For Her Consideration

Out in Hollywood #1

by Amy Spalding

“Pure romance magic.” —Christina Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of Love & Other Words

“I loved how joyful, how thoughtful, and how real For Her Consideration was.” —New York Times bestselling author Jasmine Guillory

Perfect for fans of Casey McQuiston and Meryl Wilsner, a funny, heartwarming, and moving novel about bad breakups, found families, and embracing life.

A Buzzfeed LGBTQ Romance You’ve Got to Read

Since a crushing breakup three years ago, Nina Rice has written romance, friends, her dreams of scriptwriting for TV, and even LA proper out of her life. Instead, she’s safely out in the suburbs in her aunt’s condo working her talent agency job from home, managing celebrity email accounts, and certain that’s plenty of writing—and plot—for her life. But a surprise meeting called by Ari Fox, a young actress on everyone’s radar, stirs up all kinds of feelings Nina thought she’d deleted for good . . .

Ari is sexy, out and proud, and a serious control freak, according to Nina’s boss. She has her own ideas about how Nina should handle her emails—and about getting to know her ghostwriter. When she tells Nina she should be writing again, Nina suddenly finds it less scary to revisit her abandoned life than seriously consider that Ari is flirting with her. Between reconnecting with her old crew and working on a new script, a relationship with a movie star seems like something she’ll definitely mess up—but what could be more worth the risk?

Amy Spalding’s For Her Consideration is full of heat and heart as Nina learns that her story just might include the kind of love that lasts.

“A warm celebration of Los Angeles, chosen family, and learning how to love and be loved.” —Cameron Esposito, bestselling author of Save Yourself

“An optimistic, empathetic choice for readers, which highlights queer women pursuing creative careers and showcases a strong emotional growth arc.” —Library Journal

“A cozy comfort-read.” —Publishers Weekly

Genres: Romance, LGBT, Lesbian, Queer, Contemporary, Fiction, Adult

326 pages, Hardcover

First published February 7, 2023

About the author

Amy Spalding is the author of several novels, including the bestselling For Her Consideration, We Used to Be Friends and The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles), which was named a best book of 2018 by NPR, the Boston Globe, Kirkus Reviews, and more. She is a recipient of the 2023 Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award for the authentic, funny, and diverse representation of the LGBTQ+ community in her books.

Amy grew up in St. Louis and now lives in Los Angeles. She has a B.A. in Advertising & Marketing Communications from Webster University and an M.A. in Media Studies from The New School. Amy studied longform improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.

Reviews

[Diane Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

**'The danger to telling a kind of story can be either seductive, meaningful or worthless. Maybe have it in as a second something that you're trying out so that you can distinguish yourself as being this very good storyteller...'

Nice read!
A somewhat cute story and a somewhat recommended book!

[Mai H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This works fine as a romance, but I have issues with a few things. No one that lives in Santa Clarita is going to be driving to LA as often as Nina does.

With the amount of independent coffee shops in this city, I'm embarrassed at the amount of times she buys chai from Starbucks. At least they didn't say chai tea.

Yes, Ari is famous, but there is no need to say her full name every time you're talking about her.

There is no parking downtown. Stop telling people there is.

With the amount of times they mention Bestia, which is a great restaurant, I hope someone somewhere got paid for the promo.

🎧 Thank you to NetGalley and Recorded Books

[Dab · Rating 3 out of 5]

Happy publication day!

A Hollywood sapphic love story with an insane amount of food as side characters! (I’m blaming you, Amy Spalding, for all the snacks I consumed while reading it, just fyi.)

Nina has been dumped in a pretty mean way three years ago and never really recovered. Her ex had made her think that she was some evil, toxic person who didn’t deserve to be happy and Nina had believed her. Not only she swore off dating, she also ghosted all her friends. And when she was busy keeping herself alone and miserable, Ari stormed into her life with boundless energy and much needed joy.

I loved Ari, she was confident, spontaneous and fun to be around. She also deserved better. Because Nina on the other hand…
Nina frustrated me to no end; first, her level of denial was truly astonishing. Girl!! You can’t be THAT blind?? She sends you gifts, ‘be at my place tonight’ texts, she is into you!!!

Next to being absolutely clueless Nina excelled at self sabotage. I guess if someone convinces you that you’re toxic you actually become toxic… So Nina had assumed things would eventually go to shit, they obviously did and she didn’t try to stop them.

