Olivia Fitzgerald is down on her luck. Sales from her latest book are embarrassing, and her ideas for a new project aren’t that great. She needs a revival. She needs a revolution. Perhaps, all of these things will come with the new gig she accepts in Malibu. Jillian Cantor seeks to tell the story of creative writers everywhere in her book, The Fiction Writer.Â
A $50,000 gig and a billionaire
The stars of the story are Olivia and her billionaire employer, Ash Asherwood. As the heir of an extremely popular department store chain, Ash has the world at his fingertips. He allegedly falls in love with Olivia’s writing after reading her book, Becky, which received negative reviews from the masses.
Ash wants Olivia to write about his grandmother whom he believes was cheated out of a great life as a writer. The billionaire offers the struggling creative $50,000 to uncover and reveal the truth. Olivia, however, ultimately learns that not everything is clear-cut in the Asherwood world.
The pace
This book is intriguing because of the setting and characters. Malibu is mysterious. Ash is an heir who can make anything disappear. The excerpts from The Wife, the book within the book, adds to the suspense. Cantor, however, drags on to the degree of creating a storyline that turns sour.
It becomes difficult to care whether or not Ash is a murderer when the reader has been forced to wait so long for something that remotely looks like action to occur. In fact, it becomes difficult to care about anything, including Olivia and Noah’s love story that unfolds near the end, when the plot drags on with nothing to really keep the reader’s attention.
Not for the adventurous
Those looking for a book that captivates them from start to finish may want to search beyond The Fiction Writer by Jillian Cantor. Such individuals may indeed find themselves willing for nothing more than the end of the story. On the other hand, those who enjoy slow burns and mysteries with little action to the plot may fall in love with the world Cantor presents.Â