it was a good breather from heavy and complex books, and it did generate emotions enough for me to sob at Harry (he was my favourite and I would die for him). the writing had me hooked and i think it plays out beautifully, but I felt it was really messy at times and was covered loosely.

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1. Everytime >!Celia and Evelyn break up!< , it is always something that could have been easily avoided by just talking to each other. People in relationships don't leave out major details like the fact that >!you're going to sleep with the man when you seduce him or just not ask your s/o if you can film a sex scene with your first love!<. It seems unrealistic because they don't even talk but >!just separate immediately and then no contact/pining for years!<. But TJR covers for it by painting Celia as an immature nepo baby who overreacts and Evelyn as a grey character who will do anything to make things go her own way. And it makes sense, so you accept it, but when I accept it, personally, the plot just becomes so generic and cliche and I ask myself, is it an interesting book, or is it just >!gay? Because I swear if you replace Evelyn and Celia with a straight couple, their relationship will just be the same old drama to read!<
2. This is more of an opinion, but I feel like there was no need to put in LGBTQIA or POC struggles so vague and directly? It felt as if those moments were for the sake of the fact that TJR suddenly remembered 'oh yeah this too' because there are only brief mentions about these topics. Don't get me wrong, I liked how she wrote them needing to hide and protect themselves etc - it was natural. But there was no need for a >!The past few years, I’d watched Harry lose friend after friend, former lovers, to AIDS. I’d watched him cry his eyes red out of fear that he’d get sick, for not knowing how to help the people he loved. And I’d watched Ronald Reagan never so much as acknowledge what was happening in front of our eyes!< because that was all there was about the crisis... It sounds so out of place and forced for Harry because sometimes it felt like he's only there as a puppet for this representation. Same is with her Cuban identity - her race seems to play no part in her struggle in Hollywood, but when she talks about changing herself to fit into the industry, it suddenly becomes a very emotional moment for her as if that was the main reason for her problems all along. Maybe because the author is white and straight themselves, they felt like they need to include these things, but have no idea about how these people actually feel, so they could not write them well. So yeah, it felt like it was there for woke points.

Apart from that, the book was pretty good! I think art's purpose is not to be great, but enjoyable, and it was enjoyable! Definitely a book written to be a movie/show.