I know I keep complaining about third act breakups, but this one was so bizarre. They didn’t even have a proper fight; mistakes were made on both sides, they discussed them in a three minutes phone call, and that was it, they just hung up and stopped talking.🤯 How is that even possible???

The whole story is told from Nina’s pov and I would have loved Ari’s pov too. Mostly because I think it would be more fun, but also because I didn’t really get what did she see in Nina. She somehow managed to see through Nina’s issues, which is really sweet, but also interesting and I was very curious about what was going on in her head.

I was not sure about the friends dynamics. They were supposedly like family but when Nina was grieving her previous relationship nobody reached out to her? There was a rumor she was dead? And nobody bothered to check if it was true? That’s really weird.

What I did like was that Nina’s issues were not assumed to be magically solved by having a girlfriend, and that she got therapy. That’s actually really refreshing; it always irks me when a girl who thought her whole life she was ugly and stupid believes the first boy who tells her otherwise.
I also liked that Nina’s bff was mad at her for ghosting them and expressed it.

All in all it was an okay read, 3.5 stars.

Thank you HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter and NetGalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Heather Adores Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐
Genre ~ contemporary romance
Series ~ Out in Hollywood, #1
Setting ~ California
Publication date ~ February 21, 2023
Est Page Count ~ 320
Audio length ~ 10 hours 45 minutes
Narrator ~ Sophie Amoss
POV ~ single 1st
Featuring ~ LGBT ~ lesbian, celebrity, curvy girl, found family, friends to lovers, some steamage

Nina & Ari
Nina is helping Ari, as part of her job, when they start to develop feelings for each other.

What I liked:
~ how Nina was curvy and proud
~ how Ari was out and proud
~ Nina's fun job ~ writing emails for celebrities
~ Aunt Lorna ~ she was a great side character and her and Nina's relationship was lovely

What was meh:
~ I wish Nina would have gotten over her breakup a lot quicker than she did ~ 3 years is a bit of a long time IMO
~ 3rd act breakup was for the birds
~ I would have liked dual POV, or at least a couple of chapters from Ari

Overall, I liked this one. I'd give this author a whirl again for sure.

I was fortune enough to receive a kindle and an audio copy to review.
Narration notes:
I was happy with her performance.

*Thanks to the author, Kensington, RB Media and NetGalley for the ARC. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review*

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[Jasmine Guillory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh I adored this book. It was joyful, thoughtful, real, and so swoony. I felt like I was friends with Nina, who was so relatable, I loved all of her friends, and I adored her romance with Ari. It was so body positive and full of friends and family and found family, and made me laugh out loud. I can’t wait for everyone to read it and fall in love with Nina and Ari!

[Dona's Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amy Spalding's FOR HER CONSIDERATION has a sweet, cute storyline about a physically invisible (you know the type; heck, I am the type!) and socially unavailable (I mean, she ghosted every friend she had!) Hollywood agent's assistant named Nina, who somehow hooks the romantic interest of a sexy starlet. (Hey, relationships, and narratives, can totally be preposterous if we believe in them enough!) I loved the progression of this romance, and the absurd timing of it--which turns out to make complete sense just before the ending.

The ending, speaking of which, surprised me. So much character growth revealed there for the main character Nina, whom I admit I didn't love at first. But I did love all the ways she shaped up through her experiences! Also, I appreciated that this romance features more than one adorable gay couple (one of whom illustrates the challenges of trying to adopt a baby) and all their loving, strong found family, including Lorna, Nina's aunt and perhaps primary motivation throughout the story.

I didn't like all the "oh's" and "of course's" because they slowed down the reading. By my rough estimate, there are 115 instances of the interjection, "Oh!" and 133 of the interjection "Of Course." Now, those are two very distracting linguistic quirks that need editing out. In general, the version of the book I read can definitely be trimmed. However I did like this book, especially the denouement. I'm a sucker for a happy ending 💗🥲

Thank you NetGalley, Amy Spalding, and Kensington Books for an ARC of FOR HER CONSIDERATION.

