When Amanda’s blind date at Valentine turns out to be a match made in hell she joins an Anti-Valentine party…to find herself the next day in the predicament to wake up in the apartment, yes, the bed of a stranger.
Her recollection of the night are, ahem, scarce and she does not know at all what to make of Muchelle Osinski the butch, or rather very butch photographer who turns out to be her host. Of course she is not attracted to butch women, and never has been…right?
And now that her career as an actress has finally taken off she does not need any distractions, okay! And Michelle, well Michelle has been burned by those self-centred actresses before and has vowed never, ever to be involved with one of those self-serving, high-maintenance actresses again! Right?
You can already se Cupid winking and then stringing his bow to let his arrows fly. Jae has given us with “Departure from the Script”, a well-written very sweet love story. It is at times one witty romp where each woman makes assumptions which turn out to be oh-so-wrong.
Both have to decide whether they dare to give in to that chemistry which unlikely or not, wanted or not, is developing between them. Lucky there is a meddling grandmother and at the end Cupid has the final laugh.
There are also some really nice details. There is the glossy, appealing cover and each chapter ends fitting for a novel set in Hollywood with a snippet of a heart-shaped film-reviews reel. And I love how Jae subtly plays with clichés in this book and how she laces the whole story with a good dose of humor. The background story involving the changing attitude of Hollywood about gay actors and characters is believable and well done.
Did I already use the word “sweet” to describe this delightful, lighthearted romance? If so let me underline the word sweet again, add witty and easy-going and you know that this romance is read best when you are in need of fine entertainment written by an accomplished writer. I was lucky to be a test-reader and to get a preview copy. It kept me very well entertained indeed eliciting quiet chuckles and smiles all along.