The movie star meets his match…

Pierce

Welcome to Hollywood, baby! I’m an actor like a lot of other folks here. Perhaps you’ve heard of me. I play Baxter, the adventure-seeking, crime-fighting hero, adored by fans around the world. Nice gig, right? My job has its perks for sure—private jets, a chauffeur, and the best tables at the fanciest restaurants in town. It’s nuts!

Downside—it’s lonely and it’s hard to know who I can trust.

But I trust Lorenzo. He’s funny, sweet, and very real.

Look, I’m not in the market for anything serious but I could use some help figuring out if the old man who claims he’s my cousin is telling the truth. And a short-term distraction with a sexy side arrangement sounds kind of nice.

Lorenzo-

What is happening here? Pierce Allen wants me. No, wait. He wants something from me, like my help and maybe my body. I don’t get it. Men like him don’t go for guys like me. I’m too fabulous and he’s too famous.

I don’t need another broken heart, but I’m too intrigued to walk away. So I’ll play the part of “right-hand man” for now and do my best to keep things light and friendly. I can do this.

There’s no way I’ll fall for a movie star, right?

How was it?

I’ve read and enjoyed several of Lane Hayes‘ books so it’s definitely an author whose books I’d jump into without needing the blurb. In this case, I didn’t even read the first book, The Real Baxter, and went straight to this one, so that’s why the setting surprised me a bit. If I were to rely on the cover alone I’d think this was set in the corporate world but it’s Hollywood. I didn’t expect to have a movie star as one of the main characters, and it took a while for me to warm up to Pierce, the hotshot Hollywood action hero.

Lorenzo had yet to be introduced and I was like “What poor sod will have to deal with this dude?” – since Nick J. Russo gave him such a good voice that Pierce annoyed me right away – but without even realizing it I ended up rooting for them. Pierce opens up in a way that made him more palatable to me but Lorenzo also helped, since he seemed the more levelheaded of the two, so his giving a chance to Pierce made the actor more desirable. There’s also another relationship that is talked about in this book and it sort of mirrors what Lorenzo and Pierce could have. It’s a little bittersweet but it works well within the overall book. Their relationship moves kind of fast once you think about but when you’re in it, it makes sense because the story flows so well.

My anticipation of potential drama since one MC is famous was bigger than the drama in this book itself. It’s really low angst and quite the smooth enjoyable ride.

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