Rating 3.5 stars rounded up
Finished October 2022
Recommended to fans of contemporary romance, gay romance, HEA, Second Chance and You've Changed tropes, Hollywood romance

*Follow my Instagram book blog for all my reviews, challenges, and book lists! http://www.instagram.com/donasbooks *

[Anna Avian · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an okay read but unfortunately it failed to be anything more for me.
There were a lot of repetitive comments regarding Nina's weight and alleged "toxicity" which was something I found to be an inconsistent trait to describe her.
Another thing I wasn't able to fully grasp during the entire book was why would you ghost all your friends because of a breakup and moreover, why would they simply let you disappear without trying to talk, trying to figure out how to help, without knowing whether you're dead or alive for three years? It just doesn't make any sense while trying to push the "chosen family" trait. In my book, families stick with each other through thick and thin.
I honestly liked the secondary characters more than the two MC's whose descriptions were inconsistent as they later turned out to be different judging by their actions.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute enough.

I didn’t love the premise. It’s a Hollywood talent agent and an actor as our main protagonists. I think the author wanted to normalize and glamorize queer relationships, but I would’ve preferred the normal over the glamor with a more normal scenario to begin with. I also don’t love workplace romances because the line for what is and is not workplace sexual harassment is so thin.

Other than that, I loved Lorna. Everyone should have an aunt like her. I hope I’m very much like her with the kids in my life, and yes, when when they are grown with their own children, they’ll still be my kids.

Everyone should also have friends like Nina has. They are honest to your face, hold you up when you need TLC, check in on you when you’ve disappeared, and pull your head out of your derrière when you can’t do it yourself.

It’s the first in the series. Good enough that I might stick around for the second.

3.5

[Amy Spalding · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a biased review but I like this book so much.

[Mallory · Rating 4 out of 5]

This sweet rom-com was the story I needed this week. I really liked the characters Nina and Ari, although Nina did frustrate me when she decided to hide from everyone (and I didn’t really believe her friends would let her just disappear). I thought the start up to their relationship was a little weak, but as their relationship developed it became more and more realistic and hear warming. I also loved the queer representation. Nina came to LA to write television scripts but found a job and got comfortable ghost writing talent’s emails. Nina is great at writing the voice of the various talents which is why she is so upset when one of their stars, Ari Fox, asks for a meeting to discuss how to make the emails sound more like her. I think overall my favorite character was Lorna but every character was awesome and added to the story. Great found family, great friendships, great romance, and great cat being cat like.

[Sofija]

DNF at 55%. It's not good and it put me in a reading slump. I don't like the main character's voice, and I don't like romances with celebrities

[pipsqueakreviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

A celebrity romance.

I think this book is pretty decent. It's a celebrity romance and a rom com and I enjoyed it. The main character, Nina, works for a talent agency and manages celebrity email accounts including one for an actress called Ari. Ari is supposedly a control freak but I didn't find her difficult at all. In fact, I thought she was pretty pleasant in her interactions, whether they were with Nina or someone else. Nina, on the other hand, had layers to peel back and flaws she needed to work on. But whatever her insecurities were, I'm glad that her plus-sized figure wasn't one of them.

I like the romance that developed between Nina and Ari, didn't like it so much when Nina copped out of things but I so love Nina's friends.

I received an ARC from Kensington Books through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Jude Silberfeld-Grimaud · Rating 3 out of 5]

When her awful girlfriend broke up with her three years ago, she also took away whatever self-respect and confidence Nina Rice had to begin with. Convinced she only hurts the people she loves, Nina has become some sort of recluse, mostly working from home as an email ghostwriter for celebrities. One such email brings her back out of the suburbs and into L.A. where up-and-coming, out-and-proud actress Ari Fox proceeds to change her life.

It took about half the book for the story to really grab me but I found myself smiling and caring about what happened to the characters a lot more in the second half. Both MCs are sweet but I kept wanting to shake Nina and while Ari seems terrific, I never really got a full sense of who she is. The secondary characters save the book for me, from Nina’s aunt and her retirement community cronies to her group of friends and even her boss and boss’s assistant. Since the story is told from Nina’s POV, it makes sense that Ari’s entourage is more blurry but also explains why I didn’t feel the character as much.

I have the feeling that this book would have worked much better for me as an audiobook.

