Book Review — Hollywood Dirt by Alessandra Torre

A Hollywood Superstar. A Small Town Girl.
Opposites shouldn’t always attract.

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Sexy, fun, and fantastically well written, with an intense hate-to-love Hollywood romance that’ll make your heart race!! 

That’s exactly what this book was and I love love LOVED it!!!!

There’s a special feeling you get when you start a genuinely fantastic book where you can just instantly feel that it’s a winner. I was less than a page into this book before I’d fallen in love with it. From the start, the story had this almost palm-tingly feeling of anticipation, excitement, and intrigue to it… and with Alessandra Torre’s strong, captivating writing, I found it to be unputdownable!

“Cole Masten was the epitome of walking sex and had every woman in town drooling over his arrival. Every woman but me, that is. I couldn’t be. For one, he was an ass. All cocky attitude and no manners to speak of. For two, he was — for the next four months — my boss.”

Secrets are fascinating. We’re all drawn to them. And Summer Jenkins’ sleepy Southern town of Quincy, Florida was brimming with them. Almost 50 millionaires and billionaires lived within the grand total population of 7000 folk, but you’d never know if you looked by looking at them. They quietly went about their lives, never boasting of their wealth, until super-star actor Cole Masten found out their secrets and decided to turn them into a blockbuster movie.

So Hollywood arrived, one quiet Sunday afternoon, with their trucks and noise and equipment, soon overrunning her small town. And bringing her face to face with one of the world’s sexiest, most famous, and most swooned-over men… who she happened to hate on sight.

“Don’t do that.”
“What?” He straightened off the porch railing.
“That smile thing. It’s creepy.”
He stopped smiling. “Ten million Americans would disagree with you.”
“Then ten million Americans are idiots.”

His good looks weren’t nearly enough to get him in her good graces. With his lack of manners and cocky attitude, she had no problem telling him exactly where to go (or kneeing him soundly in the balls the first time he tried to kiss her). But there are two sides to every story, and luckily we were given both.

He wasn’t a bad guy — in fact he was a pretty good one, but was in the middle of an ugly divorce and still hurting from his soon-to-be-ex-wife’s stinging betrayal. He also came from a world of smoke screens and lies, where privacy was the most highly coveted luxury that even the richest stars couldn’t buy and where personal lives were dragged through the mud for the public’s entertainment. The combination of everything had in fact naturally fashioned him into what would easily appear to be… an asshole.

“People in Hollywood will build you up just so that they can rob you blind. You gotta be an asshole to not be assholed. Don’t ever forget that.”

So when contrasted with her Southern upbringing of manners and hospitality, it was no surprise that the the sparks between them flew right from the start.

“Can you put on some pants?” she snapped, looking back at him, her eyebrows raised accusingly. “It’s rude to waltz around with your junk out.”

The sexual tension was delicious!!! They were so busy hating each other that they barely realized they were falling in love. It was this intense mixture of lust, hate, attraction, frustration, and desire… they couldn’t stand each other, but were still drawn closer. However I really appreciated that they didn’t just fall into bed. The build-up was perfectly drawn-out — teasing and enticing you further into their story.

“There should be laws against men who could kiss like that. With a mouth that dominated yet begged. Tongue that teased yet delivered. Tastes that dipped into an addicting stream and hooked a woman after just the first hit.”

Ohhh and the humor!!!! It was just brilliant. Witty, snarky, sassy, and totally hilarious — I laughed and chuckled my way through several scenes, especially the ones involving Cole’s new pet chicken (err, sorry rooster) named Cocky. Yep, rooster. Pet. Not dinner. Beloved pet. Omg, those scenes were pure GOLD!!!!

“I just got a baby rooster,” Cole started.
“I can see that,” the man drawled. He leaned forward, his chair creaking, and peered through the thick plastic. “Why’d you bring it with you?”
“I don’t know. I thought it might need to be checked out, or you might have questions, or it might not be able to be left alone…” Cole’s voice trailed off, and he realized exactly how stupid he sounded.
“It’s. A. Chicken.” The toothpick in the man’s mouth fell out as he spat out the words. “It’s not a pet. You don’t name the thing and give it a bedazzled collar.”
“What does it eat?” Cole snarled, taking Cocky’s tub down off the counter and setting it on the floor, his boot pushing it to a safer location, a little to the side.
“Corn.”
Cole waited for more. And waited.
“Just corn? Nothing else?”
The man raised his eyebrows. “It’s. A. Chicken.”
…
“Anything else I’d need for it? Medicine or vitamins or shots?”
“It’s. A. —“
“Chicken,” Cole finished. “Got it.”

And finally, there is some serious hotness in this awesome story! Cocky attitude or no, Cole had me swooning and fanning myself. And I’m pretty sure you’ll be doing the same once you ‘ve met him.

“I’ll pin you down and won’t stop until my mouth is imprinted on your mind and your taste is my fucking middle name.”

See?? *winks*

Oh aaaaaaaaaand there’s a cool twist to the direction of the story that isn’t mentioned in the blurb and that I’ve chosen not to mention here just because I honestly think it’s more fun to just discover it as you go. There was nothing about this book that bothered me, I have zero complaints. It really was a winner!

I genuinely LOVED this book! I read it cover to cover in one sitting. It was additive and utterly delightful to read. The writing was top notch, the humor was on point, and the intense hate-to-love romance kept my heart racing!! This was a smart, sexy love story with incredibly strong writing. I highly recommend it!!!

Rating: 4.5+ stars. Standalone Contemporary Adult Romance.

• Buy HOLLYWOOD DIRT (Kindle)
• Buy HOLLYWOOD DIRT (Paperback)