B
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Theme: Enemies to Lovers, Forced Proximity (stranded, safehouse, etc), Workplace
Archetype: Actor/Actress/Celebrity, Diverse Protagonists
Shout out to Maya who shared her expertise on racialization and approved of Megxit Ranger! Thanks, Maya!!!!
Headliners is the fifth book in Lucy Parker’s London Celebrity series, and it is not an exaggeration to say that I have been a squatting like a goblin in the corner, waiting to pounce on this book. I LOVE Parker’s style, and it’s absolutely worth picking this book up for her snark and wit alone.
All the books in London Celebrity work as standalones, but for those who have been following the series, you’ll have met Sabrina and Nick in The Austen Playbook. Sabrina Carlton is Freddy’s sister, and Nicolas Davenport is Griff’s close friend. They’re both incredibly charismatic television hosts. With their own shows. In the same time slots. In the same network. As you would imagine, this was more conducive to feuding than friendship, all the more so when their network decided to reduce their evening news commentary programs down to one. But before the battle royale of sparkling teeth and camera charm can properly commence, Nick made a dastardly decision to break a generations long scandal involving Sabrina and Freddy’s family. The Carltons have long been theatre royalty, and the subsequent scandal would have been enough to knock her out of the running for sure…until Nick’s diatribe, detailing the 10 things he hates about the CEO of their network, was leaked online.
This doesn’t just result in them both being kicked off primetime, but with their executive head of programming cuffing them together in the morning program, the same program with tanked ratings that has been, as Nick describes, “Egregious rubbish for years.” They have from the start of December until Christmas to raise the ratings of the show. The show is theirs if they succeed, and if not, they watch someone whom they think is even more insufferable than they find each other walk off with the job instead. This insult is nothing to sniff at when the injury would be their careers left flapping in the wind. And because the universe sometimes likes to laughingly out itself as a sadist, Nick and Sabrina also have to contend with a clever saboteur trying to boot them off their show. Not only do they have less than a month to yank a flopping show over the finish line, and work out whodunnit, they’ll have to do it all without killing each other on live broadcast.
You can see why I turned into a goblin in the corner, and let me tell you, this story didn’t disappoint. For many of the same reasons their network thought sticking them together in a live broadcast program wasn’t just a good idea, but a goddamn money tree, I loved seeing them together. Individually, they each have their own brand of panache that gained them their own followings. Together they have enough chemistry to power a city. Under their years of professional rivalry and mutual verbal eviscerations, there’s also an underlying attraction that magnetize them towards one another. (Pretty literally. They had trouble keeping their hands off each other from the get go.)
Their chemistry was wafting around even in the previous book, and another major draw for me was how the dastardly thing Nick did is properly rat-bastard-y. I don’t know about you, but if I’m promised a redemption arc, I want a REDEMPTION arc. One where the character ACTUALLY fucks up. Not a miscommunication, with no Reasons, and definitely not, “It’s my fault, it’s my fault, it’s completely my fault~~~ (even though it really isn’t) but I’ll keep saying it so pointless misunderstandings continue. I’m so unworthy of the looooooove I need to be saaaaaaved.”
Ew.
Happily, we get to come along for the ride as Nick works through reconciling his actions and what his values really are. What Nick did made the road to reconciliation, let alone love, between him and Sabrina look more like a mountain than a hill to me. The interest I had was sustained and deepened as I got to know Sabrina and Nick.
Sabrina is a knitting glamour queen who, for all her temper, is a forgiving person. Once she works through her anger, she doesn’t bother with grudges. She makes a point of letting go, moving on, and being clear where she stands. No matter what you’ve done, she’ll still see the good in you, but respects herself enough to be selective about who to let back in. (To any peeps out there struggling with forgiveness, remember it often takes time and to be kind to yourself!) And Nick, for all the dastardliness of his dickery (no, I will not stop alliterating) is a genuinely kind person who cares deeply about his friends and family. If you’re someone he cares about, he’ll always speak up for you, lend you a dog for petting when you’re down, and will give you the support you need. His people care about him in return, enough to still keep him close while they tell him to his face he fucked up. When he ultimately apologizes, he does exactly that – no shifting blame, no groveling, no sly wording. He just says he’s sorry, and means it.
