Are you ready for a different kind of love story?
Meet Michael & Laine in this Hollywood themed second chance romance by CD Reiss!
NOW AVAILABLE!
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1RXBv1n
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1FlYvSs
Barnes & Noble - http://bit.ly/1d3hzub
iBooks - http://apple.co/1KS8bUC
ShutterGirl Book Trailer:
Blurb
ONE movie star on the cusp of greatness
ONE broken girl who touched him
TEN years to forget her
A MILLION stories in Hollywood
I am not hurt.
I don’t need a second chance with him, or a life I thought I had.
While he was out forgetting me to become a movie star, I was building a career out of nothing. A career as a paparazzi, but a career. For a foster kid who bounced around every home in Los Angeles, that wasn’t easy.
This camera is all I have.
He’s nothing to me. Every time I take his picture and sell it, I remind myself that I did it all without him or his approval, his cinnamon smell or his clear green eyes. He lights up the screen like a celestial body, but he’s nothing but a paycheck to me.
He can throw my camera off a balcony, and nothing has to change. We can stay king and queen of the same city, and different worlds.
Except this is Hollywood, and here, anything can happen.
I don’t need a second chance with him, or a life I thought I had.
While he was out forgetting me to become a movie star, I was building a career out of nothing. A career as a paparazzi, but a career. For a foster kid who bounced around every home in Los Angeles, that wasn’t easy.
This camera is all I have.
He’s nothing to me. Every time I take his picture and sell it, I remind myself that I did it all without him or his approval, his cinnamon smell or his clear green eyes. He lights up the screen like a celestial body, but he’s nothing but a paycheck to me.
He can throw my camera off a balcony, and nothing has to change. We can stay king and queen of the same city, and different worlds.
Except this is Hollywood, and here, anything can happen.
A Review by Wendy
5 Tour de Force Stars
* * * * *
A Review in Two Parts
This reading experience hit me in two ways. The first was the solid, compelling story about two people who seemed to be so very different, yet when looked at closely and revealed... had so much more in common than would believed.
The second sensation was the remarkable way this was told by an author who transitioned seamlessly from one style of writing to another.
I would like to talk about the artistry of C. D. Reiss just for a moment. There are artists in all forms...whether with the written word or with brushes and paint...with instruments, voices and bodies. They can be part of the cultural art form or every day life. We experience experts in all fields... those who have mastered their craft... whatever it may be... And it is what makes our lives unique.
Yet all these masters out there may have their specific forte...a classification they do not stray from... Like the expert chefs know baking and fine pastry is not their thing... Or how amazing actors have difficulty with the subtlety of delivering comic timing... there are very few who are able to do it all. Robin Williams was a master in both; he was just as strong in the dramatic arena as he was brilliant in the comedic.
With this new book, ShutterGirl, Ms. Reiss has walked the tightrope over to Contemporary Romance with ease. She has brought all of her insight to the inner workings of the mind and shared the moment by moment connection of two characters with such depth, detail and need... we are hopelessly drawn in from the first page.
For those familiar with her past work, it will be no surprise in this initial feeling... we have become spoiled by it. The adjustment for past readers is the concept of a love story which has a different way delivering all the expected sensuality and connections... it is all there but expressed within the Contemporary Romance context. It is swoon worthy and when it happens our hearts melt. My hat off to Ms. Reiss for accomplishing this, for it is one thing to be a sensual writer... it is another to be able to accomplish the pulsing want and desire with a few indications of the act and remain equally powerful.
Personally, since you have accomplished so much in your past works with all the artistry of word movies for the mind... I had no doubt this too would be compelling and at your level of writing.
Which leads me to this specific story. We live in a world captivated by moments seen through lenses of others... be it on the National Broadcast News, or the Film/TV Industry or the ever present, in your face paparazzi and social media. With the advent of the digital age, immediacy became the buzzword for getting the story or getting the shot. We have memories of certain images which will always be tied to celebrities or public figures. It is the way of our world. Now it just happens in micro seconds instead of hours or days.