I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

Read all my reviews on my blog (and please buy from the affiliation links!): Jude in the Stars

[Melany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy crap! Nina is my absolute fave. The messy, fun bits of her remind me of a lot of my friends. Shes so relateable. Ari is such a dream! She treats Nina amazingly, even with the mishaps that happen. I absolutely LOVED Lorna, she's such a fun character plus with her age comed wisdom. I loved every bit about how this book played out. The author has such an amazing writing style, it just sucked me into the story with every word. I had to keep reading as I wanted to see how the book played out. And dang ol Steve, he's still a mystery. Lol (IYKYK)

I won this ARC from a Goodreads Giveaway. All of the statements above are my true opinions after fully reading this book.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars and rounding up because I’m a little disappointed with the overall rating for this.

“For Her Consideration” was a surprisingly good read for me and I really enjoyed it a lot. I say surprisingly only because I have never read anything by Amy Spalding before and it’s always hit or miss to read a new author. Thankfully, this was a very big hit and now I’ll definitely be on the look out for more sapphic romances from her.

I think one of my favorite things about this was Nina’s friend group. She’s got 5 close friends that do weekly brunches and I loved them all. I also loved how they all loved each other and were not shy about showing it. Found family is a real thing and it was highlighted so well here.

The romance was sweet and Ari was pretty fantastic. I loved that she came with some flaws, mostly how she likes to be in control, and wasn’t shown to be perfect despite that fact she’s a celebrity. This is also a single point of view. This doesn’t always work in romance for me but it worked for me this time. I never felt like we were missing out on much by not having Ari’s point of view.

While I did love this book, there were some frustrating moments. Nina is insecure because of a previous relationship, which I get and was very relatable. However, the fact that she took these comments from her ex and believed them so strongly just didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Her friend group knew her so well and for much longer than the ex did, and it seemed illogical that she wouldn’t have gone to them with the toxic comments. And then she responds the same way later on after a disagreement with Ari.

Also, I wish I had an Aunt Lorna in my life, she was a true gem.

I received and ARC from Kensington Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Anniek · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me ages to read this, and while I did enjoy aspects of it, I kept waiting to start actually enjoying it. The narration is just very slow, which is usually not my favourite in a romance book. It was funny at times, but other times I found the humour decidedly unfunny. Not in a harmful way, just in a way that didn't work for me. But especially I couldn't always follow along with the characterization of the characters. For most of the book, every time it started to feel like there would be a conflict, it would quickly be glossed over. And then the third act breakup felt completely blown out of proportion. Another example is that we keep being told that Ari is a very difficult client and a very difficult person, but we're never actually shown why. She was always perfectly lovely and reasonable. But most importantly, Nina has her struggles that stem from the way her ex broke up with her and what she told her then, and those things hit her so hard that she alienated herself from her friends for years. This is explored more towards the end of the book, and I was glad for it, but I felt like it would have made sense to delve into it more throughout the book as well.

[Kexx · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely book, worth all the hype (which nearly put me off.) Lovely description of how friends look after each other, with Hollywood glamour thrown in. Recommended.

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nina Rice has spent the last 3 years ghost writing celebrity emails for a talent agency. Back in the day she had been consumed with trying to be a screen writer. Her time management skills lacking (among other things) she was dumped by her girlfriend and dropped by mutual friends.....or so she assumed. She works from home and fiddles around with a screen-play sometimes.
Ari Fox is an up and coming celeb on the radar as someone to watch. Out and proud, Ari wants to ensure that any media drops containing her name are authentic. When the two women meet we are set off in a romance with humor, food - which made me hungry and doses of social media!
I liked that Spalding wrote Nina as a flawed but curvaceous woman comfortable with her plus-size. Ari pulls her out of her comfort zone. She begins to enjoy old friendships once again after misunderstanding are cleared up. Lorna was a stand out in the side cast - all nicely fleshed out. I hoped that Nina would finish her screen play since that would tie up the storyline nicely. A bit of angst then we have a happy ending.
This is my first read of the author's work and I look forward to more from her.

I rec'd a copy through NetGalley/Kensington Books. My review is unbiased.

[Meg ✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

i really, truly, do not care that much about california.

[Bookish Thais💌 · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐

Thank you so much for NetGalley, the publisher, the author any anyone else who provided me with an ARC of this AMAZING book!

After a break up with her ex- girlfriend, Nina hasn't officially dated anyone in 3 years, being focused on her job with writing emails for celebrities. One day after years of not getting one, she receives a complaint from non other than Ari Fox, the newly rising queer celebrity who Nina admires. Nina is sure that she'll be fired by her boss but Ari requests for Nina to got out with her sometimes to get used to how Ari speaks and talks for Nina's emails to sound more like Ari and a bit less professional. Nina knows that her and Ari have no chance with Ari being a celebrity but that doesn't mean they can't be very very close friends.

