Set Piece | Book Review
A Hollywood romance novella perfect for an afternoon at the pool!
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Set Piece by Lana Schwartz
224 pages | Published by 831 Stories
The Set Up: Jack has recently become pop culture’s newest obsession after a steamy scene in his breakout TV show. When he’s swarmed with fans at the bar, bartender CJ rescues him, a connection that turns into an unforgettable night for the both of them. Five years later Jacks’ career has taken off and CJ is now a single mom when they meet again on a movie set. But CJ is quick to put up a boundary: they can’t go on a real date until they are no longer coworkers.
I keep seeing books from 831 Stories everywhere—is that just me? I’m loving their branding, with covers that give nothing away, and this from their About page: “We reject the notion that art has to be hard or sad to be good: Joy is important, and pleasure reading serves a fundamental purpose.” I really enjoyed this novella, and I’m excited to read more from the publisher.
This is a crazy mashup of so many different elements I love in romance: a failed one night stand, second chance and workplace romance, characters from opposite worlds, a single parent, and even a touch of found family. All of these blended together beautifully.
The story was light and sweet but had some actual depth to it. I did think that the conflict got blown out of proportion a little bit, but it was well written and I really liked the author’s sentence level writing. The prose was easy to read but felt mature.
“… and the man who showed me that the beauty of a passion project is that it doesn’t have to be flawless to be perfect - even if I wasn’t ready to see that at the time.”
The two main characters had such an easy chemistry, and for such a short book I thought there was a lot of growth in both of them. CJ has such a unique little family, and it was really nice to see the way she let Jack into it.
If you need something that can be read in one afternoon at the beach, I definitely recommend throwing this one in your bag!
Here are some picks that I would recommend based on Set Piece! In Wild and Wrangled you have a single mother and a second chance romance; Swept Away is a failed (like, really failed) one night stand; and Weather Girl has that workplace romance!
