Melissa Ferguson

She's been muddling his plans for years---now he's the writer for the beloved character she plays on television, and it's time for payback.

How to Plot a Payback

🦇 How to Plot a Payback Book Review 🦇

❓ #QOTD What's your favorite sitcom? ❓

🦇 Even after adjusting career paths and crossing an ocean, screenwriter Finn Masters just can't manage to escape his childhood nemesis. Now he has to work with her on the set of Neighbors, one of Hollywood's longest-running, highest-rated sitcoms. Shining star Lavender Rhodes is completely unaware that she ruined his relationship and destroyed his acting career, though there is something about Finn that keeps pulling her into his orbit. As Finn plots his payback, will he recognize why Lavender is so universally adored...and even fall a little himself?

💜 Melissa Ferguson's prose is sharp, witty, playful, and engaging all in one go. Once you fall into the story, there's no getting out until the end. What seems like a fun little romcom is actually brimming with important messages. As his plot to get payback fails over and OVER, Finn starts to see Lavender in a new light. This story is a prime example of how someone can play the villain in our stories, only for us to appear as a background character. The ending (pre-epilogue) was brilliant and sweet; proof of how much Finn has learned about Lavender once he truly got dragged into her orbit. 

💙 While this is a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance, we don't actually FEEL the emotions bubble and boil over. It's difficult to develop any emotional connection with either main character. Maybe seeing every moment Lavender unintentionally ruined Finn's life as a flashback, instead of as a brief account from Finn, would have added that emotional depth. While this was a slow burn, the actual falling is so sudden that it feels out of place, only for readers to get whisked into a happily-ever-after epilogue. My biggest problem (you've heard this before) was everything related to the sitcom. My gf works in film and the inaccuracies pulled me out of the story every time (no set can survive with so FEW PAs). 

🦇 Recommended for fans of Falon Ballard and Ava Wilder.

🦇 Major thanks to the author and publisher for providing an ARC of this book via Netgalley. 🥰 This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

❝ Still, that’s how a story grows: from mistakes that cause consequences that cause realizations. And from digging out of holes. ❞

❝ Because people can admire the sketch of a perfect person on paper, but they relate to, they love, they hate, they weep for, they root for three-dimensional people with both virtues and vices who grow out of the page. Ashley Krane was too perfect. She needed to become alive. ❞

❝ She’s so good at ruining my life that of course I should’ve suspected she could ruin my payback. ❞

❝ “Here’s the thing, Lavender. If there’s one thing I’ve learned of late, it’s that dreams can shift, can change. They grow and evolve into new and different dreams— sometimes fashioned by outside forces, sometimes by change of heart. I’ve learned, from you actually, how my dreams could change due to external forces. And it’s not a bad thing. But this time, it’s a mix. I saw an opportunity, and I reached for it. Sure, I’m going back to a detective series. But I’d do it again in a minute. Because you are my bigger dream now. I don’t care what I’m writing, so long as I get to share my days with you.” ❞

Jazelle H

🦇 How to Plot a Payback Book Review 🦇

❓ #QOTD What's your favorite sitcom? ❓
 
🦇 Even after adjusting career paths and crossing an ocean, screenwriter Finn Masters just can't manage to escape his childhood nemesis. Now he has to work with her on the set of Neighbors, one of Hollywood's longest-running, highest-rated sitcoms. Shining star Lavender Rhodes is completely unaware that she ruined his relationship and destroyed his acting career, though there is something about Finn that keeps pulling her into his orbit. As Finn plots his payback, will he recognize why Lavender is so universally adored...and even fall a little himself?

💜 Melissa Ferguson's prose is sharp, witty, playful, and engaging all in one go. Once you fall into the story, there's no getting out until the end. What seems like a fun little romcom is actually brimming with important messages. As his plot to get payback fails over and OVER, Finn starts to see Lavender in a new light. This story is a prime example of how someone can play the villain in our stories, only for us to appear as a background character. The ending (pre-epilogue) was brilliant and sweet; proof of how much Finn has learned about Lavender once he truly got dragged into her orbit. 

💙 While this is a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance, we don't actually FEEL the emotions bubble and boil over. It's difficult to develop any emotional connection with either main character. Maybe seeing every moment Lavender unintentionally ruined Finn's life as a flashback, instead of as a brief account from Finn, would have added that emotional depth. While this was a slow burn, the actual falling is so sudden that it feels out of place, only for readers to get whisked into a happily-ever-after epilogue. My biggest problem (you've heard this before) was everything related to the sitcom. My gf works in film and the inaccuracies pulled me out of the story every time (no set can survive with so FEW PAs). 

🦇 Recommended for fans of Falon Ballard and Ava Wilder.

✨ The Vibes ✨
🎬 (One-Sided) Enemies to Lovers
⭐️ Hollywood/Workplace Romance
🎬 Forced Proximity
⭐️ Slowburn
🎬 Grumpy/Sunshine
⭐️ Hijinks

🦇 Major thanks to the author and publisher for providing an ARC of this book via Netgalley. 🥰 This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

💬 Quotes 
❝ Still, that’s how a story grows: from mistakes that cause consequences that cause realizations. And from digging out of holes. ❞
❝ Because people can admire the sketch of a perfect person on paper, but they relate to, they love, they hate, they weep for, they root for three-dimensional people with both virtues and vices who grow out of the page. Ashley Krane was too perfect. She needed to become alive. ❞
❝ She’s so good at ruining my life that of course I should’ve suspected she could ruin my payback. ❞
❝ “Here’s the thing, Lavender. If there’s one thing I’ve learned of late, it’s that dreams can shift, can change. They grow and evolve into new and different dreams— sometimes fashioned by outside forces, sometimes by change of heart. I’ve learned, from you actually, how my dreams could change due to external forces. And it’s not a bad thing. But this time, it’s a mix. I saw an opportunity, and I reached for it. Sure, I’m going back to a detective series. But I’d do it again in a minute. Because you are my bigger dream now. I don’t care what I’m writing, so long as I get to share my days with you.” ❞

How to Plot a Payback

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