“Love in the Limelight” is a debut from Ashley Moore. It’s a celebrity, second-chance romance about mega movie star Marion Hargreaves and pop icon Jessica Carmichael.

Marion has been an actress since childhood and has lived a closeted life for over twenty years. Jessica, on the other hand, has been out and proud as a bisexual for years. While in their early 20’s they had a secret month-long love affair that Marion abruptly ended. Now it’s 24 years later and they’re being forced to work together on an animated movie.

This is the second book that has a dual timeline that I’ve read this month. Both have alternating past and current timelines. Once again, it just didn’t work for me. I had issues connecting with both characters in each timeline because their relationship seems very surface level with not much depth, if any at all. I was left knowing they were attracted to each other but I couldn’t understand why they really liked one another considering how different they were.

Jessica embraces her fame and is enjoying life. Marion lives in fear of being outed and being in the public eye. I really had problems liking Marion, she was very stiff and guarded. I sympathized with her but I found her to be snobbish and cold. Jess was better but she was written more superficial. Part of the problem is that this is in Marion’s point of view so it was hard to get a read on Jess.

The ending was rushed which also disappointed me. This is a pretty short book and it felt like everything was resolved very quickly which kind of came out of nowhere and without much leading up to it.

Like I said before, this is a debut novel from Ashley Moore. And while this has its issues Moore definitely shows promise as a writer and I’ll certainly read more from her.

I received an ARC from Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an enjoyable book to read, even though it didn't turn into a page-turner for me until around halfway through. The closeted Hollywood actress trope is one of my favorites and this book didn't disappoint. The characters were very likable but I didn't feel their chemistry until halfway through the book (which is when it became harder to put down). I could feel the angst radiating off of Marion as she struggled with opening herself up and being comfortable in her own skin.

I had a couple of issues - one is that Marion's blossoming seemed to happen very quickly. She was hellbent on staying closeted, then all of a sudden, she's on a flight to NYC. The other is that I see very similar shades of Diane Marina's book After the Glitter Fades in this story - a book that actually handles the closeted actress plotline in a better, more robust way.

Overall, good book.

I liked this book. I had sympathy for Marion. Being controlled as a child really can affect you in adulthood and it can be hard to separate yourself from the abuser/controller. I got a little lost between the present and the flashbacks but that's probably because I'm not a fan of flashbacks in books. Overall this was a good celebrity second chance story. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Well this was.. Disappointing.

Initially this book had everything I wanted. Romance. LGBT rep. Second chance trope. But I spent most of my reading time being bored. I didn’t connect with the characters, though I did feel sympathy for them and recognized their struggles with being closeted and under the spotlight. Yet both Jess and Marion just felt… Flat. Like they really didn’t have much to offer.

Yes they’re apparently really famous but i didn’t feel like that particularly added anything to the plot. Which isn’t great when it’s mostly based around that. Individually, Jess was…. There. Marion was rather pretentious and annoying most of the time. Even when I sympathized for her, I still didn’t really like her. Which is tough when she’s the character we’re following throughout the story.

As for Jess and Marion as a couple… Their chemistry wasn’t really there for me either. It felt mostly physical and like intense attraction. And by the time I was supposed to believe in their love being there from the beginning and them being made for each other I just didn’t buy into it. I needed more and didn’t get it.

Both of them also felt really childish in their way of communicating and reacting to each other. Which would be fine in a romance with teenagers or young adults but when these characters are grown women… It just contributed with my overall annoyance throughout the book.

The writing was alright. And while I was still touched at times, it just wasn’t enough for me to be invested in the characters or their love story.

Love in the Limelight is second chance romance. It turned out to be quite a page turner and an overall good read. The story is told through both flashback and present which made the story worked beautifully. The main characters Marion and Jess are loveable and have amazing chemistry. Not giving anything away I loved when Marion got rid of her ruthless and yes heartless agent. 4.5 stars


I received an ARC copy from the publisher Bold Stokes Books via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

NB: free copy received for honest review

This is a light and readable 'second chance' lesbian romance. It moves along easily and is engaging at all times, and If you like this kind of 'reuniting with the one who go away' material, you should be entertained. I also rather liked Lauren from the supporting cast: the scenes with her in them were generally among the most fun parts of the narrative.

I do think though that it's a little bit too pro-forma in plot to really stand out from the pack, and the writing is sometimes a smidgen stilted or overwrought. So if this isn't generally your kind of stuff, I don't think this book is going to change your mind.

Really good story. Even though it has been told a few times already. I liked how the author told this story in present and past to show the parallels of how life was then and now, and how coming out in 1997 would have been a career killer especially for an actor or singer. Jess and Marion were really good for each other and I liked that they met back up after 20years and fell more in love than before.. There was some drama and angst, but not to much to distract from the story and the supporting characters were great and helped move the story along as well. I would definitely recommend this book to my friends and family, and I look forward to what this author writes next.

