Hollywood last year, I was intrigued enough to want to read it, which I did – in audio – a few months later. I enjoyed it a great deal, so when the author’s next book – set in the world of television – came up for review, I grabbed it straightaway. I’ve always been a sucker for TV shows where the UST between the leads leaps through the screen, so the premise of Will They or Won’t They – a second chance romance between a couple who are the stars of a popular TV show – was right up my alley.
Lilah Hunter and Shane McCarthy meet for the first time at a ‘chemistry’ audition for a new paranormal TV series called Intangible. Lilah started acting in school, the security of having a script in front of her, and being able to slip into someone else’s skin something she found helped her to deal with her anxiety issues. She went on to study at Juilliard, and when the book begins, is twenty-two and doing her first rounds of TV pilot season auditions. By contrast, Shane has no acting experience and was literally ‘spotted’ while waiting tables at a popular restaurant; he still isn’t quite sure why he’s even there. Right from the start, there’s a spark between them; Lilah is instantly drawn to his dark good looks and his unaffected manner – he’s self-deprecating and his charm is completely natural, unlike many actors she’s met – and she can’t deny the thrum of attraction she feels, even though she’s sure acting on it would be a bad idea.
Nine years later, and with the ninth season of the show set to be its final one, Lilah is returning to Intangible after an absence of over three years. She left at the end of season five to make a movie that, for a number of reasons not to do with her performance, bombed, and which affected her career and reputation negatively. She’s worked since, of course, but hasn’t landed anything particularly good or high profile, so when she’s asked to rejoin the cast of Intangible for the final season, she isn’t really in a position to say no. Needless to say, most of the cast and crew aren’t jumping for joy; those who were around when she left feel as though she abandoned the people who gave her her big break and aren’t above nursing a grudge now she’s come (as they see it) crawling back after the bigger and better things she’d left them for didn’t pan out. And chief amongst them is her co-star.
Shane is still hurt, not only at Lilah for leaving, but for some of the things she said and did when she left. Through a few well-placed flashbacks, we learn that the chemistry Lilah and Shane experienced at their first meeting and audition quickly translated into hooking up, and then to hanging out with each other so that by the end of the first season, they were pretty much inseparable. When Lilah realised that what had started out as ‘just sex’ was starting to turn into something else, she ended things between them, much to Shane’s bewilderment. For the next four years and four seasons, the pair of them avoided each other where possible and fought like cat and dog when it wasn’t, while somehow managing to continue to burn up the screen whenever they were on it together. (That reminded me of Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd (Moonlighting), who reputedly couldn’t stand each other yet had the most incredible on-screen chemistry.)
Lilah’s first few days back on the show don’t go well. It’s not that she’d expected otherwise, but still… it’s tough, especially with Shane being such a dick. But she’s a professional and is there to do a job; she and Shane managed to work together before, and they can do it again – but it’s not long before the higher-ups notice that something is wrong, and the two of them are basically ordered to attend some couples therapy sessions to try to work through whatever is causing the friction between them. Neither of them relishes the thought of a stroll down memory lane with each other, but they can’t refuse and attend with very bad grace. At least to start with. But slowly, they start talking, really talking, and we see them starting to take down barriers and allowing themselves to become more vulnerable to each other as they start to air their grievances and to get a better understanding of where they were both coming from back then. The honest communication leads to character growth, a new appreciation of each other and – hopefully – a way to repair their working relationship. But what happens when the feelings they’ve both tried so hard to forget and ignore turn out to be not as dead and buried as they’d thought?
Lilah and Shane are appealing characters, although I have to admit that I found Lilah hard to warm to. I liked a lot about her – she’s talented, driven and intelligent, and she’s thoughtful and kind (to everyone except Shane!) – but she’s also guilty of one of my pet peeves in romance, where one character doesn’t see why or how the other can possibly love them, and because of that, completely invalidates that person’s feelings. As the story progresses, the author shows exactly why Lilah is like that, but it takes her a long time – well after she and Shane have repaired their friendship – to realise that she’s still dismissing his feelings.
