10 Hollywood Romances to Get You in the Mood for the Oscars
In which our heroine has stars in her eyes.
It is a truth pretty universally acknowledged that romance movies, especially romantic comedies, tend not to win at the Oscars. There are a few exceptions to this rule—Jennifer Lawrence winning her first Oscar for her role Silver Linings Playbook, Cher winning for Moonstruck—but they are few and far between. When romantic movies do win, as with Shakespeare in Love, they are rarely romances with happy endings.
So, for romance fans who are gearing up for tonight’s Oscars, I thought I’d put together a list of Hollywood happily ever afters—romance novels set in and around the film industry to get you in the mood for the movies. Fingers crossed for an adaptation of one of these to make it to the silver screen soon!
1. Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
What if your favorite actor was also your favorite fan fiction writer? This is the premise of Spoiler Alert, which pairs Marcus Caster-Rupp, star of the small screen and prolific fan fiction writer, with April Whittier, geologist by day and fan fiction writer and cosplayer by night. When she goes viral for daring to cosplay as a plus-sized woman, Marcus asks her out on Twitter—neither of them realizing that they’ve already met under their fan fiction writing aliases.
2. You Had Me At Hola by Alexis Daria
In You Had Me at Hola, Jasmine, a soap opera star recovering from a very public break up, is cast opposite Ashton, a telenovela star with a secret, in the first bilingual series produced by a major streaming service. Their first meeting is a disaster, but both have a lot riding on this job, and they agree to rehearse privately to make sure their performances hit the mark. But when rehearsals blossom into something more, the media spotlight finds them, and threatens the relationship that was starting to grow.
3. While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory
Actress meets ad-man in Guillory’s While We Were Dating, which follows Ben Stephens, a rising star in the world of advertising, and Anna Gardiner, a movie star trying to make it on the A-list. In the midst of working together on an ad campaign, Ben helps Anna with a family emergency, and their professional relationship starts to get personal.
This is the most recent installment of Guillory’s extended Wedding Date universe.
4. Love Scenes by Bridget Morrissey
Love Scenes is another romance between co-stars. Sloane is an actress-turned-producer-turned-actress-again from a family of Hollywood royalty. Joseph is an Irish actor with whom she’s worked once before—to disastrous effect. Through a series of unfortunate events, they find themselves on the same movie set once again, and realize that if they can get over the past, they might just have a future together.
5. Act Like It by Lucy Parker
If you’re more into West End than Hollywood, Act Like It is the choice for you. When actor Richard Troy once again lands in the tabloids for his infamous temper, the producers of the play he is currently headlining ask his co-star, ingenue Lainie Graham, to get him (and the play) some good press by pretending to date him. But is their relationship really fake? Only the stars know….
This is the first of Lucy Parker’s five-book “London Celebrities” series.
6. First Comes Like by Alisha Rai
First Comes Like is another fake-dating romance, in which a Bollywood star (Dev) accidentally catfishes a beauty influencer (Jia), leading to a private moment made public by paparazzi. When they decide to continue their fake relationship to appease the fans—and Jia’s family—they come up with some real feelings.
This is set in the same universe as Alisha Rai’s previous novels The Right Swipe and Girl Gone Viral.
7. If the Boot Fits by Rebekah Weatherspoon
If the Boot Fits actually starts at the Oscars—or at least, it starts with a one-night-stand that started at the Oscars. When Amanda, an overworked personal assistant, hits it off with Sam, an actor fresh off his first Oscar win, they have a steamy night together. Then, Amanda accidentally sneaks out the next morning with his statuette in her bag. But Sam is more interested in finding the accidental thief than the object that was stolen.
This is the second book in Weatherspoon’s “Cowboys of California” series.
8. Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner
In Something to Talk About, superstar showrunner Jo Jones is not having an affair with her assistant. She just asked Emma to to accompany her to the SAG awards as a social buffer. But when they’re photographed together on the red carpet, rumors make their relationship into something more scandalous. As the two women work to keep their careers on track even as they fend off paparazzi and a possible on-set leak, they start to wonder if they might have feelings for each other after all.
9. Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey
If your favorite Rom Coms are the Nora Ephron/Tom Hanks collaborations You’ve Got Mail and Sleepless In Seattle, then you understand the predicament of Annie Cassidy, the protagonist of Waiting for Tom Hanks. Her dream career is Nora Ephron’s and her dream man is Tom Hanks. But when she gets a job on the set of a movie that’s filming in her town, she meets the lead actor, Drew Danforth, and he’s nothing like any Hanks character she’s dreamed about. But it’s possible that there’s more to him than first meets the eye…
10. Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters
If your favorite categories are the screenwriting ones, then Would Like to Meet is the book for you. Evie Summers is an aspiring screenwriter languishing as an assistant to a film agent. When she is tasked with corralling the agency’s biggest client, Ezra Chester, into finishing an overdue screenplay, she makes a deal with him: He’ll write the script if she can prove that meet cutes work in real life. When she springs into meet-cute-action, her disastrous attempts quickly gain an audience: Ben and Anette, a father and daughter who frequent the same café that she does. Soon Evie has to decide: Who is the man she wants to meet-cute most?
EXTRA CREDIT: How to Fake It in Hollywood by Ava Wilder
This one isn’t out until June 14, but if you’re into Hollywood romance, you should definitely pre-order How to Fake It in Hollywood. Grey Brooks is trying to figure out the next steps in her career after the teen TV series she starred in has finally ended, while Ethan Atkins is trying to produce the last script he wrote with his best friend, whose death he is still grieving. When their PR teams pair them up, they don’t imagine that their fake relationship will turn into anything real. But as they get to know each other, feelings flare, and they find themselves facing their demons together.
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