Name: Haley Murray's review of Breaking Character by Lee Winter
Item: Breaking Character
Rating: 4
Author: Haley Murray

Lee Winter

Life becomes a farcical mess when icy British A-lister Elizabeth and bright LA star Summer try to persuade an eccentric director they're in love to win Elizabeth her dream role. A lesbian celebrity romance about gaining love, losing masks, and trying to stick to the script.

Breaking Character

Haley Murray

Kendall McClain

Love the characters and their story is super cute! Although I think it was a bit drawn out, they had their first honest convo about what they felt 90% into the book and the ending just felt a bit rushed considering how long the build up was! But I do love a good lesbian actress romance, Elizabeth was giving Evelyn Hugo

the writing is okay, enjoyed reading and found myself gasping at some scenes. we need more older women love stories!!!

ayoni

grace richards

** spoiler alert **
           3.5,, i really wish we’d seen more of summer and elizabeth’s actual relationship once they’d gotten together

Izza

Renee

This story is serendipitous for me. The essay portion of a college entrance exam I took a few years ago required me to defend my position concerning celebrities’ right to privacy. I opposed the idea at the time believing celebrities know the consequences beforehand when it comes to the demands of the omnipresent public eye. Fortunately, that was then, this is now, and I am comfortably aboard the proverbial “hindsight is 20/20” vessel. 
  
Moving on, after reading the blurb, I was expecting the story to be a combination of a lion vs. lion tamer plot with a fake-it-‘til-they-make-it romantic tale. However, without giving too much away, Breaking Character pleasantly strays from Lee’s previous de-icing the ice queen stories. Lee is my favorite author as in tipping the scale towards “Author Crush” favorite. Therefore, I will try to keep the rest of my review as unbiased as possible. 😉 
  
The main characters, Summer Hayes and Elizabeth Thornton, first meet on two separate occasions, British fate for Summer and American consequence for Elizabeth. Summer is somewhat an anomaly. She deviates from the typical Hollywoodian persona and is genuine to the bone. Summer’s bubbly, free-spirited personality is just the catalyst Elizabeth needs to shed the British Bitch skin she has been forced to live with. I say forced because Elizabeth is no ice queen rather a victim of mistaken identity. She is simply protective of her privacy and reserved even among her closest friends. Other readers may disagree, but the “Ice Queen” title belongs to Grace “Blowtorch Resistant” Christie-Oberon—a minor character who plays too much of a major role in Elizabeth’s unspontaneous life. 
  
It took while for me to warm up to Summer and Elizabeth’s romantic chemistry. I could not get pass the feeling that Summer and Elizabeth would be better off as friends than lovers . . . well . . . until the not so chaste scene between Elspeth and Lucille. After that scene, Summer and Elizabeth’s chemistry kicked it up a notch in the spark, ooze, and sizzle categories, which helped Elizabeth come alive.   
  
Overall, the story never failed to keep my attention. The humor during the first half of the story made Summer and Elizabeth likeable/relatable from the beginning. Even the lighthearted manner of poking fun at a few American customs was enjoyable. (“Microwave tea drinkers unite, don’t be shy! We need our teas in 30 seconds or less, dammit!”) 

Ahem! Simply put, Lee’s latest story, Breaking Character, gets another five star rating in my book.

Lucia Correa

Breaking Character by Lee Winter: 5 Stars for the book, 5+Stars for narrator Angela Dawe.

I first started to read this book when it first came out a couple of years ago. But for some unfathomable reason, I couldn’t get into it, even though I’m a big fan of Winter. Many readers have put Breaking Character as a favorite Lee Winter book. I figured I must be missing something. 

What I discovered is that I needed to listen to Angela Dawe read it to me, no not just read but rather act the book. I was amazed by how many distinctive voices and accents she used. She definitely acted the book rather than just read it. There have been only a few audiobooks I’ve read that I appreciated the acting. Dawe doesn’t over act. I’ve heard some lesser narrators attempt it and it usually doesn’t work well. I especially loved Dawe’s voices for the two leads. The very British, upper crust sounding, Elizabeth Thornton, and youthful sounding, former child star, Summer Hayes. There is an age gap of 9 years, but because Summer appears at least 5 years younger than she really is (28yrs old), Elizabeth and everyone else sees the gap as much wider. Her castmates also don’t appreciate just how good an actor Summer really is. 

This is a slow burn, fauxmance to friendship to lovers book. The friendship would have never had happened without Summer. Summer was 15 yrs old when she “fell in love” with Elizabeth after watching Elizabeth’s one-woman Shakespeare show multiple times in England. She actively attempts to become friends with Elizabeth. (view spoiler)[ Elizabeth is not an Ice Queen as many, even her fellow actors and friends assume. She reveals to Summer that she is reserved. “You’re shy.” Summer guessed. Elizabeth concedes that she is introverted and not the ‘uptight Brit’ as she has been labeled.  (hide spoiler)] 

A favorite book of 2020.

Aims

"Big emotions have a lot of power to hurt if you're on the receiving end."

Wow this was amazing, spectacular and all things I crave in a book. A queer story written by a queer author, yessir brilliance.
I was mesmerised with Elizabeth, how beautifully she was written, I've never been as proud of a character like I am her.

Jude Silberfeld

4.5*

What is it about Lee Winter’s books that makes it so difficult for me to write intelligible reviews?

Summer Hayes is a former child-star making her debut in a not-so-good medical TV series. In addition to providing her with her first potentially big part as an adult, Choosing Hope gives her a chance to act beside her idol, British actress Elizabeth Thornton – Bess to her friends -, who plays the part of the show’s villain.

Summer is absolutely adorable but not annoyingly so and that makes her irresistible, not only to Bess but to anyone who gets to meet her. Bess is more complicated to like but I can’t blame her. She’s a complete introvert who feels the need to protect herself from others. The few times when she’s allowed anyone in, she’s been hurt, be it by her mentor, Grace, or the audience, who loves to hate the character she plays and is not interested in the real person. She has come to hate her job and can’t wait for the time when she’s released from her contract. As a result, for the longest time, she’s oblivious to Summer’s sweetness…

While that might sound like a story you’ve read before, it is not. The characters are so well-written, it all feels brand-new.

The first tears filled my eyes right when I reached the end of the first quarter of the story. Way too early. Not fair, Lee Winter. At some point, I understood Elizabeth’s ache so well that I knew in advance what she was going to say. Not because the author lacks imagination but because she made the situation so real.

Lee Winter is great at writing ice queens but what I loved best about this book is that Bess is not really an ice queen. That’s what others make her out to be because it’s easier and more fun to believe what everyone is saying than to look for the truth. What she really is is an unassuming woman who is not convinced she’s talented enough (she is) to justify her success, such as it is. That’s also what makes Summer the perfect partner for her, because she never for one second forgets how impressive and gifted Bess is, nor how human she also is. If she treats her in a different way than anyone else, it’s not because she’s famous or wealthy, it’s because she loves her. And that’s something you can feel in every interaction between them, in their banter as well as their serious talks.

The problem with books like these, which make me feel so much, is what am I supposed to read next? It feels a bit unfair to the book that follows (and its author), because how could they bear comparison? And if they did, how would my heart survive?

I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

Haley Murray &
Breaking Character by Lee Winter

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