Love Scenes

Morrissey (When the Light Went Out) couches a lackluster Hollywood romance in a delightful family drama. Making movies is the Ford family business, so when Sloane Ford is fired from her TV police procedural show, her mother offers her a gig as consulting producer on a WWII romantic drama that’s about to begin shooting. With her acting career hanging by a thread, Sloane reluctantly agrees—a decision she regrets upon learning that the male lead is Joseph Donovan, a former costar of Sloane’s whose drunken behavior on set left her hating him. Shooting gets off to a rocky start as Joseph seems uncharacteristically wooden. Sloane is talked into becoming his scene partner to loosen him up, and as they get to know one another anew, she realizes that a sober Joseph is someone she might actually like. When the lead actress is fired, Sloane is the obvious replacement. As filming progresses, the line between fiction and reality blurs, with longing glances that linger even after the cameras stop rolling on Sloane and Joseph’s love scenes. The romance delivers the requisite wish fulfillment, but it’s the on-set dynamics of the large, blended Ford family that give this story its heart. Readers won’t be wowed, but there’s plenty to keep the pages turning. [em]Agent: Taylor Haggerty, Root Literary. (June) [/em]