Jillian Cantor

This was such a cute read. I related to the main character, Emma, so much and really enjoyed seeing her grow throughout the novel. She became comfortable in her own skin and was not embarrassed by who she is.
Emma is a flawed character and she also admits that she knows what her struggles are. She works on them and pushes herself.
The first third was a bit slow but it quickly picked up speed from there.
If you like light contemporary with a message, The Code for Love and Heartbreak would be a great pick.
Rating: 5/5
Crude Language: N/A
Romance: 5/5
Spiritual: N/A
Violence: N/A
*I received a copy from the publisher. A positive review was not required and all thoughts are my own.… (más)

I am a big fan of novels that retell or reframe a classic- Ann Napolitano's Hello Beautiful (Little Women) and Curtis Sittenfeld's Eligible (Pride & Prejudice) are two of my favorites- so when I heard that Jillian Cantor's new novel The Fiction Writer paid homage to Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, I was intrigued.

Writer Olivia Fitzgerald is having a bad year. After the success of her first novel, her second novel (a retelling of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca) doesn't sell well at all. Her live-in boyfriend moves out, and her editor is not excited about her next effort.

Her editor says that billionaire and People's Sexiest Man Alive Ash Asherwood has requested that Olivia ghost-write a book with him about his grandmother and her relationship with Daphne du Maurier. The money is too good to turn down, so off Olivia goes to Malibu.

Ash is a widower, his wife perished in a car accident (was it an accident?) and he is reclusive. His housekeeper seems to be very attached to him and is hostile to Olivia.

While Olivia is becoming accustomed to life in Ash's beautiful ocean front home, Ash is pulling her more into his orbit. But when Olivia tries to get down to work discovering what exactly his grandmother and Daphne du Maurier's secret is, Ash becomes cagey and puts her off.

Olivia decides to investigate on her own, and discovers that Ash has not been truthful with her. What is he hiding and what is his real purpose for bringing Olivia to Malibu?

Fans of Rebecca will enjoy The Fiction Writer on a deeper level, and the controversy around Daphne du Maurier's novel (other people claimed that she stole their story) adds an interesting aspect to the story. Pairing a nice copy of Rebecca with The Fiction Writer would make a great gift for the classic literature lover on your holiday list.

Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on their Fall 2023 Blog Tours.… (más)

This novel is about a fiction writer who wrote a novel retelling the novel Rebecca. And a cheap knockoff of Rebecca at that.

The novel is deliberately confusing with inner monologue of unidentified characters which only add to the confusion. Interspersed between many chapters is an excerpt from a novel by an unknown author called “The Wife.” While the information provided in these excerpts is useful to fill in the blanks the actual novel omits, these excerpts are intrusive and the missing information could have been provided in other ways.

The ending was inane and ridiculous. The story did not end in a manner consistent to the rest of the story. And the ending was all wrapped up in just a few paragraphs. One page covered a year of time as the author simply told the reader what happened to the characters over the next year, rather than showing us as had been done throughout the book. Obviously, someone was behind on their deadline to finish the book and just wrapped it up in a single chapter.

I was not impressed by this book at all and it took me forever to finish reading it. I do not recommend it whatsoever.… (más)