Series: Standalone
Publication Date: September 7th 2015
Links: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
Source: I received an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review
A Hollywood Superstar. A Small Town Girl. Opposites shouldn’t always attract.
Cole Masten. Abandoned by his superstar wife, Hollywood’s Perfect Husband is now Hollywood’s Sexiest Bachelor: partying hard and screwing even harder. Watch out Los Angeles, there’s a new bad boy in town.
Summer Jenkins. That’s me, a small town girl stuck in Quincy, Georgia. I cook some mean chicken and dumplins, can bluff a grown man out of his savings in poker, and was voted Most Friendly my senior year.
We were from different worlds. Our lives shouldn’t have collided. But then Cole Masten read a book about my small town. And six months later, his jet landed on our dusty airstrip, and he brought Hollywood with him.
From the start, I knew he was trouble. For our town. And for me.
Sometimes, opposites just aren’t meant to attract.
THIS is how contemporary romance is done. Hollywood Dirt is just… SO. GOOD. It’s a bit slow in the beginning, but once it picked up the pace, I couldn’t stop reading. I finished this book with a smile on my face – actually, I had a smile on my face practically the whole time I was reading. Hollywood Dirt is an exceptionally well-told enemies-to-lovers, Hollywood romance. I just couldn’t get enough of Cole and Summer – I became so fully invested in their story. It’s a Hollywood romance – famous boy meets not-so-famous girl – but the way Alessandra Torre delivered the romance made it so much more than the cliché it could’ve been.
Hollywood Dirt is pure contemporary romance, which means it’s very different from Alessandra Torre’s previous books. It’s not dark, it’s not twisty, it’s not a WTF book… it’s very much a feel-good, enemies-to-lovers, contemporary romance with some Hollywood thrown in. So if you’re a fan of the author’s other books, this won’t be what you’re used to, but I highly, HIGHLY recommend you give it a try.
Cole Masten used to be one half of Hollywood’s “It” couple, but after catching his wife cheating on him and being handed divorce papers, life’s not going so good for him. He tries to lose himself in women, but it doesn’t work. The only thing that can keep his mind off the mess his life has become is his newest project, The Fortune Bottle, which is just so happens to be set in a small Southern town named Quincy.
I hated that man; he was an asshole unlike I’d ever known. Why God deemed to gift men like him with looks like that was beyond me. Or maybe looks like that shaped men into assholes like him.
Summer Jenkins lives in Quincy, and she’s just waiting for the day she can save enough money to get out and away from all the townspeople that have ostracized her after a prank she pulled. The last thing she expects is the ticket to her way out to be in the form of Hollywood hot-shot Cole Masten. Summer used to fantasize about the movie star, but reality of him? It turns out Cole is just an arrogant, rude, and conceited prick. A good-looking prick, but a prick nonetheless. Summer is less than impressed with Cole (understatement) but she puts on a nice face because she’s Southern and also because she wants a job with the movie that can pay her some money. But somehow, she ends up with the leading female role of The Fortune Bottle.
What ensues is an amazing enemies-to-lovers romance that I couldn’t get enough of. Summer HATES Cole, Cole does everything he can to spark Summer’s ire, they get on each other’s last nerves – the banter between them was just incredible to experience. I felt like I was THERE watching the two of them go at it. These two characters were what sucked me into this book. And, of course, underneath all the glares and the snarky comments, is the underlying chemistry that the two of them can’t seem to shake off. They want each other so bad, but how can a relationship be when they’re from such different worlds?
“Summer. Look at me.”
I did. It was hard not to, when he was that close. And God, he was gorgeous. So much so that it hurt, like staring at the sun, the pull of attraction so sharp and dangerous that it physically hurt my heart. It was staring at something you could never have but desperately wanted, despite any danger that accompanied the attraction.
I adored Summer, I really did. She’s no demure Southern woman – she gives as good as she gets with Cole, and I loved her for that. I also loved how determined she was to do what she had to do in order to get out of a town that doesn’t deserve her incredible heart. Cole took a little more time for me to warm up to. He’s just so… arrogant and rude to Summer in the beginning. I mean, yes, he just found out he wife was cheating on him, and he’s COLE MASTEN, but he’s definitely not a likable guy. But this was just in the beginning – pretty soon, I fell so hard for this man. The way he feels about Summer, the way he can’t stop thinking about her, the way he banters with her because he wants to see the incredible woman he knows she is… how could I not fall for him?
This was not a rebound, this was not infatuation, this was the end of his life as he knew it, and the realization hit that even if she didn’t want him, he would never ever find another woman like her, he would never get over her.
I remember the precise moment I fell in love with Cole – it was when Summer gave him a pet rooster. A PET ROOSTER. Oh my god, I couldn’t stop laughing at Cole and the way he was with Cocky (yes, he names his rooster Cocky). My favorite part of Hollywood Dirt (besides the awesome hate/love between the main characters) is definitely COCKY. This awesome rooster that Cole ends up loving so much. THAT was when I fell for this ridiculous man. And my love for him only kept growing when he started falling for the woman he was meant to be with.
They say that love is finding your soul’s match in another. I found my match. I found him, let him wrestle me to the ground, and then turned around and made him mine.
I applaud the author for her exquisite writing and fantastic storytelling. This enemies-to-lovers romance is nearly flawless – it’s fun, sexy, and so heartwarming that you’ll want to clutch at your heart by the time you’re done. Seriously, this is a wonderful book you don’t want to miss out on. If you’re a fan of contemporary romances, Hollywood Dirt is a MUST READ!
Quotes are taken from the arc and are subject to change in the final version.
Also by Alessandra Torre
Black Lies: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
Sex Love Repeat: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
Tight: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
Love, Chloe: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
Moonshot: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads
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I love the excerpts, such beautiful writing!
The writing is incredible!! You should definitely give this book a try 🙂