Super-famous straight girl meets famous (closeted) girl,
falls in love almost instantly and doesn’t fight the attraction.
Peyton Gloss (a barely veiled version of Taylor Swift) has a
‘squad’ of women friends – all famous in their own right – and has a week-long
July 4th celebration with them in her version of a summer camp.
Lennox Owen, a mega famous actress and America’s Sweetheart is Peyton’s best
friend, ergo, an automatic invitee. Lennox’s parents are both successful actors
and acting is all Lennox knows since almost birth. She has a younger sister, who
she has almost brought up single-handedly, on the autism spectrum. The fallout
of her fame is that Lennox’s personal life is fodder for media and her three
relationships with men have been widely reported, though no one really knows
the details of what happened in the relationships or why they ended.
Mackenzie (Kenzie) Smyth auditioned for a TV show on a dare
and landed the job. Unexpectedly, the show was successful and when it was
cancelled after four seasons, Kenzie got more offers for TV and in films. She
is now starring in a zombie show which is also successful. What is not known
about Kenzie is that she has Asperger’s which makes her socially awkward.
Kenzie has also nurtured a long-time crush on Lennox. She is a new addition to
Peyton’s squad. When Lennox and Kenzie meet at Peyton’s camp, there is an
irresistible attraction between them. While this should’ve scared Lennox, she
is brave enough to embrace it and strong enough to recognise Kenzie’s problem
and take care of Kenzie tenderly and gently.
As the week draws to a close, the new couple are avoiding
thinking about how their relationship will work when they are out of the bubble
but the question looms large. Particularly since both have successful careers
and said careers will put them in different cities and continents almost as
soon as they leave from the idyll of the camp.
We were totally into Lennox and Kenzie’s relationship.
Completely invested in the growing emotions and closeness. And then at around
65%, it all completely fell apart. Up until then we were appreciative of Kenzie’s
efforts to deal with her condition and be in the relationship. Yes, mostly it
was Lennox doing all the heavy lifting in the budding relationship, but Kenzie
was at least trying. Then Kenzie discovers that Lennox has been offered a fantastic
role in a series which will require her to be in New Zealand of eight months
each year for four years. Lennox hasn’t accepted the offer that comes with a
huge salary plus almost certain awards in the future – it is still only an
offer. Kenzie discovers about this offer when she reads incoming texts on
Lennox’s phone while Lennox is sleeping.
And Kenzie runs away. All of Kenzie’s behaviour up until this point was somehow
not so awful because it was a result of her Asperger’s (at least that’s how it’s
explained). But this? This running away? It is only self-preservation so that she doesn’t have greater heartbreak
in future. It is completely selfish, inconsiderate and hurtful. What makes it
worse that Lennox’s best friend (and almost sister), Peyton, makes it possible
for Kenzie to run away.
And then Kenzie ghosts Lennox. Not answering text messages.
Not replying to voicemails in which Lennox is clearly falling apart. How is
that okay?
Later, when Lennox flies to London (where Kenzie is shooting)
to at least have a conversation with Kenzie, Kenzie’s actions out them. The
price of this outing is way higher in Lennox than on Kenzie because Lennox is
the mega-star and she’s had past relationships with men so she is vilified endlessly.
Yet, it is Lennox who holds the relationship together and returns to London to
be with Kenzie. Once again, Kenzie’s actions are responsible for the media
getting details about their relationship resulting in a media circus because of
which they are practically under house arrest.
Justifiably, Lennox needs time to deal with all this and
flies back. And here is the other huge problem in the book. Lennox taking the
time to deal with her life basically falling apart is equated with Kenzie
running away for self-preservation and Peyton actually guilts Lennox about it. Kenzie also plays victim though
her autism starts feeling more of an excuse than a reason because she knows exactly what she is doing.
Past the 65% mark, this book actually hurt us. It broke our heart that someone with the ability to love
as deeply and as tenderly as Lennox is ultimately alone in the relationship –
without even her friends having her back. She works on the relationship
single-handedly with nothing coming from Kenzie. Lennox carries the entire
burden of making the relationship work – emotionally and practically. Lennox first
lets go of the amazing show she’s been offered and the completely sacrifices
her career. For Kenzie. Lennox deserved so much more.
This book is very well written, has some great lines (including
the title phrase which is beautifully explained in the book), some wonderful
moments but clearly, this one didn’t work for us at all – in fact, we are still
physically hurting for Lennox and don’t see this emotion ending anytime soon.
⭐⭐
