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Chasing Chaos by Katie Guest Pryal

 width=I approach novels set in the world of the entertainment business with trepidation. My husband is a TV reporter who covers entertainment for a living, so I’m familiar with the beat and therefore quick to spot inaccuracies or false notes in novels with a Hollywood setting, so it was a joy to read the novel Chasing Chaos (Blue Crow Books) by Katie Guest Pryal. It not only delivers in terms of plot and characters, it believably depicts the Hollywood milieu of today. With its pitch-perfect dialogue, characterizations that ring true and vivid descriptions of today’s celebrity culture, it passes the “sniff” test with flying colors.

When the ethereally beautiful Daphne dumps her long-time boyfriend and screenwriting partner, Dan, following a one-night stand, she informs him that it’s been over for some time and that she was never in love with him to begin with. In fact, she’s never really been in love with anyone. She doesn’t believe herself worthy of love after a childhood trauma that left her emotionally scarred, and more recently, an incident involving her best friend Greta that nearly cost Greta her life. Greta has long since forgiven her, but Daphne has yet to forgive herself. She feels responsible for the chain of events that were set in motion by what she perceives to have been a betrayal of her best friend.

Enter Marlon, the live-in handyman of aging movie star Sandy who is a sort of surrogate son. When Marlon and Daphne connect, sparks fly. She warns him that trouble follows wherever she goes. He dismisses her warning. When they become intimate—in a scene with some serious sizzle that brought to mind the smoking-hot on-screen chemistry of certain Hollywood stars—it seems Daphne has found the One. Not so fast. Disaster strikes when Daphne’s ex-boyfriend Dan, in a jealous fit, leaves a party they’re both at—the wedding reception of Greta, which Daphne planned with the help of Marlon and Sandy—with Marlon’s pretty young cousin, Carrie, and they get into a car accident. When Marlon finds out about it, he loses it, and in the heat of the moment, blames Daphne.

Can he forgive her? Can she forgive herself?

What makes this novel such an entertaining read, besides its well-drawn characters, accurately-depicted La La Land setting and crackling dialogue, is its plot that sails along and keeps you guessing. As glamorous and mercurial as Hollywood itself, it’s a novel that glitters.

Chasing Chaos is available for purchase.

 

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Chasing Chaos by Katie Guest Pryal
Publish Date: 9/19/2017
Genre: Fiction
Author: Katie Guest Pryal
Publisher: Blue Crow Books
ISBN: 9781947834130
Eileen Goudge

is the New York Times bestselling novelist of 15 women’s fiction titles with more than 6 million copies of her novels in print worldwide. Book One of her Cypress Bay mystery series, Bones and Roses, was just released and she’s working on Book Two, Swimsuit Body. She lives in New York City with her husband, television reporter and film critic Sandy Kenyon.

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