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
Kobo – http://bit.ly/1bBO020
ShutterGirl Book Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u2QJM0key0&feature=youtu.be
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.
When I first discovered CD Reiss’ Songs of Submission series, I was blown away, with its addictive storyline that was raw, fresh, and highly erotic. Since then, with Songs of Perdition and Songs of Corruption, she showed depth to her rawness. Exposing characters that were mentally or morally flawed, yet convincing you that they were worth of more.
In this genre turn, the author steps away from her erotic roots and shows her skills as a writer, holds no bounds. This story takes us to Hollywood were talent and determination win awards, with everyone around is loudly cheering for one’s success, while at the same time, quietly cheering for one’s downfall. And there to capture that downfall, are the dreaded paparazzi. Everyone hates them. Yet, it’s sad to admit, each magazine we buy, each time we click their pictures, we keep them employed. But they are scum. They have no respect for privacy or feelings.
So what does our edgy author do? Well, she makes that paparazzi scum, the heroine of the story. Am I supposed to hate Laine? On principle, I should. Yet, the author paints her story, an empty loveless childhood with no true home, with horrific acts caught on someone else’s film. So despite her profession, I liked Laine throughout this story. How she makes something of her life, seemed plausible. It’s not really a rags to riches turn, but she finds success her own way and is good at doing what she does.
I totally bought into the storyline. with a pap, crossing the line of their profession, and making a connection with a celebrity. It’s not insta-lust. No, the story between Laine and Michael, is more of a second chance romance. As casual acquaintances in high school, there was always attraction. But they were from different worlds, and their time together, simply ran out. Fast forward years later, when they are still from different worlds, but their time together is what they make of it. And this is when you will fall for Michael. He is downright persistent, never walking away, no matter how much Laine tries to push him.
This story also hits on that one thing every celebrity probably thinks about the paparazzi: what if this was you, what if your flaws, heartbreak, downfalls, were caught on camera.
How can you fear what you own?
How can you be intimidated by what’s inside yourself? By a city that nursed you to adulthood?
As I read Laine’s secrets unfold and become exposed, I kept hoping it would all blow over. But this author doesn’t make it easy for the reader or her characters. While my heart hurt for Laine and Michael, I also understood their reactions. It all felt so real.
With strong character development and a well plotted storyline, the author exposes a new side of herself. The shock and explicit moments are gone, with the bones of a story carefully laid out. Each piece carefully comes together to an ending worthy of the front page.
The author’s secret is out, and if you weren’t paying attention before, it’s time you do so now.
SIDE NOTE: Claire Contreras gets a shout-out in the book as one of Michael’s co-actors, which I just loved!
– Grace
*An ARC was received for an honest review.
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.
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.
- 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 .
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