Our two main characters have been set on a path which first brought them both a sweetness and sense of closeness when she was 15 and he 16. Years later it still lived. It would hibernate and wait for the moment to awaken in both.
From the outside Michael Greydon, looks to have it all; his parents are Award Winning actors and have raised him to carry the mantle. He worked hard through the acting ranks, broke through and always played by the prescribed rules of never revealing too much or losing it. He mastered the craft... had his persona down and was "America's heart throb with class".
He is at a juncture; his father is in his sunset years... a closet alcoholic who is desperate for a breakthrough movie... he needs something to stop his drinking... Michael has taken on a project to save his dad and is on tender hooks trying to just make it all happen. He has cast a female nightmare...great actress but an emotional train-wreck...and we see from the start what he is up against with her acting out.
This acting out is what pays the bills for our gal, Laine Cartwright. She is the top paparazzi in Los Angeles causing her own type of sensation...stars call her ShutterGirl as, in her heels and fine figure maneuvering to the front rows over awkward, crass men yelling and taunting, she would stand out. With Michael... it was even more intense... for they had a history neither of them acknowledged. He would look into her camera and there she would see "her" Michael... a fleeting glimpse before the Actor Mask came up. Laine made her bread and butter off those Actor pics of Michael...she was a pro doing her job.
Things can change in an instant, though. Here Laine is with her foster "brother", who she taught the ropes of shooting and she sees the object of his affection going into the club they were scouting. The Money Shots have already been done, downloaded, configured and set out for bidding. Laine decides to help him out and gets them into the club so he can mingle with this singer. All cameras have been put away, so Laine promises her contact who feeds her leads... things will be cool.
Brother hooks up with singer and he is busy talking...looking happy for once. Laine, pleased, is at the bar and just hanging... Michael comes and starts to talk with his buddy next to her...
Laine and Michael have a careful conversation to start... that dance between obvious adversaries...and then...it happens; the breakthrough... the remembrance of their brief time together in high school. Feelings and shared moments resurface... a throwback to when they were just these two who gave real to each other... no artifice... just honest emotions.
The moment is broken by her brother... he brought her camera into the club and shoots a picture of Laine and Michael close...and everything snaps... Michael, so strung out from the pressures of trying to keep this movie on track, grabs the camera, throws and shattering it. Everyone disperses and Laine is pissed. Now what... no camera, she will make her brother pay...her connection at the club probably gone...but most importantly... the moment with Michael... where she felt whole and real for the first time since she had been that teenager in the bleachers sitting with Michael... gone.
Michael is not happy either... and not for the reasons his buddy, agent or attorney thinks. He has followed Laine's career since first seeing her from behind the ropes and wondered... wondered if... wondered what could have happened between them...
This hibernating pull stirs in the both of them...it works to gain purchase... to be allowed to breathe, grow and take steps to reality...
Through the minds and heart of these two characters, we experience it all. We learn of the back stories of the public people they are and who they hide...even from themselves. Things are shown to us we should never see from Laine's life...but that phrase of "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger"... it clearly explains and gives us the understanding of why Laine's has this strength and talent. It is something to be cherished and admired... for rising, overcoming and succeeding is remarkable and testimony to the person she is.
Michael has his revelations, too... some come easier than others. He has had a life where he has done everything which was expected...to break that type of mold, to give up that safety net is like leaping without a parachute and just as risky for him.
We are not just given these two characters to follow and learn to love... there is the layered presentation of things to consider... of our world in which we live...questions to ponder about what is ethically fair in the capturing of moments...are they up for grabs... what is the responsibility of those taking them, etc. It is not done heavy handed at all... it is just part of a layer... Another is the gaze of cruelty of systems... systems of society... of systems of teenage kids... of the haves and the have-nots. What one little difference can make in a life.
And then we have C.D. Reiss' favorite character... Los Angeles... in all her glory. She is used to the up most...back alleys... food truck locations, landmarks...everything is fair game. As one who is very familiar with this City of Angels...she is done to perfection....And with a keen eye and memory.. readers of other books from Reiss will be given little treats throughout.
