Reel (Hollywood Renaissance, 1)

Neevah, a Broadway actress, gets cast in a Harlen Renaissance movie by Canon Holt, a hot-shot, famous director. The attraction they have for one another is intense. Though they don’t want their work life to interfere, the couple fall madly in love & their passionate affair begins. When Neevah becomes sick & wants to push Canon away, he isn’t going for that. Their love triumphs over illness & gives an example of true love.

LOVED this book. The character development was perfect and just when I thought I knew what was going to happen Kennedy switched It up on me!

This was a great book to start off 2026 with. I have seen this title pop up multiple times on my for you page, and Kennedy Ryan didn’t disappoint. The book follows three characters; Neevah Saint, Desi Blue, and Cannon Holt. For the most part it focuses on the two main female leads. Ryan does a great job intertwining the two women, even though they are years apart. Even though Desi is a fictional character her life depicts the lives of women like Billie Holiday and Ma Rainey, who had to deal with racism and being treated as a second class citizen. I also loved how she shed lite on how many prominent figures from the Harlem Renaissance fled to Europe for better equality and living conditions. I found myself really rooting for Neevah’s character, and I was very pleased with the ending. Ryan did a great job going deep in her feelings about her not really having family, and trying to reach her dreams of staring on broadway all while dealing with her health issues. Even though Cannon was not as big as the other two leads his past and present was very impactful as well. Sharing his backstory and showing how his only two loves were his mother(who passed from MS) and film. Also the book was able to show the behind the scenes politics in the movie industry. I listened to the audiobook and it was great, the voice actors were super talented, I was most familiar with Jakobi Diem. The audiobook also has actually singing in it also. I am looking forward to listen to “The Close-up”, Takira was a cool secondary character to me. I’ve already added “Score” to my wishlist lol because I definitely need to learn the full story on Monk and Verity.

It was a good romance book

This one surprised me! Kennedy Ryan never disappoints.