Like Lilah, Shane is at a career crossroads. He doesn’t know where he goes from here and worries he’s a one trick pony – he doesn’t know if he’s cut out for an acting career; he doesn’t know if he even wants to continue to act. Shane is a sweetheart, despite Lilah’s assertions to the contrary; easy-going and affable with a good sense of humour, and a willingness to be vulnerable that makes him very attractive. My other quibble with the book is that Lilah’s hostility towards Shane seems really over the top – I couldn’t work out what he’d done that was so terrible, and as she’s usually the first to say something unkind or unwarranted, I couldn’t really blame him for retaliating. Lilah is so tied up in knots trying to protect herself from him – and feeling angry with herself for still wanting him – that she often assigns motives to him that he doesn’t have and blows up the slightest thing into a huge affront.
I generally like second-chance romances; the idea of a couple facing up to and addressing the misunderstandings and misconceptions that led to the breakdown of their relationship and finding their way to a new, stronger and more mature one is what draws me in, and Ava Wilder does a spectacularly good job with this one. As in How to Fake it in Hollywood, the author explores the negative sides of fame and celebrity culture and the danger of falling for a co-star, showing that neither Shane nor Lilah was really prepared for the way their lives would change once Intangible became such a hit, and how Lilah, especially, hated the idea of their relationship becoming gossip fodder. The chemistry between Lilah and Shane is some of the most intense I’ve ever read, and there’s a palpable undercurrent of tension running throughout the book as we get to know them and how they see each other, and as they both realise that there’s still the potential for much more than a good working relationship between them.
Will They or Won’t They is an emotional, heartfelt romance between two people who have to grow up a bit to realise they’re made for each other, and I was glued to it from start to finish. The ending does feel a little rushed, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the hell out of it and putting it straight on the keeper shelf. Highly recommended.
This review originally appeared at All About Romance
When I read AAR's DIK review of Ava Wilder’s début romance novel, How to Fake it in Hollywood last year, I was intrigued enough to want to read it, which I did – in audio – a few months later. I enjoyed it a great deal, so when the author’s next book – set in the world of television – came up for review, I grabbed it straightaway. I’ve always been a sucker for TV shows where the UST between the leads leaps through the screen, so the premise of Will They or Won’t They – a second chance romance between a couple who are the stars of a popular TV show – was right up my alley.
Lilah Hunter and Shane McCarthy meet for the first time at a ‘chemistry’ audition for a new paranormal TV series called Intangible. Lilah started acting in school, the security of having a script in front of her, and being able to slip into someone else’s skin something she found helped her to deal with her anxiety issues. She went on to study at Juilliard, and when the book begins, is twenty-two and doing her first rounds of TV pilot season auditions. By contrast, Shane has no acting experience and was literally ‘spotted’ while waiting tables at a popular restaurant; he still isn’t quite sure why he’s even there. Right from the start, there’s a spark between them; Lilah is instantly drawn to his dark good looks and his unaffected manner – he’s self-deprecating and his charm is completely natural, unlike many actors she’s met – and she can’t deny the thrum of attraction she feels, even though she’s sure acting on it would be a bad idea.
Nine years later, and with the ninth season of the show set to be its final one, Lilah is returning to Intangible after an absence of over three years. She left at the end of season five to make a movie that, for a number of reasons not to do with her performance, bombed, and which affected her career and reputation negatively. She’s worked since, of course, but hasn’t landed anything particularly good or high profile, so when she’s asked to rejoin the cast of Intangible for the final season, she isn’t really in a position to say no. Needless to say, most of the cast and crew aren’t jumping for joy; those who were around when she left feel as though she abandoned the people who gave her her big break and aren’t above nursing a grudge now she’s come (as they see it) crawling back after the bigger and better things she’d left them for didn’t pan out. And chief amongst them is her co-star.
Shane is still hurt, not only at Lilah for leaving, but for some of the things she said and did when she left. Through a few well-placed flashbacks, we learn that the chemistry Lilah and Shane experienced at their first meeting and audition quickly translated into hooking up, and then to hanging out with each other so that by the end of the first season, they were pretty much inseparable. When Lilah realised that what had started out as ‘just sex’ was starting to turn into something else, she ended things between them, much to Shane’s bewilderment. For the next four years and four seasons, the pair of them avoided each other where possible and fought like cat and dog when it wasn’t, while somehow managing to continue to burn up the screen whenever they were on it together. (That reminded me of Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd (Moonlighting), who reputedly couldn’t stand each other yet had the most incredible on-screen chemistry.)
