Rating: 97% | ★★★★★
Synopsis (from NetGalley): Former child actor Fiona St. James dropped out of the spotlight after a spectacularly public crash and burn. The tabloids called her crazy and self-destructive and said she’d lost her mind. Now in her late twenties, Fiona believes her humiliating past is firmly behind her. She’s finally regained a modicum of privacy, and she won’t let anything—or anyone—mess it up. Unlike Fiona, Sam Fox, who played her older brother on the popular television show Birds of California, loves the perks that come with being a successful Hollywood actor: fame, women, parties, money. When his current show gets cancelled and his agent starts to avoid his calls, the desperate actor enthusiastically signs on for a Birds of California revival. But to make it happen, he needs Fiona St. James. Against her better judgment, Fiona agrees to have lunch with Sam. What happens next takes them both by surprise. Sam is enthralled by Fiona’s take-no-prisoners attitude, and Fiona discovers a lovable goofball behind Sam’s close-up-ready face. Long drives to the beach, late nights at dive bars . . . theirs is the kind of kitschy romance Hollywood sells. But just like in the rom-coms Fiona despises, there’s a twist that threatens her new love. Sam doesn’t know the full story behind her breakdown. What happens when she reveals the truth? Spoiler-Free Review: It was a deeply rude experience, reading this book. I was promised a rom-com and instead I got a tearjerker that made me feel things. It's Sunday night, for God's sake. Feeling things is a Friday night kind of venture. I can't just finish this book, go to sleep, and wake up for my econ lecture tomorrow morning like nothing's happened. Birds of California packs a punch in just 288 pages. It's not only a story of Sam and Fiona falling in love (which actually turns out to be the weakest part of the story; it's pleasant, but it's nowhere near the top of the list in terms of importance) but also of abuse, of being painfully young, and of loss. It's beautifully written and catches the reader off-guard with its earnestness. I was having a bad day before reading this book and while reading it, everything that troubled me faded into the background. The world became only me and the characters, precisely the type of experience a good book should facilitate. There's so much heart in Birds of California between the characters: between Sam and Fiona, between Fiona and Claudia and Estelle, and between Fiona and the rest of her theater crew. But most of the heart comes through in Sam and Fiona, two people who have lost themselves somewhere on Los Angeles sets and in tabloids, trying to rediscover and recover themselves. Their journeys touched me deeply as a college student who feels the world expand and constrict around her on a daily basis. The only thing I would change about this novel is the pacing of the romantic arc between Sam and Fiona. I would have loved to see it slowed down and extended, if only to spend more time with them before the story's too-soon end. Birds of California is a must-read. Take an hour or two out of your day and settle down with Cotugno's words. I'm sure, at tomorrow's econ lecture, I'll still be marveling over this story. Thank you to Harper Perennial and Paperbacks, Harper Perennial, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Birds of California is out June 14, 2022.
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