Release Day Review ~ Scripted by Parker Avrile
Title: Scripted
Author: Parker Avrile
Publication Date: May 16, 2017
Author Website: Parker Avrile's Steamy Gay Romance
Blurb:
A gay marriage of convenience plays out on reality TV...
Lifelong friends Noah and Brenner are determined to make it to the top in Hollywood. When they learn the new reality TV show only accepts married couples, wedding bells are in their future.
Brenner can't shoot for second place. Only the top prize pays enough to cover his mother's medical bills. He can't be choosy about the roles he accepts-- and he can't tell anyone how tough it is to play the happy hubby of the guy he's had a crush on for years.
Noah has screwed up on social media one time too many. Playing Brenner's husband on the new show might be the only way to cash in on his bad boy image. Trouble is, he has a secret-- and he doesn't know how long he can keep it from Brenner when they're sharing the same bed.
Scripted is a full-length 60,000 word contemporary gay romance novel with NO cheating, NO cliffhangers, and a guaranteed Happily Ever Ending. Expect a tropical island where clothes mysteriously disappear, best friends are destined to become lovers, and somebody is determined to hog all the cupcakes.
4 Stars!
What I Loved: I really loved the premise of this particular story. Noah and Brenner are childhood friends who're both starting to be famous, Noah as a model and Brenner as an Actor. Brenner's mother is sick and her medical expenses are piling up, no matter how much work Brenner gets, he just can't seem to keep up. Desperate to not end up doing porn and forever ruining his career, he must take a job on a reality "Survivoresque" television show in which five 2 person teams compete on the secret island, Cantate, for five hundred thousand dollars. The catch, however, is that the 2 person teams are actually married couples. This means Brenner needs Noah to agree to marry him.
I love fake or accidental marriage stories so I assumed this would be cute and entertaining. I also love stories about actors on reality shows (even though I don't actually watch reality television) especially ones influenced by Survivor or The Amazing Race. They are usually full of funny, outrageous scenes. Or sad, anger inducing scenes that make me wish I were on the island so I could slap someone. I love the series of catastrophes that generally are found in this theme. This story was slightly different because both MC's were no strangers to roughing it and surviving in less than ideal locales.
What I Liked: I liked the fact that Noah was having to fill the villain role on the island so he and Brenner worked together to do pranks and drive the other competitors crazy in order to get them off of the island. While their pranks were a bit immature or mean they were also things I'd never have thought to do so it was interesting to read.
I also liked their archrivals M&M who kept me laughing with their reactions. I wished we would have seen more with the couples in the beginning, though, to really get to know who the boys were up against.
What I Didn't Like: Honestly, I was a little sad that there weren't more challenges the couples had to face and compete in. I've read some hilarious books with these kinds of challenges and I think it would have been fun to see how their different skills came into play against one another and how each couple stacked up against Noah and Brenner.
I think if we really got into the competition in the beginning of the book, I might have gotten into it quicker. It was a little too slow-paced in the beginning. Luckily, it picked up or I might not have made it through.
Overall, I enjoyed Scripted, Noah and Brenner. I would recommend it but with a warning that you need to give it a chance to get going. I really enjoy Avrile's books and will definitely be reading more.
***Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie by the author/publisher for my reading pleasure in hopes of an unbiased opinion, a review was not a requirement.***
No comments:
Post a Comment