Behind the Scenes by Karelia Stetz-Waters is a refreshingly delightful romantic comedy about second chances, pugs, and finding the perfect muse set in beautiful Portland, Oregon.
Business consultant Rose Josten’s life is fine. She’s good at her job, enjoys spending time with her sisters, dressing her two pugs in adorable Gucci coats, and creating sexy mindfulness videos. Deep down she knows that something is missing and when Ash Stewart enters stage left, her world goes from black and gray to full technicolor.
Ash never looks at anyone. Not since her ex ripped her heart out and stomped all over it in front of all of Hollywood. Now a blacklisted director she has one last shot to get her film picked up. Rose agrees to help Ash pitch to a producer and their attraction grows. But can two women who have been burned before, put the past behind them to find a love that lasts a lifetime?
Pros And My Favourite Parts
Karelia Stetz-Waters does an incredible job creating two main characters with strengths and struggles. They’re real, raw, and so darn honest. It’s refreshing! The humor and sarcasm she uses work so well. Their meet-cute at the Portland Pug Crawl was the perfect segue into their fledgling relationship.
Rose hasn’t officially reached “pug lady” status in her life, but she’s close. She’s a fixer in both her professional and personal lives. Ash’s past traumas have left her broken (her words, not mine) and she has one last shot to get her movie picked up by a billionaire producer. Ash is a workaholic who believes she needs to do everything on her own and when her friend and cameraperson, Emma contacts Rose to consult with Ash, Ash begins to see that it’s okay to ask for help. The character arcs of both women were a joy to be a part of and I love how they went from questioning whether the other could possibly be interested in them to put it all on the line while becoming vulnerable and honest. It’s clear from the start that these two are meant to be together and their journey to happiness is a fantastic ride.
Rose’s sisters and Ash’s employees and friends add a lot of humor and depth to this book. The four-way group text between Rose and her sisters is hysterical and I don’t think I’ll look at some of those emojis the same way again. Rose’s pugs Muffin and Cupcake are perfect and I can easily visualize how dapper they both look in the designer Gucci coats.
Stetz-Waters isn’t afraid to incorporate out-of-the-box topics in this book where she tackles sexual dysfunction due to trauma, sexy mindfulness videos, and fear of flying. She also includes the fear of being eaten by pugs when dying alone.
Cons And Heads Up
None for me.
The Conclusion
Behind the Scenes by Karelia Stetz-Waters is an entertaining read complete with laugh-out-loud humor, romance, and pugs in coats! It’s fast-paced with relatable main characters, lively supporting characters, and sexy ferns. You won’t want to miss out on this one!
Excerpt from Behind the Scenes by Karelia Stetz-Waters
“Can I help you find something?” the woman asked.
She was pretty, with curly dark hair shaved on the sides and pulled back in a ponytail. She was about Rose’s age, but she wore ripped skinny jeans and a Siouxsie and the Banshees T-shirt faded enough to be a 1990s original, a look that should have been reserved for twenty-somethings in a band but looked good on her nonetheless. Ty would have fallen in love with her immediately. Rose could admit this wasn’t the kind of woman you wanted to meet while fishing around behind the trash, but she’d long since gotten over being nervous around attractive women…if she’d ever been nervous around attractive women. It was possible she’d missed that developmental stage. Maybe Ty had gotten all the nerves-around-women genes.
“Just getting this demon out of the trash.”
The woman blinked against the sunlight. She looked like she’d been up for days. The door closed behind her, the words STEWART PRODUCTIONS stenciled in gray paint on the metal. Excited to meet another human, Muffin bounded out from behind the dumpster. Rose scooped him up.
“Why are there so…” The woman lost her words. She rubbed her eyes again, looking perplexed. “There’re hundreds of them.”
“It’s a fundraiser for the Humane Society,” Rose said.
The woman reached out and petted Muffin, who had never met anyone so wonderful.
“So you’re making bad life choices? But there was so much good stuff back there.” The woman ruffled the wrinkles on his forehead. “How could your mother take that away from you? How could she stand in the way of joy?” The woman shot Rose a friendly, albeit fatigued, smile. She tweaked the bow on Muffin’s coat. “Gucci.”
“How did you guess?”
“The G.” The woman showed her the pattern on the underside of the bow. “Is it this year’s season?” The quirk of her smile said that she was teasing.
“Probably. It was a birthday present.” Rose rolled her eyes. “For me from my sister. Does that make it better?”
“Better than what?”
Being 2.8 years away from middle age and the kind of person who owns designer dog coats?
“Better than taking them to Nordstrom and then having the coats tailored?”
“Oh, you should always tailor pugs,” the woman said to Muffin, ruffling his neck fat. He goggled at her adoringly.
“They have such big, manly shoulders, and such little spindly waists. I had a hairless cat.” The woman looked up. “We had sweaters custom-knitted for him, but, to be fair, that was my ex. I would have been fine with off-the-rack.”
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Bits and Bobs
ISBN number: 9781538709252
Publisher: Forever
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