Too often, people act like apologizing to each other is the equivalent of thanking a fairy – putting yourself under the other’s thumb. Or they go too far the other way, and aren’t able to get over their own mistakes. Neither is healthy. The process of learning to forgive ourselves and others can be more fraught than how it happened for Sabrina and Nick, but they show that it can be done. Plus, I can’t imagine someone trying to manipulate Nick just because he admitted to being wrong. Please, he’d eat them for breakfast. And if someone tries to do the same to you, you can, too!
Redemption arc aside, Sabrina and Nick’s relationship was just so healthy. It progressed quickly, and when one needed to draw back a bit, they still made a point of maintaining a connection with the other. There were no jumping to conclusions or pointless, jealousy-fueled rampages. When one needed space, the other gave it while still being present and supportive. Neither let their egos mislead them. Even when Life intruded in the middle of a fight, they practiced the old “Don’t go to bed angry” adage – they were okay, and they’ll talk later. Seeing two confident people adulting in a healthy relationship is extremely catnippy for me!
Another thing I really enjoyed about the book was how family, loss, and grief were explored and layered together. Sabrina and Nick had both lost a parent at different points in their lives, Sabrina as a girl, and Nick as an adult. Nick’s was also close with his maternal grandparents, who have both passed on. The way the book explores how memories of loved ones shape their grief was beautiful, as was the way family ties can continue to cross over beyond death.
Hanging out with two witty, caring, and charismatic people on their various adventures is exactly as fun as it sounds, and overall, I only have two complaints.
First, I felt like I didn’t see enough of how Nick and Sabrina came to love working on the morning segment, which they both profess to in the last quarter of the book. Even though they were specific about the things they enjoy about it, I felt like I didn’t see enough of what drew them to the show to understand what they meant. It always felt like the show was more of a backdrop to everything else, even though it sounded like their relationship with the show was a love story in itself. Sabrina and Nick, the highly capable and ambitious duo. The morning show, the frumpy step down from primetime with shit ratings to boot. Collectively, they’re forced together by sheer circumstance. See where I’m going with this? They even talk about giving the set a makeover. It’s like a potential romance, but their feelings shifted too easily.
It just felt like I didn’t get to see enough of what made working on the morning show special to them, to the point that making it a success became a goal in its own right. It could be because I don’t watch English TV, but I didn’t understand what made them enjoy things like the morning show’s pacing vs the evening programs, or why the guests they had on the show would be notable to them, especially since the evening and morning shows had overlaps in the guest lists.
The mystery saboteur portion of the book was fun and seamlessly knitted into the story with its own satisfying resolution. It underscored the futility and dangers of trying to be ruthless in furthering one’s career, but it didn’t need to be there. I felt like maybe it took up space that could have otherwise been used to explore how Sabrina and Nick came to love the morning show.
The second bone I have to pick is how race and racism is basically left out of the story. It’s not made clear whether Nick is a Black or biracial person, or if he is part of a biracial family after his mom remarried. While I appreciate the lack of trite stereotypes and how skin tone wasn’t made any character’s defining trait, a person’s racial identity and how they navigate the ways they’re racialized by society and by their interpersonal relationships deeply impacts who they are. Whether Nick is biracial or not would be a core part of his identity, and whether his family is biracial or not would have an impact on their relationships and how they operate as a family.
For the same reasons, race not even coming up in conversations between Nick and Sabrina seems impossible to me. Honesty has been a key part of Nick and Sabrina’s relationship, even when they were rivals, and they don’t strike me as the sort of people who would pretend race is non-existent, especially with an intimate partner. (If there’s someone in your life that tells you they dOn’t SeE CoLOuR, they JuST sEE YOu – RUN. It means your relationship with them is contingent on a fundamental part of you being erased so they feel comfortable. Note: this is not what happens in Headliners at all, but it’s an important point for me.)
