Monsters: A Love Story by Liz Kay

 

Stacy Lane is in a hard place in her life.  Her husband has been killed in a car accident recently, and although he left her and her two young sons financially independent, money doesn't make the grieving go away.  Stacy had moved to Nebraska with her husband's job and is now living there without him and finds that her feminist, poet personality doesn't always jibe with those of her neighbors.  Her sister lives there and is her main social outlet.  Mainly, she endures life, making sure she does what she can to ease her son's grief and maintaining their lives.

Then something amazing happens.  Her agent calls and says an option for a movie has been put on her most recent book of poetry.  Stacy is astonished and even more when she finds out that it has been optioned by Tommy DeMarco.  A perennial favorite on the Most Sexy Man Alive lists, she had never thought of Tommy DeMarco as someone who would be a fan of her poetry.  He is mostly known for dating copious amounts of women, never sticking with one for more than a few weeks.  But optioned the book has been and the company wants her to fly out to get the process of turning her poems into a movie started.

Thus starts two years of making a movie, through fights about the movie's directions, meeting the producer, fighting with the rewrite man, making friendships with the cast.  Then there's Tommy.  Stacy starts sleeping with him early on, but they both agree it is nothing more than the sex which is only on the occasional trips Stacy takes to work on the film.  Tommy is still out there with other women all the time while Stacy starts to date a doctor and think about her future.  Yet, Stacy forms a close relationship with Tommy's daughter and he does the same with her two sons.  Each calls the other whenever they need to talk about something in their lives.  The attraction and chemistry are overwhelming.  Can it ever go anywhere?

Liz Kay has written a book that many won't like.  Stacy is sarcastic and full of profanity.  Tommy is charming but not someone you wouldn't ever expect loyalty from.  Their constant stops and starts along with their behavior towards each other and those around them is often appalling.  Yet somewhere along the way, the reader realizes that they are pulling for this relationship to thrive and survive.  This book is recommended for readers of women's fiction.