✔W/W
✔Celebrity m/c
✔Found Family

The Plot
I do have to say that I listened to this book as an audiobook and I am proud of myself since it was my first ever audiobook and was worried that I wouldn't get into it but I so DID! I loved Nina's job because it was so original and I don't think I've ever heard about a book with something similar to it! I enjoyed how it wasn't a full on insta-love and how they had their build up. The re- found family in this was just *chefs kiss*👩‍🍳👌

I liked how Nina got her closure on many things in the book with the help of her family and friends and how she went out of her comfort zone to chase her dreams independently.

The Characters
Ari
I really liked Ari in the book! She was very confidant, and was super nice and respectable from the bat. I too, did question some of her decisions in the book, but I also saw were she was coming from as an observer. I loved how she too found a family in the book. Her character was very likeable in my opinion. She was also really funny and I just liked her overall. I do want an extended epilogue to see her cat because that piece of the story was hilarious out of all things!

Nina
I felt really close to Nina in this book! It's very rare for me to feel a connection to a main character when I have almost nothing in common with them but I felt like the author wrote her in such a way that was so so well and I really enjoyed it when it was her POV. I adored her confidence as a fat woman and how she didn't really care that much on the public opinion. Again, I loved how she went after her dream and chose something to make herself happy.

Side Notes
I really enjoyed the narrator of this audio book and will definitely try to listen to more books with her as the narrator. Usually I don't really think about buying an ARC which I read because they don't really reach out to me at most times but I definitely want to buy this book as a physical copy in the foreseeable future.

Me when they even glanced at each other:


Me when Taylor gets talked about:


Anyways that's it lovelies xxx

[Mira · Rating 1 out of 5]

I . . . really, really disliked this.

This book starts off with the main character, Nina, getting distracted while driving and hitting a bicyclist. She doesn't get more likable from there.

Nina is a mess. She's over thirty years old, but she acts like a teenager. She spends about half the book thinking and talking about how "queer" she is, and wondering if she looks "queer" enough, and noticing how "queer" other people are. The author was probably going for a "quirky" vibe, but she ends up hitting more "obnoxious and unstable."

The love interest, Ari, was very flat. She had potential, but she spends the book having very little personality aside from being attracted to Nina. She's supposedly a famous actress (part of what drew me to this book), but her fame plays absolutely no role whatsoever. She's also obsessed with getting Nina to publish her screenplay, which was a very strange, forced plot point that only served to ruin her character even more.

I don't know if the sex scenes were good, because there was so little chemistry between the two characters that I couldn't bring myself to read them.

Are you a fan of the word "queer"? Because if so, perhaps the delight of getting to read it on every single page will distract you from the fact that this should have been a YA book.

Oh, and don't get me started on the scene in this book where Ari takes Nina to an event for "Women in Television," then proceeds to tell her that hearing the word "women" is outdated, and that it should have been for people of "all marginalized genders." Hear that, women? You are outdated. Move aside, it's time for a marginalized penis owner to speak.

Or how about the scene where Nina ponders how "pornographic" it is to eat a popsicle. Sorry, why is a "queer" woman sexualizing the eating of a somewhat-phallic-shaped object? That doesn't seem very "queer" to me.

My favorite character in this entire book was the ex-girlfriend who broke up with Nina.

[Literally Lesia · Rating 3 out of 5]

1) very boring and nothing new 2) I didn’t believe in this relationship and the fact that such a gorgeous woman like Ari could fall for Nina - the dumbest heroine I’ve read about in months - is just ridiculous. Sorry, but everything about her actions was extremely annoying. She knew she’d been making mistakes and she kept making them. Ghosting her friends because of break up? Very mature of her… On the positive side we have great Hollywood atmosphere, so, if you enjoy reading books set in LA you will definitely like it.

I think I understand where the problem is. This book is lacking Ari’s POV, because this character isn’t developed and seems very blurry to me. Everyone says she’s bad and difficult, however, she’s not, we’ve never seen her “difficult”.