I liked learning that Nick’s maternal grandparents are from Guyana, and how this part of his heritage is underscored through food. The problem is it doesn’t go beyond that. In my experience of dating and being friends with White people, racial dynamics doesn’t stop at saying what my background is, or sharing food from my culture. It’s also explaining why certain things are important to me, understanding what’s important to them, realizing the many different ways we approach the world, and working through my frustration when I comprehend on more visceral levels the things I’ve been made to work for that White people just don’t have to think about. Dating a White person when you’re a person of colour has complexity, and it’s dishonest to show interracial dating without any of the messiness. That we don’t even know if Nick or his family is biracial means we can’t even guess what fundamental experiences he’s going into his own interracial relationship with.
Racism is alive and well in the UK (go go, Megxit Ranger!), and London is at once a city so vibrant because of its multiculturalism, yet also deeply steeped in racism. The book doesn’t really convey how diverse London is, and skips racism entirely. For there not to have been any instances of racism seen or acknowledged in a story that otherwise accurately reflects the world doesn’t feel honest to me. Not only is it statistically impossible, it’s especially jarring for me because it feels like I’m being asked to view the story through a ‘colour blind’ lens, which then comes off as erasure instead of fantasy.
Nick, being a celebrity in the entertainment/broadcasting business, would have a heightened experience of racism that comes with how exposed he is, on top of the systemic racism of his industry. While Nick’s struggles with racism do not need to be central to the story, I think they do need to be seen and acknowledged the way Sabrina’s experiences with sexism and misogyny are. We see Sabrina dealing with an odious guest who talks down to her, ogle her, and reduce all women’s financial abilities to alimony almost all in the same breath, while in her place of work, with her colleague standing right next to her. It wasn’t the only time something like this happens in the book, and we know from Nick she’s even been harassed while on the air. These moments belong in the book because they’re honest, and it would have been a disservice to both Sabrina and the readers to pretend misogyny doesn’t happen. I would have liked to see racism handled in a similar way in the story. It is an equal disservice to Nick and readers for the story to proceed as if racism doesn’t exist.
How race and racial identity are portrayed in stories is a sticking point for me, because I’m someone who doesn’t get to forget how I’m racialized. Like all people of colour, my racialization is not something I choose. It happens to me constantly, impacts my life immensely, and I have absolutely no control over it. Despite it being done to me, I’m also constantly being gaslit about whether it’s really happening or manipulated to believe it’s my fault how I’m othered and marginalized. When a story leaves out racism and race entirely, it clangs like a dissonant chord, because book-world is now reinforcing the gaslighting I experience in the real world, all the more so when major characters are people of colour.
Overall, this book is a B for me. I think other returning fans of the series will enjoy this book at least as much as they did the previous ones and newcomers will easily be roped into reading all the other ones. There were cameos of characters that I loved and loved to hate from earlier in the series, plus there was more Freddy and Griff, the couple from The Austen Playbook. I love all the characters in this series, and it’s always fun to see what they’re up to, doubly so to see how they interact with each other. It’s another solid installment in this feel-good series, but racial dynamics and identities needs to be portrayed honestly for me to be able to fully sink into a story.
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I think B is a fair grade, and Sneezy put her finger on something that bothered me about the Austen Playbook too…although all the books in the London Celebrity series are theoretically speaking workplace romances, they are becoming less and less specifically about what it’s like to do the work involved. Act Like It weaves in a lot of Lainie’s life as a mid-tier theater actress–she goes to rehearsal, worries about auditions, deals with having to act with somebody who dumped her–which was something I’d never seen before in a romance. By the time we get to the Austen Playbook, Griff is theoretically speaking a drama critic but he’s taking time off, and most of the plot is about unraveling the Carltons’ family history. Similar here…when the show comes up, it’s largely either about network politics or the trouble that the “saboteur” has been causing and you don’t see very much of the actual work. One example that jumped out at me was that from what I’ve heard in interviews, etc., being on a morning show means you’re on a really different schedule from the rest of the world because you get up so early. Freddy and Sabrina seem to have no trouble spending time together even though as a morning presenter and a theater actress, they would be awake at almost opposite times.
I also didn’t think this was really a standalone. A huge amount of the plot has to do with the fallout from what happened in The Austen Playbook with the Carlton family, and you really needed to read both together. Although it probably wouldn’t have fit with the publisher’s parameters, I would almost rather have read one longer book (or maybe two published at the same time?) treating both Freddy and Sabrina’s stories as one.
