The production, still in rehearsal, has already been dogged by calamities. Lovesick co-stars are just part of the problem. There's also an actress with a broken ankle and a missing shipment of tiles for the foyer. Oh, the theatre life! At this stage, manager Luc Savage decides to cast Lily just to solve one problem. And a TV name drawing crowds won't hurt.

Lily is fed up with sexist scriptwriters who require her to leap into bed in every episode. Now she can finally go where her talent lies, or so she hopes. It's got to be better than faking bliss. However, she finds it's not that simple. She needs to be able to project her voice to the back of the theatre, and after years in filming, her voice just isn't up to it. She desperately wants to play the young Queen Elizabeth I - but first she needs to convince Luc that she can retrain.

Look out for strong language and explicit sexual references as well as adult behaviour. Mainly we see the nuts and bolts of theatre life and voice coaching, but a grudging admiration starts to develop between the two principals. Others believe that Luc has decided to cast his younger girlfriend, and the social media stories get out of control. Shortly after Lily and Luc genuinely decide they feel an attraction, a story about Luc's family and how they got their money emerges, thanks to a muck-raking journalist. As Shakespeare said, the course of true love never did run smooth.

Lucy Parker lives in New Zealand and enjoys past-century English romance. Her first book in the London Celebrities series is called ACT LIKE IT. I find her style gossipy, modern and unrestrained, showing us how some aspects of theatre don't change. While the romance may not suit more traditionally minded readers, PRETTY FACE may be just right for others to devour on their phones or Kindles.

Book Summary