Review: Bad Reputation

Bad Reputation by Emma Barry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cole James was a teenage actor on a much loved long-running teen drama twenty years ago (ish). The character he played always made stupid mistakes (I thought of him like Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl/Joey from Friends) but everyone loved him for it. Unfortunately, Cole let it go to his head and got a reputation for partying hard off screen too. He's spent the past few decades trying to learn to act properly (as opposed to showing off his abs on demand) and has rehabilitated himself one small role at a time guided by his agent. Finally, the work has paid off and he has been cast as the male lead in the next series of Waverley (think Bridgerton but in the Scottish Highlands and I don't think it is anything to do with the Walter Scott novel of the same name). This role could lead to him getting meaty roles, with depth of character rather than the shoot-'em-up fast car films he's been doing.

Maggie Niven was a High School drama teacher until certain elements in her town tried to stop her directing a play that had 'subversive elements'. Maggie felt so strongly that her students should be allowed to perform the play, which only reflected the truth of some children's experiences, that she took on the school district publicly. Unfortunately her notoriety didn't help her keep her job, or her boyfriend who didn't want to be associated with her in case it lost him business. Whilst appearing on a daytime women's chat show (think of the UK TV show Loose Women), Maggie is approached by the producer of Waverley who asks her to be the intimacy coordinator for the next series. I have to admit I didn't understand the story with this play (although since You Know Who was elected and started signing executive orders willy nilly I can see where that could happen) or how standing up for the right to put on a controversial play automatically qualified her to be an intimacy coordinator, but never mind.

Cole and Maggie hit it off from day one, but Cole's co-star and best friend is a tougher nut to crack, she dismisses all Maggie's attempts to discuss scenes or how she feels about them, yet Maggie notices that she has not had any nudity in any of her films since she was about eighteen and Maggie suspects there may be some drama there.

As Maggie and Cole work together, especially when Maggie advises a young actress that despite signing a waiver she can still make stipulations about what she wears and how love scenes are shot, Cole realises that he has been equally as exploited over the years, made to expose his body at the drop of a hat, never consulted about how he feels about the characters he plays, and he becomes very conflicted about playing his character in Waverley, who treats women very badly initially. Maggie helps him to understand his character's motivations, why he loves and leaves one woman but would sacrifice himself for another, etc.

But how would the outside world view an off-screen romance between an actor and the intimacy coordinator? And how would it affect Maggie's second career?

I saw this available on NetGalley and thought the premise of a romance with an intimacy coordinator felt weird, hence I didn't request it. But I had read Chick Magnet and recently read an ARC of Bold Moves so when it became available on Kindle Unlimited I snapped it up. Oddly, I think I liked it more than Bold Moves which felt too close to the TV series Queen's Gambit.

So anyway, thoughtful forty-something romance that I really enjoyed.

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