This is a great review. I appreciate the points about wanting racism to be discussed as much as the sexism, it sounds like the book does cover Nick’s redemption arc so he should have the page time for this as well.
I didn’t love the Austen Playbook as much as the rest of the series, and I think you and the previous commenter nailed it, I really like a dose of “competence porn” in my reading, and there’s been less and less focus on people’s actual jobs as the series progressed.
Good examination of the flaws and strengths of the book!
For whatever it’s worth, it was fairly obvious to me that Nick, and both his parents, were black in the book. The fact that you were unclear on the matter is making me question how much of this was supported in the text and how much was just me filling in gaps.
I read a lot of his father’s hard-charging journalism through the lens of wanting to be unquestionably excellent as a response to prejudice (pure speculation on my part).
Regarding the morning versus evening thing, I’m equally confused. It might be because the breakfast-show slot tends to be a lot more gentle, with more human-interest stuff and little or no thorny political issues: I find watching the stuff indescribably dull, but I could understand why someone who’s been hosting a current affairs show of the sort where the guests and the audience actually rioting is a legitimate possibility would welcome the change of pace.
Besides, you don’t get moments like your weatherman falling in the Mersey while trying to read the forecast in the primetime slots.
Nick falling for the morning show actually worked for me, but now I’m wondering how much of that is me working news-agacent, and thus having a basic background in the industry. The two biggest things I see news people love about their work are: the thrill of the story, and their particular team. So I interpreted Nick choosing the morning show over a solo vehicle as picking his team/ his relationships with people over the thrill of the best stories. And since his fuckup was picking the thrill of a big story over his relationship with his best friend, and being kind to a fellow reporter, that was an arc that worked for me.
Also, thanks for pointing out where the book fell short in its depiction of racialization.
Thanks for this review. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why I’m no longer finding the series as gripping as I did a few books back, and I think part of it is the decline in competence p0rn, for sure. And I’d be interested to hear how you feel about the representation of race in Making Up, which has a hero I might assume from his surname (Magasiva) is of Samoan descent. Making Up is my least favorite of the series so I haven’t reread it more times then I can count (like all the other books), so I may be remembering inaccurately, but I remember thinking that the characters seemed to exist in a colorblind universe.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Sneezy; I’m looking forward to reading this.
This was a great review and it pinpoints exactly what I admired about this book and what I thought was it’s big weakness — the lack of any acknowledgment of how race might be an issue was just strange, especially given how well Parker illustrated how Sabrina dealt with sexism (& how Nick could be an ally).
I didn’t notice it as much with Parker’s other biracial romance novel – Making Up – but I think in part because Leo’s sister was an important secondary character (so Leo was not the sole POC) & in part because Leo & Trix were not really celebrities the way the other leads in the other books have been. Trix’s production was already an established smash hit with a large ensemble cast who all were heavily made-up and Leo’s job meant that he was a behind the scenes guy. So social media and press focus just wasn’t as much of a pressure on them, although it’s a bit hard to believe that racism might not cause difficulties for Leo professionally. (I think their lesser tier celebratory status is reinforced also in the way that neither of them make an appearance in this final book of this series.)
In Headliners the non-acknowledgment of race felt to me more troubling and problematic because Sabrina & Nick were media celebrities that did make the gossip mags and social media sites on a regular basis. Given the current context of absolutely stunning racist displays that literally have driven Megan & Harry out of England, it’s hard to believe that there would not have been some racist crap thrown at Sabrina & Nick about their relationship.
Also unlike Leo, who at least has his sister, Cat, Nick appears to be the sole POC in his workplace and among his friends. Even most of his (living) family is white. In my first reading I thought both of Nick’s parents were black — with his mother’s family being the more recent immigrants; his father’s having been in the UK (or maybe Ireland – see below) for many generations. And also like J, the first time I read Headliners I assumed that his father’s drive and ambition to get the story at all cost was in part a response to racism; however, neither Nick or his mother ever really say that when they discuss his father.
And after rereading the book, I realized that actually there was no background at all about Nick’s father except that he was a respected driven journalist, who neglected his family, and may have trampled on friends and perhaps done slightly dodgy things in pursuit of his stories. Oh and that he had a slight Irish accent from his time in Cork which he passed onto his son (although it only comes out when Nick is really, really angry). No where is it clearly stated that Nick’s father was Irish or English (he was just in Cork for unspecified length of time) or whether he was POC or white or whether his family had lived in England forever or were recent immigrants. He just exists as a lesson that too much ruthless, untempered ambition is not good.