[z · Rating 1 out of 5]

— one and a half stars
—dnf @ 73% but i’m counting it because i deserve it

just gutterbutt. let me elaborate:
• i think it could’ve been better if it was labeled as women’s lit where i could then understand it better since the romance came too easily. my biggest qualm with the book is it was too much detail (if i have to see the words laughed and giggled again…), and not enough story which made it really sad to read because there are glimpses of good within the book!
• i just couldn’t believe these people were falling for one another. during the beginning and even the middle, i was 100% on board with them being a couple who will make it, but once it got to real conflict and how easy it was resolved (by nothing) i lost all faith in the relationship and knew that i was reading a romance of a couple that would not last.
• FHC made me realize i heavily dislike books that have lesbian characters and fail to call them lesbians. i understand if finding their identities was apart of the plot, but numerous lesbian characters (at least by how they’ve described their sexualities) and all i saw was the word queer as if the author is afraid of the word.
• speaking of queerness, it did bother how much they author somewhat wanted the FMC to be.. lesser than… for lack of a better phrase? i understand that she is fat and queer, but as a femme-presenting, well-off white woman, reading her constantly complaining (not that they’re invalid) did make me roll my eyes.

[Monica Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

I absolutely HATE romance books that have no real issue but create drama just because *THERE HAS TO BE SOME.*

No, there is no need for useless drama. But the third act breakup *had* to happen. So, there you go, the most useless breakup that could've been fixed with a calm, face-to-face conversation. I get why that might be in typical heterosexual romance, but seriously, here? Useless.

Nina might be relatable at times, but she's not a likable character. She often ditches her friends just because she feels like she might become too selfish by... being selfish. It takes forever to actually see some sort of character growth and, out of a sudden, she is all changed by the end of the epilogue. She was frustrating, always talking about how much she clicked with her friends, yet she only confided in them almost at the end of the book. And ghosted them all the time.

Her friends were amazing, but they also never thought to check in on her for three years? Like what?

Ari, on the other hand, is confident, funny, doesn't seem to take herself seriously, is caring, and great. I liked her. And Aunt Lorna was so awesome and badass and cool.

I think this book is okay, but it pains me, because it could've been awesome. Also, it's a bit too long, but quite easy to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing a free arc in exchange for an honest review!

[Literally Booked Johanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

4🌟🌟🌟🌟
Book 16/100
Genre: Romance/Contemporary Fiction
🎧ARC🎧

✨This was such a great read and made you relate to Nina and want to comfort her at the same time. Witty story about our girl’s self-discovering journey. Love a book based on a confident “gordita” but my girl had other issues (lack of self-worth) and weight wasn’t the stem of it. She self-doubted herself so much as many of us do and was afraid to be happy after her ex told her things she feared were true. Her friends were so lovable as well, and I cheered for her and Ari through it all. Los Angeles setting and all that food added sprinkles to the cake! The narration by to this was just perfect! Great Book Amy Spaulding🫶🏻🙌🏻 Truly enjoyed this one and to my LGBT friends & family this one is for you🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🫶🏻

Thank you NetGalley, Harper Collins, and RB Media for this ARC 🎧
Publishing Date: 02/21/2023

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe it's my biased love for Los Angeles (the city and the county) and the fact that I'm in the middle of a Canadian winter, but For Her Consideration was that warm comforting hug I sometimes crave. Do you know what I mean? You know that friend who just gives the best hugs (for those of you who like hugs)? That's this book. This book was the best of all hugs. I don't care if that's weird. That's how it felt.

What I liked so much about this novel is it felt fresh. Romance is stupidly predictable, and Amy Spalding's story follows the typical romance arc, but what felt different is everything else. This is story set in Los Angeles where both characters work in the TV/film industry, one of whom is an up and coming actor on cusp of critical success (she's the front runner for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar). I've read that book many times--I've already read that book this year. But this is different. Ari is out--she's been out since the beginning of her career. Nina is fat and she embraces it. She likes how she looks/knows she's attractive. She's had hot girlfriends. She's attracting Ari, who could have any queer woman she wants, given her celebrity. It takes place in Los Angeles, but it takes us away (for the most part) from the glitz and glamor of West LA, which is what everyone thinks of when they think of LA. Spalding, instead, takes us to the "grittier" side of LA: Silver Lake, Echo Park, Highland Park, and even the northern suburbs--places that are amazing and remind me of home, places Spalding herself clearly loves.