I am going to shut up now... because there is just too much to address. Instead... please read this book and you will get why I was so taken with it. I have only touched the tip of the iceberg and really it is the reading.... finding all the juicy goodness for yourself... is what it is all about anyway...
So... Go...Read ShutterGirl and Enjoy.
A gifted copy was provided by author/publisher for an honest review.
Excerpt
I stroked his hair, waist deep in peace, all worry gone for the moment, and floating in no more than an ocean of gratitude. I must have been more vulnerable than I realized, or he’d reopened some wound with his kindness, because though my sweet reverie stayed, as the minutes passed, a layer of need fitted itself on top of it.
I needed to tell him, if not the details, the outlines of who I was.
“I want you to know,” I whispered, starting somewhere small, then everything I didn’t want to say spilled out. “I have stuff. I’ve never been to jail, but you know, it’s stuff, and it’s ugly, and it scares me. Because, I mean, you’re so perfect, and I’m… I’m just a mess. I’m not whole. I’m a bunch of pieces of a person I cobbled together.” My eyes got wet when I thought of the comparisons between us and that picture in my silverware drawer. “So if you have to move on when you realize that, I’ll understand. You have an image, and if anyone understands protecting a career, it’s me. I mean, I’ll be mad, don’t get that wrong, but also.” I swallowed and blinked, shifting my head so he wouldn’t feel the tear on his forehead. “I won’t blame you.”
I waited for an answer. Anything. A change in position or a word on any subject. The weather. Sports. Something. But all he did was breathe.
I smiled so wide, tears fell into my mouth. He was sleeping.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CD Reiss
CD Reiss is a USA Today and Amazon bestseller. She still has to chop wood and carry water, which was buried in the fine print. Her lawyer is working it out with God but in the meantime, if you call and she doesn’t pick up, she’s at the well, hauling buckets.Born in New York City, she moved to Hollywood, California to get her master’s degree in screenwriting from USC. In case you want to know, that went nowhere, but it did embed TV story structure in her head well enough for her to take a big risk on a TV series structured erotic series called Songs of Submission. It’s about a kinky billionaire hung up on his ex-wife, an ingenue singer with a wisecracking mouth; art, music and sin in the city of Los Angeles.Critics have dubbed the books “poetic,” “literary,” and “hauntingly atmospheric,” which is flattering enough for her to put it in a bio, but embarrassing enough for her not to tell her husband, or he might think she’s some sort of braggart who’s too good to give the toilets a once-over every couple of weeks or chop a cord of wood.If you meet her in person, you should call her Christine.
GIVEAWAY & NOTE FROM AUTHOR
- I am so happy with the response to Shuttergirl, and I cannot wait to send Michael and Laine out into the world, because who doesn’t swoon over a second chance at love?
- It’s a new genre for me, and I’m exploding with excitement, so I’ve dropped some fantastic reasons for readers to get the book right away.
- TREAT YOURSELF LIKE A MOVIE STAR!
- $500 Spa Gift Card
- If you could get an hour, or ten away from the daily grind of paparazzi and interviews (or the job and kids), what would you do?
- Get a foot rub/slash/pedicure? A massage? Maybe something called a Sleep Treatment that right now sounds better than sex?
- Maybe you’d bring a friend or two, or maybe you’d just get a manipedi when you wanted one. Because the life of a megastar ain’t for the weak-willed or lazy, and running from paparazzi can really wear down a girl’s nails.
- Woodhouse Spas are no joke. They’re all over the country and they’re….sigh. Fabulous. But if you don’t live near one, we can do Burke Williams, Halcyon Days or Red Door.
- HOW TO ENTER
- Take the fun SHUTTERGIRL READER QUIZ!
- The link to the quiz is in the back of the book, and yes, that’s the ONLY place to find it! There are bonus questions relating to Jonathan and Antonio for extra prizes. You have until June 3rd to enter! That gives you a solid two weeks to read the book and get your chance at a $500 movie star spa treatment!
- If you are a paperback reader, email me and we’ll work it out .
No comments :
Post a Comment