In a strange way I’m kind of stuck wondering why is Nick a POC if the reality of being a POC in contemporary London is not at least touched upon in some way?
I have just read this book and I loved it! This was a 5-stars novel for me. I think that Lucy Parker has improved the way she tells a story. I have found in this book things that did not appear in the previous ones –great timing (which is very important in the very funny moments) and a better sexual tension.
In the past books, there were many scenes that could have been deleted because they did not add anything to the plot or the understanding of the characters. Instead, the rythm of Headliners is amazing.
It’s my favourite one among the London Celebrities books.
I’m quite sad the reading has not been as good for you. Perhaps because I’m not American, I don’t miss them not talking about racism. I don’t need it to be discussed in a book just because some character is not WASP. I might be wrong, but I have a feeling that British authors (like Talia Hibbert,for instance) or those from Down Under tackle the issue in a different way than US authors.
I can get from this review that I would have a fruitful disagreement – fruitful, but still a disagreement – with both the book and the review writer about forgiveness. I’m not a fan. I’m a fan of grudges.
Eg I loved that promo for “Big Little Lies” with Reese Witherspoon saying she keeps and feeds her grudges “like little pets”. That’s selling it to me. (Though “Skip Beat” totally got there first. With pics.)
To be blunt, even hard-won forgiveness is second-best for me. Better than outright Easily Forgiven, but still something I’d rather buy on special.
By contrast, I would buy those lingering trust issues and low self-esteem books with all the misunderstandings. Because that is exactly the condition that toxic people with a track record, who patently don’t deserve forgiveness demanding it (and btw, quoting fiction in support) – just for their selfish selves, never for you – leave you in.
That does not reset quickly for the victim. Hell, positive behaviour is complex enough to pull off in some situations without being barraged by echoes of negative messaging from the past, or so I hear. I DO buy complex-traumatised people flubbing those situations, even if the writer has just read a little, not enough, on the topic or just prefers low-key drama without really understanding the wellsprings, and thus doesn’t quite hit all the notes, because there is at least recognition by default of long-term impact when a character is shown to lack the emotional reserves to face challenging situations – well, not on the first try.
Re the flaw the reviewer found in this book, I can’t really judge for myself just from the sample of this story, but there’s something people need to factor in when making international comparisons. I wouldn’t bet on an Australian writer being able to sidestep rather than delineate faultlines in our homegrown variety of the book’s setting, not recently.
It just wouldn’t pass the pub test. Two of the race relations epic fails (*consider this a trigger warning*) in Australian media I can think of offhand occurred on breakfast television :
(1) “Sunrise” presenting an all-white panel with a reflex white saviour response to abuse/family violence in Aboriginal communities (ugh, the Stolen Generations is bloody NOT some retro trend that needs to be brought back); and
(2) the Yumi Stynes / Kerri-Anne Kennerly confrontation over Australia/Invasion Day.
I completely agree with you Sneezy on the race treatment in this book. I also think one of my greatest disappointments with the Austen Playbook was that, up until that book, I was convinced Freddy was Black and was looking forward to a POC heroine. Upon reading the series I think my assumption was mostly wishful thinking and that she was never explicitly identified as white.
Thanks for the thoughtful review, Sneezy!
@Kathryn: Hania Aronofsky, their executive head of programming, was described as “a full-figured and strikingly beautiful black woman in her fifties, with very snazzy taste in suits and long-lashed eyes that missed nothing.”
First, I absolutely adored this book.
Second, I agree with your critique related to race and racism. However, I was personally relieved that Parker didn’t try to tackle the racism piece because it feels so clunky when white authors do and they almost always turn it into a heavy-handed Teachable Moment courtesy of super overt racism. That doesn’t mean white authors aren’t capable of addressing racism in their stories but I also can’t think of any standout examples. I do think she could have delved more into Nick’s background (at least clarifying if he was Black or biracial) and would have preferred she identify the race of all characters involved, not just POC.