Synopsis

Offered a dream job in Hollywood with a famous director and his actress wife, an insecure woman becomes their personal assistant where their secrets and lies place her in the crosshairs of a murder investigation.

Cassidy Foster is heartbroken, stuck in life, and getting a little too obsessed with plants. Then when a well-connected friend becomes sick of Cassidy’s moping and gets her a gig with famous Hollywood couple, Marisol and Nate Sterling, Cassidy jumps at the chance to move to sunny L.A. The Sterlings are warm and welcoming. A perfect couple. All Cassidy has to do is be available a few hours a week for errands. In return, she has access to luxury. Designer clothes. A sparkling pool. Great pay. When Nate takes interest in her, asking her to read scripts he’s written, Cassidy thinks this could be the key to kickstarting her writing dreams. As their business relationship grows, so does their attraction. Nate is sexy, talented, and Cassidy can’t believe her luck. Clearly, Marisol doesn’t know what she has. Maybe that’s why the two are always fighting when they think Cassidy isn’t around. But Cassidy learns she was hired for a different purpose. The Sterlings aren’t the perfect couple. Marisol isn’t the perfect wife. And when one of them is found dead, Cassidy becomes the perfect suspect.

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Review

When I first started reading this book, I wasn’t too wild about it. But by the end, it was like a train wreck, and I couldn’t look away…or put the book down!

Cassidy has left Texas and is now a personal assistant to a Hollywood couple, thanks to a hookup from her long-time friend, Lexie. The job and her new apartment seem perfect, but when everything seems perfect, it really isn’t. Cassidy may be relatable, but she wasn’t very likable, at least not to me. She has an obsessive personality, which is seen when she starts interacting with Nate. She is hired to be Marisol’s assistant, but her husband, Nate, discovers Cassidy’s writing ability and asks her to read scripts and provide coverage. Somewhere along the way, Cassidy starts obsessing over Nate and perhaps imagines a relationship that isn’t there. Or is it?

I honestly do not like Cassidy. She is needy, obsessive, drinks too much, and has stalker-like tendencies. However, the situation she is put in near the end makes part of it understandable, sort of. I can see how she could be sucked into this lifestyle since she receives castoffs from Marisol and is brought into their lives. Cassidy does some good things, but what she is pulled into later in the book is sketchy, and she should have known better and said no. But I get the feeling she is a people pleaser and doesn’t know how to say no.

Now, not everything in this book is her fault. Some of the fault lies with Nate, Marisol, and even her friend Lexie. It is hard to share much because there are so many plot twists that I don’t want to give anything away. Even in the Epilogue, a new truth is revealed that was surprising, at least to me. I did start to suspect the killer, but I didn’t know why or how. It was just a feeling I had about this character.

Needless to say, this book was hard for me to put down, and we give it 5 paws up.

About the Author

May Cobb is the award-winning author of The Hollywood Assistant, A Likeable Woman, My Summer Darlings, and The Hunting Wives, which is being adapted into an 8-episode series for STARZ. She earned her MA in literature from San Francisco State University, and her essays and interviews have appeared in The Washington Post, Texas Highways, Good Housekeeping, and more. A Texas native, she lives in Austin with her family.

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