This started off really fun, but then it got ridiculous. Her diabetes took over when it hadn't before. Micah was cute and genuine and then he was too perfect. The last 30% was beyond predictable. Chemistry was lacking and sex scenes weird.

Her Indian heritage and dad were pointless...

2 Stars

I requested this out of curiousity--"Accidental It Girl" by Libby Street is one of my favorites, with a plot that starts from a very similar point. They diverge quickly, with this book set to be a romance almost immediately, so ultimately I didn't find them that similar at all. It feels odd to say that this book has a more 'modern' feel to it given that only 10 years separate them, but it's true--the half-Indian heroine of this book has Type 1 diabetes and works with her gay-best-friend for a tabloid specifically because she needs the health insurance. I ultimately greatly enjoyed the book. I didn't notice at the time of requesting if it was listed as late YA/New Adult, but I would classify it as such.

There were so many things I loved about this book. I loved the characters and how they were brought to life, and that isn’t just limited to our main couple, Josie and Micah. I absolutely adored Zion and his relationship with Josie. I loved how characters from the first book in the series, [b:Some Kind of Magic|30214948|Some Kind of Magic|Mary Ann Marlowe|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1463499517s/30214948.jpg|50669084], played a part in this book, and how we got to see what their lives were like now. The story itself was a perfect mixture of steamy and sweet and I couldn’t put it down. Mary Ann Marlowe hit it out of the ballpark yet again.

This felt more like a college fiction final manuscript project than a fully fleshed out and edited book. It wasn't ~bad~ but it was weak and rushed and could have been a lot better.

If you're going to go with instalove, you're going to need to make it believable.

3.5

ARC provided by Netgalley

A real meet cute: while trying to get a photo of a famous actress, Jo, a new-to-the-job paparazzi photographer in NYC asks for help from a cute guy she doesn't recognize, sitting on his shoulders and flirting all in the aid of getting the shot. Said guy, though, turns out to be Micah Sinclair, a famous rock musician, and Jo is ribbed unmercifully by her colleagues, including her gay roommate, for not recognizing the famous guy right in front of her face. Micah gradually draws Jo into his world, leaving Jo struggling to reconcile the demands of her job with the respect she feels she owes Micah and his friends and family, as well as to worry over whether Micah is really as nice as he appears to be, or if he is only using her to get himself more publicity (something that we as readers don't really know either, since the novel is told entirely in the first person from Jo's viewpoint). Jo's also dealing with her diabetes, her estrangement from her famous photojournalist father, her feeling of not fitting in because of her mixed race heritage (her father is from India, her mother is white American), and her own desire to take photos of everyday people rather than the rich and scandalous.

One big downside: it was pretty impossible to believe that Jo would ever have gotten a job as a paparazzi photographer. You pretty much knew from the start that she wouldn't stay in that job, and that her boss, and the paparazzi in general would come off as the villains. Still, a fun read, with a rather unusual puppy-dog friendly mid-thirties rock-star hero.

Jo Wilder has had dreams of following in her famous photographer father's footsteps since she was a little girl. But like most professions you have to start at the bottom and work your way up to where you want to be. For Jo, this is being a photographer for a local tabloid. Chasing down celebrities and dishing on the latest gossip holds no interest whatsoever for Jo, but she needs the job. Said job is close to being in jeopardy when Jo's boss finds out she missed an opportunity to photograph / interview rock bad boy Micah Sinclair. How she missed it? Well, she was a little bit distracted by Micah himself and didn't realize exactly who it was she was talking to until it was too late.

Micah Sinclair is kind of an anomaly in the entertainment industry in that he likes talking to the paparazzi. So when he begins flirting with Jo, she doesn't know if he's actually interested in her or in the extra publicity that she garners by posting his pictures. Regardless, Jo finds herself falling for the bad boy and in doing so comes under scrutiny by the same people who read her paper looking for any kind of gossip on the famous.

This was a so-so read for me. On the one hand I really liked the way the relationship between celebrities and the paparazzi is showcased and the precarious line that Jo is straddling in being in both worlds. It's a very interesting look into the world of the tabloids. Mary Ann Marlowe does a great job in making the line between Jo as paparazzi and Micah's true motivations stand out. The twisting of pictures and / or quotes to make a story bigger than it might actually be. The inference that, for example, someone is scowling in a picture therefore they must be angry, but angry about what?

This actually leads into the other hand. On the other hand, I couldn't really wrap my head around Jo having any kind of talent for photography. Besides the fact that we're supposed to believe she's got talent because various characters throughout the story tell her that her pictures are good, if you just took her scenes by themselves I don't think you'd come to the same conclusion. She dislikes her job so much, and she has pretty much zero interest or knowledge in any celebrity whatsoever that I don't understand how she still has a job regardless that she's photography royalty apparently. I can definitely believe someone not being happy with their job, and based on the interactions between Jo and her boss, I can definitely see why she particularly hates her job, but I would think as a serious photographer she'd still be dedicated to getting the picture(s), but more than once, she remarks on how she missed this shot or that shot. Mind you, she's also in her early thirties. She's not someone who just got out of school and is just getting started. In fact, both Jo and Micah read really young to me which would be no problem if they were, in fact, younger. But they are both supposed to be in the 32-33 age range, and some of the naivete surrounding them caught me off guard. I feel like Jo shouldn't have been surprised by how certain events play out since, you know, she's in the tabloid business, but she's completely thrown. Again, another instance where you might not like your job, but you should still do your job (otherwise find something else), and if Jo had ever done her job properly she wouldn't have been so surprised down the line.

I thought, overall, it was a quick read, and pretty enjoyable despite the qualms I have. Apparently Mary Ann Marlowe's first book [b:Some Kind of Magic|30214948|Some Kind of Magic|Mary Ann Marlowe|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1463499517s/30214948.jpg|50669084] deals with Micah's sister Eden and her fiancee Adam and how they got together. While this book is completely standalone, Eden and Adam stand out as secondary characters enough that I'd pick up their book to see where everything started. Jo's roommate Zion is also an interesting character and has his own interesting secondary romance in this book. I would actually very much enjoy it if Mary Ann Marlowe decided to give him and his significant other their own story as well.

*ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.