Review: The Love Act

The Love Act by Zara Bell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading Zara Bell's "The Love Act" since she was a new-to-me author, but it turned out to be an excellent book that gave me all the feels. Main characters Jack and Cassie were incredibly sympathetic and well-developed, and I found myself laughing and crying right along with them even though the situation they faced wasn't anything I could imagine encountering in my own life.

I love stories that feature grumpy heroes, which certainly seemed to describe Jack at first, but there was so much more to him than was initially apparent. It would have been easy to assume that he was nothing more than an arrogant, entitled jerk because of the level of fame he had achieved, but in truth Jack had some legitimate issues because of the way the media had treated his mother, also a famous actor. He had more reasons than most celebrities to mistrust and dislike the media, but he wasn't very good at explaining those reasons to Cassie, which created a lot of problems between them.

Cassie hid a lot of things from Jack too, most notably her own acting career and struggles with anxiety. Her reasons for doing so were understandable, but it certainly didn't help her and Jack to build trust in their relationship. They really seemed to dislike each other for most of the first half of the book. It took them quite a while to start opening up and getting to know each other, but once they did, they turned out to be very well matched. Jack and Cassie's fake relationship soon became all too real, and while their path to happiness was far from easy, their struggles were worth it in the end.

Overall, I adored "The Love Act" and highly recommend it for all fans of contemporary romance and romantic comedy. I will be watching to see what Zara Bell writes next!

*ARC provided by the author/publisher via Hidden Gems Books. All opinions expressed are my own.

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