The dialogue is funny and authentic. Ari's "Nina Rice" hit the right notes every time. The characters (including the supporting characters) were diverse and had distinct voices and personalities. The main characters had incredible chemistry from go, but neither was perfect. They were a little f*cked up in their own ways and both needed to sort that stuff out.

What weighs this book down a little on the enjoyment scale is Nina's propensity to run when things get hard, abandoning everyone except for her great aunt Lorna when things get to be too much. She's insecure and we know the reason why she's insecure early on but instead of opening up about the trauma (and the mental and emotional abuse, quite frankly), Nina holds it in. And that's real. I get that. But Nina has people in her life who show her again and again that they love her and they're there for her. So as in all romance, you're waiting for this inability to communicate to come to a head and it does. And even if it's real/understandable/true to life, it still felt tired in its way.

The other thing that bothered is me the amount of drinking-and-driving on display. This is LA and, while Lyft rides are prominent in the novel, there's a lot of driving that the characters have to do, especially given where Nina lives (on the upper edges of the county). None of it felt responsible. Sure, Spalding tries to explain it away--a walk to sober up before driving, e.g., but I call bullish!t. It just felt a little irresponsible to me and I wasn't into it.

But, overall, this was wonderful. And it was exactly what I needed, given my recent reading slump.

[Angela Y (yangelareads) ♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since a crushing breakup three years ago, Nina Rice has written romance, friends, her dreams of scriptwriting for TV, and even LA proper out of her life. Instead, she is safely out in the suburbs in her aunt’s condo working her talent agency job from home, managing celebrity email accounts, and certain that is plenty of writing—and plot—for her life. But a surprise meeting called by Ari Fox, a young actress on everyone’s radar, stirs up all kinds of feelings Nina thought she would delete for good.

Ari is sexy, out and proud, and a serious control freak, according to Nina’s boss. She has her own ideas about how Nina should handle her emails—and about getting to know her ghostwriter. When she tells Nina she should be writing again, Nina suddenly finds it less scary to revisit her abandoned life than seriously consider that Ari is flirting with her. Between reconnecting with her old crew and working on a new script, a relationship with a movie star seems like something she will definitely mess up—but what could be more worth the risk?

This book was so boring that I am unsure why I even pushed through to finish. I was honestly hoping it will get better, but it did not. I always appreciate sapphic romances, but this one was not it. I think one of the main issues for me was that this book was only written in Nina's POV, which would of not been an issue if Nina did not internalize everything. Nina’s brain was just confusing with the way she thought, but I just tried to move past it. I do get that every generation in some way needs therapy, but with only her POV, it did not help me with caring about her relationship with Ari. Nina also often ditches her friends just because she feels like she might become too selfish, but that is also kinda selfish. There was also no character growth until the epilogue. How can a person just change out of the blue? I honestly wished I loved this one more, but sadly I did not. I do own the other two books in the series, so I will probably read it eventually. I just would not be reading the other two anytime soon.

Rating: 2.5/5

[Angelina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book––it’s a famous/non-famous romcom! it’s gay! there’s a huge emphasis on found family!––but For Her Consideration didn’t quite work for me. The main culprit: the story’s inconsistent pacing. The narrative drags, the prose is often repetitive, and Spalding rushes through or skips over scenes that feel necessary to the plot. Basically, there’s a lack of tension on the page, which prevents the author from building momentum (on a macro/story level) and from creating that ~spark~ AKA chemistry between the MCs (on a micro/scene level). A dual POV structure would likely be effective here––alternating between Nina and Ari’s voices would liven up the prose, and it would give the reader more insight into Ari’s fears & motivations, since we only ever get to be inside Nina’s head.

This was my first Amy Spalding novel, so I’m totally open to trying her out again. ATTN Spalding hive: let me know if I should check out any specific book from her catalogue!

Thank you Netgalley for the access to this ARC!

[Gretchen Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mean, a romance where a Kristen Stewart-ish stand-in falls in love with a screenwriter might as well be made for me. I'm happy to report that Amy Spadling's first adult romance deserves an Oscar...if they gave Oscars to books.

[mila · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

This novel had in its premise everything I could want in a queer romance, and it fell really short for me. Perhaps I had my expectations set too high, maybe I was expecting something different, but I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as I expected to. All that to say, I don't think this was a bad book, I'm sure it's going to work for a lot of people, I just am not one of them.

