Title: The Redhead Plays her Hand
Author: Alice Clayton
Publisher/Year: Gallery Books 12/17/13
Length: 320 Pages
Series: Redhead Series #3
Overview
IT’S GETTING HOT (AND HEAVY) IN HOLLYWOOD!
Grace Sheridan is flying high. With scorching passion from her gorgeous Brit superstar Jack Hamilton plus the lead role in a new television dramedy, she could just pinch herself. Then a demand from her show’s directors to drop fifteen pounds brings her back down to earth with a thump. Forced to subsist on air, cucumbers, and boot camp, Grace wonders if the body that brings the newly crowned “Sexiest Man Alive” to his knees is just too booty-licious for Hollywood. Jack, meanwhile, seems overly enamored of the celebrity lifestyle. Forbidden by his publicity-conscious manager to reveal his relationship with Grace, he’s hitting the industry party scene way too hard.
As Grace’s bod incites fiery debate about the message of “thin is in,” Jack’s jealous fans are downing the hate-erade, viciously slamming her curves. Grace longs for Jack’s support, but he’s showing up late and disheveled to her most important moments. With tempers between them flaring, Hollywood’s most talked-about redhead might have more to lose than a few stubborn pounds. She and Jack were clearly made for each other—but will the day ever come when they can walk the red carpet together, hand in hand?
My Thoughts
If we thought that the story here was getting good so far, seeing the complexities of two people who have a star on the rise, while also trying to make a relationship work, well that’s nothing compared to what we get to see in this third and final installment of the series.
While we know that Grace’s broadway show wasn’t picked up, we know that it’s becoming a TV series and she’s due to star in it. What that means though is that there’s a completely different standard that she needs to live up to – that means that first things first, she’s being told that she needs to lose weight. This of course brings one of the plot lines to a head. the idea of what the right body shape is both in Hollywood and in America – and it’s opens up conversations both good and bad. Totally relevant right now actually given that all we hear about these days is body positivity. Anyhow, we see some less than good habits beginning for her while she’s trying to be smart about how she loses weight.
Then there’s Jack – the guy who’s got it all. His movie was a huge success and now everyone wants a piece of him. The fame we see is starting to get to his head a bit and he’s not able to cope with all the attention as well as we’d hope – especially with Grace around. Enter of course Adam – a young actor who was in Jack’s place a few years ago but who’s star has faded since he parties too much and is a bad boy with ‘hard to work with’ reputation to go along with. Being teamed up together for a new project shows how quickly things can go from good to bad.
The path of this story is one that takes our favorite characters in completely different directions. They find that keeping their relationship a secret is too hard and the fact that there’s so much pulling each one of them in a direction of their own also presents a challenge.
We see heart break, we see new relationships form, and we see that life is not at all what we thought it was going to be even six months ago. The good thing that we have here though is the way that Ms Clayton writes this. We go from the amazing banter that we’ve always relied on between Grace and Jack to a mature relationship that’s forced to look at life through a different lens and wonder if there’s something good still there or if it’s all jokes. On top of that though, there’s still so much amazingly strong chemistry that we have no choice but fan ourselves and feel the need for a shower.
I love how we get this story resolved – all with a surprise relationship, a baby and well – lots of folks playing different roles than we previously imagined. I’m kind of bummed that we have no more of this story to glom onto, although i guess all things must come to an end. I hope you guys check this one out though – enjoy!
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