#COYER Review ~ Shuttergirl ~ CD Reiss

ShutterGirl by CD Reiss
The Hollywood Project #1
Release Date: May 16, 2015
Genre: Adult, Contemporary Romance
Source: Purchased from B&N on nook
Rating: 4.5 Bookworms
Goodreads ~ Amazon ~ B&N

Synopsis
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.

It's no secret I'm a fan of Reiss' writing. I know that when I open up a book from her I'm going to get beautiful prose, a well-conceived and wonderfully wrought story, intense emotions, and amazing characters. ShutterGirl is set outside the Drazen family, so it's different than any of her previous works. But Reiss delivered on all counts.

Laine and Michael come from two different worlds. He's an A-list Hollywood actor. She's the bane of every celebrity - a paparazza. He was born into privilege. She was born into the system. His life was mapped out at birth - a rising star. Her life seemed destined for a downward path. They couldn't be more different. But a year spent at a prep school together - a year when Laine's foster parents were rich - left an indelible mark on each of them. A mark that sparks when they happen to meet again.

Reiss does an excellent job of making sense of these characters who don't make sense - at least on the surface. That their second chance at love accompanies them each learning so much about themselves was a treat. Laine is such a survivor. She picked herself up off the ground and made a decent life for herself. But she had to learn to accept all the parts of herself and she had to forgive herself to move onto the next chapter. Michael, who's spent a large portion of his life pretending to be someone else - pretending at life - has to figure out who hs really is and own it. Being witness to it all was addicting - kinda like tabloids. I couldn't stop watching as it all played out.

ShutterGirl left me in awe. It's a riveting, entertaining Hollywood story with a side of second chance love. Go ahead and grab a copy. You know your enquiring mind wants to know! ;)