ShutterGirl by C.D. Reiss ~REVIEW~

Are you ready for a different kind of love story? 

Meet Michael & Laine in this Hollywood themed second chance romance by CD Reiss!

NOW AVAILABLE!

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1RXBv1n
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1FlYvSs
Barnes & Noble - http://bit.ly/1d3hzub
iBooks - http://apple.co/1KS8bUC
Kobo - http://bit.ly/1bBO020

A girl raised in the foster care system and the boy she found a connection with in high school meet again. A second chance romance that was never truly a romance, but a budding friendship and an unexplainable connection.

I really enjoyed these two people and their love for each other. I would classify this read as NA (New Adult), because although nine years has passed since they were friends, they seem to be very much in a young minded atmosphere. Laine was fifteen when they met, Michael eighteen.

It’s young Hollywood. The age of paparazzi and being famous for partying instead of actually acting. The two are on different sides of the camera and in different places in life. However, Michael and Laine find each other again and the tables turn. The picture-taking hunter becomes the hunted, and the celeb becomes the protector.

It sounds like a simple “lesson learned” storyline; but it’s so much more. Childhood and teenage years lend themselves to mistakes in judgment along with self-discoveries. People change, grow, become more, and sometimes become less. To be completely honest, some of the issues in ShutterGirl were a bit confusing in their reasoning. Mind you, I am a forty something year old woman that does not understand the decisions of a fifteen year old. Then again, how many times do you ask a child “Why did you do that?” and the response is “I don’t know.”?

ShutterGirl is a great departure from what I am used to getting from Reiss: a treat in tension building, relationship growth, and ultimately acceptance and love.

4 Stars

T~

ShutterGirl Book Trailer

ONE movie star on the cusp of greatness
ONE broken girl who touched him
TEN years to forget her
A MILLION stories in Hollywood

                   

I am not hurt.
I don’t need a second chance with him, or a life I thought I had.
While he was out forgetting me to become a movie star, I was building a career out of nothing. A career as a paparazzi, but a career. For a foster kid who bounced around every home in Los Angeles, that wasn’t easy.
This camera is all I have.
He’s nothing to me. Every time I take his picture and sell it, I remind myself that I did it all without him or his approval, his cinnamon smell or his clear green eyes. He lights up the screen like a celestial body, but he’s nothing but a paycheck to me.
He can throw my camera off a balcony, and nothing has to change. We can stay king and queen of the same city, and different worlds.
Except this is Hollywood, and here, anything can happen.

Excerpt #1

I stroked his hair, waist deep in peace, all worry gone for the moment, and floating in no more than an ocean of gratitude. I must have been more vulnerable than I realized, or he’d reopened some wound with his kindness, because though my sweet reverie stayed, as the minutes passed, a layer of need fitted itself on top of it.

I needed to tell him, if not the details, the outlines of who I was.

“I want you to know,” I whispered, starting somewhere small, then everything I didn’t want to say spilled out. “I have stuff. I’ve never been to jail, but you know, it’s stuff, and it’s ugly, and it scares me. Because, I mean, you’re so perfect, and I’m… I’m just a mess. I’m not whole. I’m a bunch of pieces of a person I cobbled together.” My eyes got wet when I thought of the comparisons between us and that picture in my silverware drawer. “So if you have to move on when you realize that, I’ll understand. You have an image, and if anyone understands protecting a career, it’s me. I mean, I’ll be mad, don’t get that wrong, but also.” I swallowed and blinked, shifting my head so he wouldn’t feel the tear on his forehead. “I won’t blame you.”

I waited for an answer. Anything. A change in position or a word on any subject. The weather. Sports. Something. But all he did was breathe.

I smiled so wide, tears fell into my mouth. He was sleeping.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CD Reiss

 CD Reiss is a USA Today and Amazon bestseller. She still has to chop wood and carry water, which was buried in the fine print. Her lawyer is working it out with God but in the meantime, if you call and she doesn’t pick up, she’s at the well, hauling buckets. Born in New York City, she moved to Hollywood, California to get her master’s degree in screenwriting from USC. In case you want to know, that went nowhere, but it did embed TV story structure in her head well enough for her to take a big risk on a TV series structured erotic series called Songs of Submission. It’s about a kinky billionaire hung up on his ex-wife, an ingenue singer with a wisecracking mouth; art, music and sin in the city of Los Angeles.

Critics have dubbed the books “poetic,” “literary,” and “hauntingly atmospheric,” which is flattering enough for her to put it in a bio, but embarrassing enough for her not to tell her husband, or he might think she’s some sort of braggart who’s too good to give the toilets a once-over every couple of weeks or chop a cord of wood.

If you meet her in person, you should call her Christine.

Stalk Her: Facebook | Twitter | Website | Goodreads | Pinterest | Instagram

GIVEAWAY & NOTE FROM AUTHOR

I am so happy with the response to Shuttergirl, and I cannot wait to send Michael and Laine out into the world, because who doesn’t swoon over a second chance at love?

It’s a new genre for me, and I’m exploding with excitement, so I’ve dropped some fantastic reasons for readers to get the book right away.

TREAT YOURSELF LIKE A MOVIE STAR!

$500 Spa Gift Card

If you could get an hour, or ten away from the daily grind of paparazzi and interviews (or the job and kids), what would you do?

Get a foot rub/slash/pedicure? A massage? Maybe something called a Sleep Treatment that right now sounds better than sex?

Maybe you’d bring a friend or two, or maybe you’d just get a manipedi when you wanted one. Because the life of a megastar ain’t for the weak-willed or lazy, and running from paparazzi can really wear down a girl’s nails.

Woodhouse Spas are no joke. They’re all over the country and they’re….sigh. Fabulous. But if you don’t live near one, we can do Burke Williams, Halcyon Days or Red Door.

HOW TO ENTER

Take the fun SHUTTERGIRL READER QUIZ!

The link to the quiz is in the back of the book, and yes, that’s the ONLY place to find it! There are bonus questions relating to Jonathan and Antonio for extra prizes. You have until June 3rd to enter! That gives you a solid two weeks to read the book and get your chance at a $500 movie star spa treatment!

        If you are a paperback reader, email me and we’ll work it out .