I'm a sucker for a celebrity romance and I appreciate the main characters being slightly older in this one.

This book has flashbacks and they never work for me, but in this bo9 they feel different. It's like reading a book set in 1o97 mixed up with or set in present day. This sounds like it’d be horrible, but it is rather enjoyable. In 1997 our mains Marion and Jess have a chance encounter that starts a whirlwind romance. Both in the closet at the start of their career neither is really willing to come out, but Marion even less than Jess. Mostly because she has the agent from hell. Look I have no clue what it was like to be gay in the nineties, I was barely a teenager, but surely Marion could have come out by now. Jess is out as bi and although Marion is surrounded by gay rumors she refuses to come out. She wants to keep her private life just that, private. Well lady you chose the wrong profession.... The chance romance of two decades ago seems to be what will happen in present days well, including the same mistakes.

What I found slightly irritating about the book is how superficial the story is. All about appearance and career, not about the characters. I feel like we don't get to know them at all. The only backstoryb character development we see happens in the flashbacks with the agent from hell. Despite this obvious issue I did enjoy the book and the characters, however strange that may seem. They share some great chemistry and seem to fit well.

I'd recommend this book to people liking second chance romance and celebrity romance, but don't go in expecting to have a strong storyline with great character development. Just a light and fun read, 3.5 stars.

Marion Hargreaves is a three time winner of the best actress Oscar. She was at a tender age when her British parents placed her in the hands of a talent manager and sent her off to California. Thirty years later she is deep into the closet and keeps her private life exactly that, private.
Jess Carmichael is a widely loved pop singer and songwriter. She will be writing the music and lending her voice to one of the animated characters in Marion’s next film. It has been twenty years since Marion walked out of Jess’s life without saying a goodbye.
Love in the Limelight is a second chance romance with all the angst and roller coaster up and downs you expect in this genre. It is well written with two strong characters who appear complete opposites. At first it was hard for me to imagine them as a couple however the flashback chapters helped to see Marion and Jess as very much younger and more alike than opposites.
The resolution of the roadblock to their happily ever after did happen quite suddenly and jarred the pacing of the story. I liked the fact that it did as it brought my attention to a finer point at a critical point of the story.
Love in the Limelight is an enjoyable read for a second chance romance and I highly recommend it.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley and the publisher for my honest review

Great first book from a new author! I for one can never tire for a closeted celebrity! This book was heartwarming and an easy read. The characters had great sexual tension and I loved them both together and individually. I wish the characters had more time to talk and be more emotionally developed. The flashbacks were good for back story, but I felt they disrupted the plot. I enjoy Marion and loved seeing an older queer woman fall in love. Jess was like a breathe of fresh air for the story and I loved their falling in love story. This was a great summer/vacation read!

𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲.

I'm going back and forth with the ratings for this one. It's kinda engaging because Moore is really good at creating sexual tension between characters and stirring up emotions in readers that I'm swayed by this second chance romance. I want the characters to reconcile. I admit that part of my enthusiam has to do with the fact that this is a classic celebrity romance, a trope I'm partial towards. I like the characters that Moore created, both celebrities in their late 40s / early 50s who have already peaked in their careers and are stable in that regard. I like Jess. She's easy to read, easy to figure out. She wants Marion and that's kinda it. I also like that Moore presents their history through alternating chapters with flashbacks which is a clean and neat way of doing it.

I had some issues with the book though. The first is that Marion and Jess hardly ever have conversations because when they aren't falling out with one another, they are falling into bed with each other. Even their arguments weren't played out to the fullest because Marion wasn't able to be fully honest with Jess. I found myself hardly knowing the characters aside from the reason for their break-up 25 years ago and why Marion chose to remain closeted all these years. For this reason, the second is that I found it hard to relate to Marion for how tied up in knots she is about coming out even when this is almost a non-issue in present day Hollywood.

These issues are not small but do they bother me? Strangely enough, only a little. I actually don't think they took away much of the enjoyment I had with it.

3.5 stars for the author's efforts; a good one for a first book by her.

There were scenarios where I felt that the main characters could have been shown a bit more stronger and many places where it seemed a bit more background research would have made the book better.

All said, it was a good read.

Looking forward to many more books by Ashley Moore.

I just found a new author to follow. Even though this type of story has been written about many times over, I felt like this version was a page turner. This book has a lot of flashbacks, which I normally hate, but I didn’t mind in this case. I guess because I liked reading about Jess who surprised me. She was all in from the beginning and I expected her to be a play girl. Marions character is a bit too stiff while Jess seems to go with the flow but that’s where the phrase opposites attract comes from. I was rooting for them from the third flashback and I enjoyed this book.

3.5 stars. A sweet, second chance, celebrity romance. I enjoyed reading this debut book, it is well written and has good chemistry between the two leads. It is not the most surprising book and a bit on the short side, but if you’re looking for a relatively low angst celebrity book, you’ll likely enjoy this.