Lilah’s first few days back on the show don’t go well. It’s not that she’d expected otherwise, but still… it’s tough, especially with Shane being such a dick. But she’s a professional and is there to do a job; she and Shane managed to work together before, and they can do it again – but it’s not long before the higher-ups notice that something is wrong, and the two of them are basically ordered to attend some couples therapy sessions to try to work through whatever is causing the friction between them. Neither of them relishes the thought of a stroll down memory lane with each other, but they can’t refuse and attend with very bad grace. At least to start with. But slowly, they start talking, really talking, and we see them starting to take down barriers and allowing themselves to become more vulnerable to each other as they start to air their grievances and to get a better understanding of where they were both coming from back then. The honest communication leads to character growth, a new appreciation of each other and – hopefully – a way to repair their working relationship. But what happens when the feelings they’ve both tried so hard to forget and ignore turn out to be not as dead and buried as they’d thought?
Lilah and Shane are appealing characters, although I have to admit that I found Lilah hard to warm to. I liked a lot about her – she’s talented, driven and intelligent, and she’s thoughtful and kind (to everyone except Shane!) – but she’s also guilty of one of my pet peeves in romance, where one character doesn’t see why or how the other can possibly love them, and because of that, completely invalidates that person’s feelings. As the story progresses, the author shows exactly why Lilah is like that, but it takes her a long time – well after she and Shane have repaired their friendship – to realise that she’s still dismissing his feelings.
Like Lilah, Shane is at a career crossroads. He doesn’t know where he goes from here and worries he’s a one trick pony – he doesn’t know if he’s cut out for an acting career; he doesn’t know if he even wants to continue to act. Shane is a sweetheart, despite Lilah’s assertions to the contrary; easy-going and affable with a good sense of humour, and a willingness to be vulnerable that makes him very attractive. My other quibble with the book is that Lilah’s hostility towards Shane seems really over the top – I couldn’t work out what he’d done that was so terrible, and as she’s usually the first to say something unkind or unwarranted, I couldn’t really blame him for retaliating. Lilah is so tied up in knots trying to protect herself from him – and feeling angry with herself for still wanting him – that she often assigns motives to him that he doesn’t have and blows up the slightest thing into a huge affront.
I generally like second-chance romances; the idea of a couple facing up to and addressing the misunderstandings and misconceptions that led to the breakdown of their relationship and finding their way to a new, stronger and more mature one is what draws me in, and Ava Wilder does a spectacularly good job with this one. As in How to Fake it in Hollywood, the author explores the negative sides of fame and celebrity culture and the danger of falling for a co-star, showing that neither Shane nor Lilah was really prepared for the way their lives would change once Intangible became such a hit, and how Lilah, especially, hated the idea of their relationship becoming gossip fodder. The chemistry between Lilah and Shane is some of the most intense I’ve ever read, and there’s a palpable undercurrent of tension running throughout the book as we get to know them and how they see each other, and as they both realise that there’s still the potential for much more than a good working relationship between them.
Will They or Won’t They is an emotional, heartfelt romance between two people who have to grow up a bit to realise they’re made for each other, and I was glued to it from start to finish. The ending does feel a little rushed, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the hell out of it and putting it straight on the keeper shelf. Highly recommended.
This review originally appeared at All About Romance
wow! The angst! The longing! The pining! The back and forth!
emotional
hopeful
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Rating 3.75 stars out of 5
- Kept stars for: being one of the best lovers to enemies to lovers/second chance romances I’ve read until the 60% mark, I loved how deep each of their wounds were from each other were and when you didn’t think they could do each other any dirtier another level was revealed (also thoroughly enjoyed the mystery to it), I love the little hints at longing and loneliness from both MCs, I liked how their perceived flaws of each other were actually how they were jealous of each other and as their relationship progressed they understood that and cherished them as their best traits, I liked the pacing of the flashbacks and little stories until the 60% mark
- Took stars away for: I didn’t enjoy this after the 60% mark because I felt like the FMC didn’t have enough character development or realizations about Shane until right before her actions, then she got anxious because she didn’t think her actions though, I didn’t like the flashback pacing after that because I didn’t recall them ever calling back to the bar scene, I didn’t like that the MMC was pushing Lila despite their history and him knowing about her anxiety. I was also super confused when they
broke up at the 91% mark. That completely turned me off.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship
Moderate: Misogyny
Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes