A workplace romance that somehow manages to sidestep all the icky problems that can arise and instead gives us a lovely friends to lovers story spanning years of building respect and community and supporting each other?! Will wonders never cease.
Plot: Maria is huge in Sweden and curious about the professional challenge of becoming huge in Hollywood as well. Peter has been doing Fat Guy roles for two decades and is desperate for a chance to shine as a leading man. Neither knows of the other when they hit it off in a bar and have a spectacular one night stand which ends with her awkwardly sneaking out and him intensely resenting her. That would have been the end of that if not for them being cast as the leads in a Game of Thrones type show, where they would be filming their blossoming love affair on a deserted island several months every year the show is renewed. Time to figure out how to become, if not friends, at least amiable colleagues? Shenanigans ensue.
Dade is hit and miss for me, but this is a hard hit. She manages to balance a lot of balls in the air. She not only creates fully realized characters, but allows every facet of them to breath life into the story. They are both highly intelligent, thoughtful people, but they come from entirely different worlds and world views. It takes them a while to understand each other, and then a while longer to learn from one another. Through it all though, they appreciate the other person. They see each other’s strengths, their ambitions, and do what they can to support them, even before they truly warm up to each other.
The supporting characters too feel like real people. Though we don’t spend a ton of time with them (part of the forced proximity of Maria and Peter’s situation is that they are supposed to be trapped on a deserted island alone), they still feel like real characters with real motivations and personalities.
The book is at times quite funny, at times very dark look at the stories we tell ourselves, and the hard work of unlearning behaviours that don’t serve us anymore. It urges us to be brave, hopeful, and kind. A message for the times indeed.