This book features two mains in their end-forties, something I like as this age group is still underrepresented. I have to remark though that a large part of the book consists of flashbacks to when they first met when they were in their mid-twenties. Marion and Jess are big celebrities and I liked them both, they have their own distinct personalities, although you get more insight in Marion as the book is written in third person from one/her POV.

Marion is a triple Oscar winning actress and Jess is a hugely popular pop music singer. They first met in the late 90’s and now they meet again, 24 years later. Jess is outgoing and Marion is very private and also very closeted, which leads to the main topic of this story, Marion’s struggle with her private vs. public persona. A storyline like this can easily become very angsty, but I didn’t think that was the case here. I cared for the characters and rooted for them as a couple.

As I already mentioned parts of this book are written as flashbacks, which is not my favorite style. This is also what made the book lose half a star for me (to be clear this is a personal preference thing). The flashbacks do add to the tension in the story (some more than others, but still), you slowly get to know what happened in the past, but the chapters were almost alternating in time which kept interrupting the flow for me. Nevertheless, the overall experience was still good for me which is saying something.

A good debut that I think a lot of people will enjoy!

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I always hesitate to read a second-chance romance, there are only a handful of books that have convinced me people could separate for decades but still fall into each other(or pining for each other), but Love in the Limelight did it.

There is so much celebrity romance in lesfic out there. A closeted celebrity trope is not an original one, but Ashley Moore is such a great storyteller; I was hookup from the beginning, and Marion and Jess are lovable. The book has told both in flashbacks and present day, which works in this book. It made me sentimental because somehow, it reminds me of Kelly Ann McGillis come out as a lesbian in 2009 in her 50s, and I was shocked, and I just couldn't imagine what it’s like not to be able to be yourself for almost your whole life.

Although I was devastated and heartbroken in several chapters, and the closeted celebrities are not original, I still enjoy this book. It’s a perfect read for the weekend!

There are so many lesfic books out there with the closeted celebrity trope that I almost didn’t read this one, but I have to say, I’m really glad I was granted permission to read it because it was delightful.

Marion, an A-list actress and Jess, a pop star icon had an in the late 90s, at the beginning of both of their careers. The time was very unforgiving for members of the queer community and unfortunately their relationship crashed and burned with Marion breaking Jess’s heart. Twenty plus years later the two were set to work together on an animated film. To say their first encounter was awkward was an understatement.

The book is told through both flashbacks and present day and I feel that this plot line really worked for this book. We were immersed in the backstory of our mains which helped the reader understand exactly what went down and why. The dialogue was natural and never felt forced. Jess was delightful and Marion was certainly lucky that Jess was so forgiving. The added subplot with Lauren really added to the main plot. There wasn’t a ton of unnecessary drama or angst, just soulmates finally finding their way back to one another.

This is a sweet celebrity romance but somehow lacked of more celeb status for my taste.

The 2 main characters are unbelievable successful but, to me, either on the flash backs or the current day seemed pretty normal. Don’t know why but I kept thinking if Kylie Minogue and Sandra Bullock were together sure there should be more action and expectation around them.

Overall nice read but be aware of flash backs.

Marion Hargreaves has been in the limelight for almost 3 decades. She loves her job, is widely acclaimed for her work, won 3 Oscars, fame (that she does not care about), but something is missing in her life; some part that could not be fulfilled. When she was drafted in to be a voice actor for a children’s book, her deeply guarded and private life could be rocked if she went after the person she abandoned two decades ago.

The book went back and forth between the present and the past. The pair were clearly enamoured with each other but parted ways abruptly. Marion has lamentations and misgivings about what happened in the past but her thoughts and actions can leave much for debate. I personally preferred the second half of the book when Marion opened up and finally decided to take control of her life. The small parts that the author shared about their years apart was something I really enjoyed and wish were more.

I just reviewed Love In The Limelight by Ashley Moore. Thank you NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for the ARC.

This was a fun book and I enjoyed it. I really liked Marion, even if her stubbornness was a little frustrating at times. It's always really nice to see depictions of older queer women that aren't already in a long-term relationship. I also thought Jess was a refreshing character. The premise of the relationship unfolding while being voice actors for a children's movie that forced them to be in close proximity was endearing. I didn't necessarily find it to be anything special or original, but that can be okay sometimes. 3 stars for me.

I’ve been waiting for this book for a long time and I didn’t even know it. Jess and Marion’s loved lost then found again journey is given to us in bits and pieces with flash backs to 1997 intermixed with present day. It can be difficult to keep the reader’s interest while the bombshell is slowly revealed, but this author builds that tension masterfully which ultimately kept me turning pages. The push and pull of emotions tied to that crescendo is the conundrum that Marion grapples with, and central to understanding not only the why it happened but the trajectory each woman was set upon whether they wanted it or not. It’s difficult to comment fully on this book without revealing spoilers. However, I can guarantee an expertly tension built story that will stoke a rainbow of emotions. I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.