Soap Bubbles

A fictional soap opera brings three friends joy and headaches in a nostalgic and convoluted melodrama that can’t decide if it wants to be a glitzy trash-a-thon, a thriller, or a heartstring-tugger. Aspiring actresses Delly Diamond, Anissa Cartier, and Maryl Bradley must break free from childhood ghosts and confront adult challenges on the set of Morning Star , a Guiding Light -esque soap, but their friendship and livelihoods are tested after a suspicious and deadly studio fire shuts down production and a recently fired Delly emerges as the prime suspect. Dietz (Fifty Cents for Your Soul ) has trouble keeping the busy plot on track, while clumsy mood shifts and a too-heavy reliance on the friends’ requisite backstories of childhood trauma distract from what’s good about the book—namely, the period details and occasional soap opera histrionics. (Apr.)