bookishblasian 's review for:

A Hollywood Ending by Melanie Summers

3.0

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This book is described as a light and spicy celebrity romance. It was mostly that. It started off decently strong. We meet Courtney who is a burnt out actress who has just found out her husband's cheating on her. Her team wants her to lay low and she ends up staying with her bodyguard at his house in the middle of nowhere. The bodyguard, Damien, is a former Marine who's trying to start his own self defense / confidence / empowerment luxury retreat? IDK I wasn't quite sure on his business model. Anyways, he convinces Courtney to stay and go through his "boot camp" to get herself back on her feet. I could understand Courtney needed a confidence boost after her divorce mess but I still couldn't see what his retreat situation was for or why he wanted to do it or what exactly it was for. That whole thing was just a lot. Also, in the beginning, their initial flirtation was cute because Damien refused to make a move on her because she was vulnerable and fresh out of a relationship. I thought that was so honorable. It doesn't last long and once they get together everything is sort of meh. It's very insta lust / love after that. I can understand being attracted to each other, but as soon as they give into their feelings, they're both immediately saying they're in love. And the spice is decent at first, but then it turns to "we made love" with nothing else to go with it. From here, you can predict the conflict from a mile away. I didn't mind it. I was just starting to get bored by this point. The ending is cute and the HEA gets wrapped up with a pretty bow. Overall, while this book started off decently strong, it did end up falling a little flat. It was still a fluffy, stress free read that I mostly enjoyed.