Infamous

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Title: Infamous
Author: Lori Sizemore
Publication date: 12/14/16
Publisher: The Wildrose Press
Kindle Unlimited: No
Cliffhanger: No
Rating: 4 out of 5

Blurb (from Amazon.com):
Justine Montgomery, daughter of a divorced beauty queen and TV magnate, is a tabloid disaster after her infamous sex tape. She's so desperate to help save her family's home she turns to her deal-making dad. Can she prove to him she's cut out for a career in television or will she lose it all?

Sawyer has his own past and a successful career is his only goal. Seeing Justine fail would mean the promotion of a lifetime, but things get complicated when he develops feelings for her. Suddenly, the lines between work, life, sex, and love are blurry.

My Review
I normally avoid romances about celebrities. It usually just feels terribly...redundant. Been there, done that, you know? But I’m really glad I didn’t let my usual bias keep me from reading this book, because overall, it was highly enjoyable.

There are a couple of things that really set this one apart from the usual suspects:

• Justine as a heroine is fantastic. She hasn’t had an easy go of it. Her mother’s loving but a little flaky, and her father is a giant douchecanoe. There was even an unfortunate sex tape leaked that caused her a bit of embarrassment. But instead of wallowing in self-pity, Justine maintains a largely positive outlook and even manages to turn her unwanted celebrity into a halfway decent business. Despite the drama going on around her, Justine is a refreshingly low-angst heroine.
• Dialogue seems hard for some authors to master, but the dialogue here was snappy and fabulous.
• The pacing of the story is smooth and even.            

 
As far as negatives, there weren’t too many:

• I liked Sawyer a lot, but I wished I would’ve gotten to see more from his perspective. The extent to which he kept his feelings to himself made him a little bit of a mystery to me.
• I felt like Liann’s shift from friend to enemy was a little abrupt, as was Justine’s father’s shift from giant douchecanoe to decent guy.
• I wanted to see horrible things happen to Justine’s ex. I don’t feel like he really had a proper comeuppance.

All in all, this was a good contemporary romance with a great heroine and an appropriately swoony, brooding hero. Highly recommend!

Full disclosure: the author generously provided a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
     
Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
The whole celebrity angle strains the bonds of believability a smidge, but it’s well-written enough to avoid contributing to the stigma.

Other reading suggestions
For a delightful read about a male movie star falling for a regular gal, try Julie James’s Just the Sexiest Man Alive.  

Note: Review original posted on Knockin’ Books.

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