Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Jane Austen and murder

The Austen Playbook by Lucy Parker

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I discovered Lucy Parker’s romance novels through Cannonball reviews. They have all been set in the West End theater district in London. I loved the relationships, the stories, and the inside look at the actors’ work and lives, so Parker has become a must-read for me. I was pretty slow in realizing that Parker had a new book, The Austen Playbook (2019). It was published way back in April, which is why it took me until December to read it. Unfortunately, I think these last two books […]

Lucy Parker writes another keeper

Headliners by Lucy Parker

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Disclaimer! I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, but this has in no way influenced my review.  While this works fine as a standalone contemporary romance, both characters and some of the events that complicate their relationship early on are introduced in The Austen Playbook, which I can also heartily recommend. Official book description: He might be the sexiest man in London, according to his fan site (which he definitely writes himself), but he’s also the most arrogant man she’s ever met. She might have […]

“We’re all a hundred different things at once. A different person to everyone who knows us.”

The Austen Playbook (London Celebrities #4) by Lucy Parker

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Lucy Parker is an auto buy author for me, one of very few. The stories she is telling in her London Celebrities series use the extravagant backdrops of theatre, television, and movies to tell small scale, human love stories. I am an unabashed fan of Romance books – I am here for the guaranteed happy ending – and Parker is perhaps the most reliable author I’m reading right now. There is a lot of plot packed into this one. We meet Frederica “Freddy” Carlton and […]

As I’ve Said. Born Romantic.

Headliners by Lucy Parker

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Lucy Parker’s London Celebrity series has been one of my favorite romance series of the past few years. In general, they have been loosely connected, with characters from previous books showing up in later books. However, until Headliners, they have been stand alone books. In order to understand an important division between the MCs in Headliners you will need to have read The Austen Playbook. I will do my best to avoid spoilers, but you can assume that Freddy and Griff have ended up happily together. Near […]

Choose Your Own Austin Adventure

The Austen Playbook by Lucy Parker

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Lucy Parker’s London Celebrities series has been consistently good but the one right before this was not quite as fun as the others since it explored a character dealing with recovering after an emotionally abusive and manipulative relationship.  The Austen Playbook is back to being a lighter, fun romance that I really enjoyed. It even involves past family drama! Freddy Carlton is a theatrical actress, part of a family of performers.  Her grandmother was renowned as an actress and playwright, with one play specifically being […]

I read this book three months ago. It was great!

The Austen Playbook (London Celebrities, #4) by Lucy Parker

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This was almost a five star read for me. I’ve been trying to catch up on my enormous backlog of reviews, and when I picked this up to give myself a refresher (it’s been almost three months since I finished it), I ended up sort of revisiting it for a couple of hours. You know, not a full re-read, but just sort of lovingly scrolling through it and re-reading favorite bits. But for some reason I still can’t quite bring myself to give it the […]



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