Cover Story

If I could hold your hands and stare into your eyes while I tell you this in person, I would. This book… is SOGOOD. 1) Aside from a HEA this book was without so many cliches we see on loop in the genre 2) Caught myself smiling and wanting to kick my feet at various points. Funnnnnn 3) Scenes, people, dialogue are written in ways I have never read before — beyond refreshing 4) If you’re an anxiety based human you’ll feel seen 5) Pacing was perfect 6) The story felt authentic Enjoy the read! Eager for more from Celia. Thank you for putting this work out into the world.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced review copy. All opinions above (and below) are my own. ✨ F/F lesbian romance ✨ Spice 3/5 ✨ Medium paced (but felt fast because I loved it so much!) ✨ Moods: hopeful, playful, funny ✨ Tropes: age-gap, celeb/publicist (idk if that’s a trope but I’m making it one) [Content warnings at bottom > beware of spoilers] Cover Story is the lesbian rom-com I have been waiting for! The novel follows Ali, an anxious grieving widow, who also happens to be the publicist assigned to a younger up and coming actress, Cara. A very lesbian actress who Ali (also lesbian) is tasked with keeping in the closet. A not-so-easy feat when the sparks start flying… While Cover Story is a rom-com, it delves into deeper topics such as grief and anxiety. Ali is not perfect, but I found her struggles to be relatable. Her character growth left me, the reader, feeling hopeful. I appreciated the communication efforts between Ali and Cara. Unlike other romances I’ve read, I didn’t find myself yelling at the page trying to get the characters to just talk it out already! I thought Celia Laskey’s writing was humorous and almost bubbly at times. I felt giddy while reading the interactions between the main characters. I think that’s what I loved the most about this book: The characters felt sexy and silly and real. As a lesbian myself, I could see a genuine relationship between Ali and Cara. Their relationship didn’t feel overly sexualized, romanticized or fantasized.…

Cover Story is deeply moving story about a widowed publicist, Ali, who grapples with the loss of her girlfriend, while trying to navigate her career. She begins to struggle with the idea of keeping her clients closeted to maintain their successful careers after working with her latest client, breakout movie star, Cara Bisset. She has to work through her trauma, her belief systems shaped by the pressures of Hollywood, and her own self doubt before she can move forward. Cover Story addresses sexuality, SA, grief, and mental health struggles while balancing a hopeful, romantic love story. Celia Laskey gracefully navigates our FMC, Ali through tough situations and conversations. I could not put this book down, & had a massive book hangover when I finished it. The story was cute, yet had depth. I enjoyed reading a WLW/sapphic rom-com. Representation is so important, and this book not only entertains the reader, it connects them.

This book started out so well, but halfway through lost a lot of the humor and interesting dialogue and just felt like I was reading a summary of the characters and what was happening.

Struggled to finish this book, which was about 100 pages too long, with characters I found myself unable to root for or even stomach at times. The constant attempts to ground the story in 2005 with references to celebrities/events/scandals of the era became grating quickly. Also, the author tweeted that this book is based on a conspiracy theory that Taylor Swift is closeted, thus making all her relationships with men a fake PR stunt. Swift herself has discussed how constant speculation on her sexuality feels disrespectful and invasive. Shame that the author is using that to publicize her book, which (to be frank) fell incredibly flat even without this tidbit of background information.