From subway to Broadway to happily ever after. Modern love in all its thrill, hilarity, and uncertainty has never been so compulsively readable as in New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren’s romantic novel. Marriages of convenience are so...inconvenient. For months Holland Bakker has invented excuses to descend into the subway station near her apartment, drawn to the captivating music performed by her street musician crush. Lacking the nerve to actually talk to the gorgeous stranger, fate steps in one night in the form of a drunken attacker. Calvin Mcloughlin rescues her, but quickly disappears when the police start asking questions. Using the only resource she has to pay the brilliant musician back, Holland gets Calvin an audition with her uncle, Broadway’s hottest musical director. When the tryout goes better than even Holland could have imagined, Calvin is set for a great entry into Broadway—until his reason for disappearing earlier becomes clear: he’s in the country illegally, his student visa having expired years ago. Seeing that her uncle needs Calvin as much as Calvin needs him, a wild idea takes hold of her. Impulsively, she marries the Irishman, her infatuation a secret only to him. As their relationship evolves and Calvin becomes the darling of Broadway—in the middle of the theatrics and the acting-not-acting—will Holland and Calvin to realize that they both stopped pretending a long time ago?
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Listened to the audiobook, the narrator was fine, she did a nice Irish accent, though I wondered if she was Irish because though overall her American accent was good there were a few words that came out oddly. Whatever, she still gave a good performance.
For me, Calvin was too perfect? He was so MUCH, the perfect guitar player and smart and handsome... I sort of wanted Holland to see some less perfect traits after he moved in, which did not happen.
One of the themes that Holland was exploring about herself is that she is maybe a secondary character in her own life? Well for me one of the major downfalls of this book is that Holland read to me as a secondary character. While I identified with Holland's struggle to figure out what she wanted both as a job and for her future, and that she was struggling with who she was and with a creative block, this came across as a weakness for her character. To me she was sort of an airhead and was creepily attached to Calvin from before the start of the book. I was more interested in Calvin, and would have really enjoyed some of his perspective (was surprised authors didn't do both perspectives in this book the same way they have done so in other books.)
Also, I thought it was very interesting to have the friendship with LuLu break down/dissolve. I would have liked a little more upset from Holland when this happens, but I think it was a nice realistic touch because friendships in real life are complicated and often fall apart when things change (like a marriage).
Overall, not my favorite CL, but not terrible I guess. I liked the relationship Holland had with her uncles.
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