Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Behind the Scenes

Rose Josten has a busy life between her job, her sisters, her pugs, and her secret life as a sexy ASME voice. When she is contacted to help a movie director named Ash with a movie pitch, her life is upended. Ash is a beautiful, if broken, woman Rose falls head over heels in love with. Can their love handle the trauma of their respective pasts and the hurdles they must jump together?

This was a cute little rom-com with some serious topics including sexual dysfunction due to trauma and fear stemming from a parent's death. I enjoy a story where the characters don't have perfect lives, although it may seem they do. The attraction the characters feel is real and they are so sweet to each other. Their best interactions are when they are sitting down with some food and just getting to know each other. The love scenes are well-done and just getting to know each other. The love scenes are well done and add just the right amount of space. I would love to read more by this author with her charming storytelling.

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sylsbookcorner's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was so stinking cute, I couldn’t put it down! The way we see Ash and Rose work through and process their individual traumas for the sake of their relationship is so beautiful and genuine, and the quips especially from the sisters had me rolling. Seeing the couple from Satisfaction Guaranteed was a lovely touch, which was a cherry on top of a gem of a story.

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jackiepreston's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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mollysbooklist's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

Loved this book!

It’s equal parts funny and emotional but not overly done.

The narrator was great too. Lori Prince was great with her timing.

Thanks to Forever Publishing for the physical arc in exchange for my honest review. I was enjoying the book so much I bought the audiobook so I could keep going while I did chores today.

Trigger warnings: airplane phobia, parent loss, car accident, female sexual dysfunction, and ablism by side character in the past

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kbweis's review against another edition

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emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

just like an extremely average sapphic romance for me. i appreciate the fact that we’re in a place where i can say that i just thought this was kind of boring and that we can have boring sapphic romances. i just didn’t feel particularly attached to either of the romantic leads and i didn’t feel that much chemistry between them either. maybe this is a me problem. i also read satisfaction guaranteed from the same author and thought that was also pretty middle of the road, so maybe stetz-waters just isn’t for me :/

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nikspandya's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

this read has me all in my feels. It really does. I feel that a lot contemporary romance readers are drawn to the word “realistic” to describe whether a book pulls at their heartstrings the correct or incorrect way. But that doesn’t feel right to me. The satisfaction of Behind the Scenes for me lies in its E X E C U T I O N. It was executed to a T.

With only one book under my belt, Karliea Stetz-Waters has become an auto buy author for me. Her method of storytelling is exactly my taste, her pacing is my speed. Her characters Rose and Ash are REAL people, 38 and 40 year olds that have lived a life thus far that was only made full with meeting each other.

I love film. I loved Rose and Ash’s backstories that led them together in such a sweet serendipitous way. The additions of their passions for sight and sound molding their bond closer, making them necessary to one another. This book also touches on healing and sexual dysfunction, which is not something I’ve read before but was happy to read and learn about.

The chapters are short and read like scenes from a movie, the exposition is introduced with care and excitement for what’s to come. I would watch the shit out of this movie (much like I will reread this book later in the year). Behind the Scenes is just so….wonderful from start to finish and I’m going to put Satisfaction Guaranteed on my future library holds list lol. Highly recommend this lovely sapphic romance!

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rusereviews's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective

4.0

Behind the Scenes by Karelia Stetz-Waters is a cute queer contemporary romance.

Rose Josten is the best business consultant in the biz, but though her job allows her to be financially stable enough to help out her three younger siblings, it doesn't fulfil her as much as her hidden side gig creating mindfulness videos. Ash Stewart is a former filmmaker seeking funding for a new project after her last movie failed and her wife left. If the two of them can work together without falling all over each other, they might be able to create some movie magic.

This was quite an enjoyable read. I really liked the chemistry between Rose and Ash here, which you can see even during their meet-cute around a dumpster. They also both seemed like people I'd actually like to be friends with, which was also a bonus.

Obviously this is a queer romance so there's a lot of queer rep in this book, in addition to facing fears and trying to overcome them. On that front, there is also rep about individuals who have gone through a significant amount of physical trauma, and how slow the healing process can be on the emotional side as well. Our leads are in their late 30s and early 40s so that was also great to see in a romance.

There is some steam in this book, and the author does a great job with making consent sexy. Stetz-Waters likes to focus on healthy and pleasurable sexual relationships, and honestly we need more authors to do the same. There are a lot of healthy relationships in general in this book, including Rose's sisters and Ash's assistant.

A few story beats felt a little fantastical to me compared to the rest of the plot, including how Ash's ex-wife was painted as a quite evil person and how successful Rose's hobby was without her knowing. The pacing also felt a bit off a times.

Tropes in this book include: opposites attract, sapphic romance

CW: mentions of physical and emotional car crash trauma, sexual dysfunction, divorce, fear of flying, mentions of parental death in a plane crash, light gaslighting

I received a copy of this book to review. All opinions contained herein are my own.

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