For Her Consideration follows Nina Rice, an aspiring scriptwriter for TV, while she more or less squanders her dreams and talents ghostwriting emails for famous people. After a bad breakup with her girlfriend Taylor three years ago (in which she got a 12-point list detailing which of her personality traits led to her being dumped) Nina ghosted her friends, and her old life, and is living alone in the suburbs of LA, her only true friend being her aunt. Her job leads her to meeting Ari Fox, a young queer actress breaking through in Hollywood, and with their interactions more frequent, it seems Nina has a hard time continuing to live the way she has.

So, to start off I will say that I went into this novel very excited to read it, but prologue itself already had me more annoyed than I would've liked. Nina is in her car, obsessing over the 12-point list of her flaws, one of which is being late and having no respect for other people's time. She is running late to meet the person who wrote said list, and in her wish to not be late she almost runs over a guy on his bike (she and Taylor break up anyway, so she almost killed this man for nothing). Following that we learn that she lives pretty much secluded, save communication with her boss and Thursday lunches she has with her aunt. Every time she speaks in the first few chapters she just has to say something "quirky" and self-deprecating. It is giving this air of trying way too hard for her to come off relatable and funny and different, but it really didn't come off that way (in my opinion). She doesn't really recover from this during this novel, though (or she does but simply not enough and definitely not fast enough).

When reading a novel like this, I think readers' enjoyment hinges so much on how much they enjoy the characters, and that was this book's biggest downfall in my eyes - I found Nina Rice as a lacklustre protagonist. While in theory, she should've been very relatable to me, on paper we share a lot of traits, something about her, the way she talks maybe, was really pushing me away and making me not want to even finish this novel. As in in the first few chapters, she kept repeating phrases like "if people still do xyz" trying to emphasise how far removed from life she had become, but it was doing nothing to make her relatable and her motives understood, and more so was it making her annoying. She also had these little quirky quips, like saying she doesn't want still or sparkling water because she's gonna spill it on herself anyways? Like I get it, you're clumsy, but this is a stranger, you could've just said "I'm good, thanks".

It seems I have far more qualms with this novel than positive things, and while that is true, I still don't think this was a bad novel, just not for me. There were certainly bright moments, Nina and Ari's relationship had a lot of cute moments, Nina's friends were sweet and supportive and Nina's aunt Lorna was such a blast (I would love a book about her and her friends and their adventures). The slice-of-life moments throughout the book really were what kept me going reading this, and I highly enjoyed moments when Nina could stop self-sabotaging because the plot actually had substance then, and not just her going on about whatever in her head. I did enjoy different body types being represented, and how Nina actually liked her own body.

I also enjoyed what seemed to be character growth by the end of the novel from Nina's point, it was much needed and also did help my overall feelings on the book. We follow the novel from Nina's perspective only, and I think this was to the detriment of the novel. Ari was a fun character and being an opposite to Nina, dual POV would have added a good balance to the novel and made it more enjoyable. This way, we only got to seem glimpses of Ari, and I think it was also a disservice to her as a character.

Now, unfortunately, I go back to things I didn't enjoy as much. Nina's friend group was super enjoyable to read about, however, I was actually quite perplexed and upset that they just weren't friends for the entirety of those three years. I understand Nina's perspective (though I do not agree with it), but the friends? How is it, that for three entire years no one tried reaching out? What kind of friends are you guys? And it is only brought up a handful of times, not explored fully, and while it's fair that her friends feel slighted about being ghosted, none of them even attempted communication.

To continue on that note, the entire third-act-breakup arc was so incredibly unnecessary! This whole thing could've been solved so fast, with one conversation, especially as both sides were in the wrong. They both crossed boundaries, but they could've talked it out for sure. They had a very brief phone call that resulted in said breakup and I was in disbelief. They didn't even talk about it properly. It was "you did x wrong, so I did y wrong, end of call (and relationship)". On top of that, Nina spend the entire book SO worried that Taylor was right in her list of flaws, that she made it so Taylor was right. Even if nothing was true at the moment Taylor wrote it, Nina was so hellbent on thinking everything would go up in flames, that it would simply because of this fear of hers (tbf I do think there was probably some truth in what Taylor said, even though I think it was an asshole move on her end as well).

All in all, I think that for every thing I liked about the novel, there were about three I disliked. This is, again, just my opinion, and the book reads quite fast, so if you are interested in it, don't let my review deter you!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review!