Genre: Contemporary Romance
My Review - 5 Stars
This was one of my most anticipated books of 2020 and it was utter perfection! Nick and Sabrina are rival TV hosts who are forced to team up on a morning show. This is enemies-to-lovers at its finest, written with Parker’s trademark wit and it gave me so much life. Nick and Sabrina had crackling chemistry and I loved watching their expectations of one another get upended. Nick has a sense of his true feelings for Sabrina first but the extra delightful part of this story was how everyone knew they were into each other but them. There’s a sense of “finally!” and “of course we knew” from everyone around them and that made me laugh each time.
One of my favorite parts of Parker’s books are the pitch perfect character details, like Nick’s niece Pippi’s facts and Nick playing darts and loving gherkins. Sabrina has her knitting with her at all times and we get to see her projects progress, as well as watch Nick get into knitting as a result.
Add in the layered characters and nuanced examination of grief and strained family relations and now you know why I couldn’t put it down. Sabrina’s mother died when she was young and Pippi’s mother died recently. They have some lovely bonding moments. I’m always interested in seeing how grief evolves over the years and there’s interesting interplay with how Sabrina’s loss impacted her relationship with her father, in addition to them dealing with the fallout from events in the previous book. Sabrina and her sister have very different relationships with their father and how they respond to him now is different as well. Family is so complex and complicated and I was relieved there was no forced forgiveness or even a full mending. Some family relationships are always going to be strained because of past actions. The way this was explored felt so authentic to me.
There is a small mystery concerning who is sabotaging their show. I had a feeling about who was behind it the moment they appeared on page but I wasn’t sure about the why until the final reveal. Mostly, I appreciated how the saboteur unintentionally got Nick and Sabrina to join forces and all that ensued from there. They are a dream team in so many ways.
I adore Lucy’s books and humbly suggest you read The Austen Playbook (about Sabrina’s sister Freddy) first for full context of why Sabrina and Nick loathe each other. It’ll make Headliners that much more satisfying. What a marvelous story!
Note: I want to address representation because Nick is a Black character and Parker is a white author. A Black author certainly would have written Nick with more nuance because they’re writing out of their own experience. I especially appreciated that there wasn’t a teachable moment about racism, which so often seems to happen when white authors write about characters of color and always feels clunky to me. I am white and leave final judgment about the representation up to Black readers.
Race or ethnicity was pointed out only for characters of color. If you’re going to describe characters of color, then you need to also spell out that white characters are white. It cannot be left to the reader’s assumption.
CW: past death of parent (heroine’s mother was hit by a delivery van, hero’s niece’s mom died in a hiking accident), past infidelity, references to a side character’s children’s cancer charity
Synopsis
Sparks fly when two feuding TV presenters are thrown together to host a live morning show in Lucy Parker’s latest enemies-to-lovers contemporary romance.
He might be the sexiest man in London, according to his fan site (which he definitely writes himself), but he’s also the most arrogant man she’s ever met.
She might have the longest legs he’s ever seen, but she also has the sharpest tongue.
For years, rival TV presenters Sabrina Carlton and Nick Davenport have traded barbs on their respective shows. The public can’t get enough of their feud, but after Nick airs Sabrina’s family scandals to all of Britain, the gloves are off. They can barely be in the same room together—but these longtime enemies are about to become the unlikeliest of cohosts.
With their reputations on the rocks, Sabrina and Nick have one last chance to save their careers. If they can resurrect a sinking morning show, they’ll still have a future in television. But with ratings at an all-time low and a Christmas Eve deadline to win back the nation’s favor, the clock is ticking—and someone on their staff doesn’t want them to succeed.
Small mishaps on set start adding up, and Sabrina and Nick find themselves—quelle horreur—working together to hunt down the saboteur…and discovering they might have more in common than they thought. When a fiery encounter is caught on camera, the public is convinced that the reluctant cohosts are secretly lusting after one another.
The public might not be wrong.
Their chemistry has always been explosive, but with hate turning to love, the stakes are rising and everything is on the line. Neither is sure if they can trust these new feelings…or if they’ll still have a job in the New Year.
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Disclosure: I won an advanced digital copy from the author in a giveaway. I received a free print copy from Harlequin Publicity Team. I'm friendly with the author on Twitter.
