C+

The Hollywood Hookup

by Christy Swift
February 10, 2026 · Forever
Contemporary Romance

I listened to Hollywood Hookup on a recent plane ride, and while the tone of the narrative wasn’t really for me, I can say that the structure of the book lends itself really well to audio.

Josie Days is a makeup artist on a hit musical sci-fi show starring five hot guys who are sequel fodder. They’re doing a charity celebrity date contest with said five guys and for hand-wavy reasons Josie gets roped in to replace a last minute drop out. She winds up winning a date with Sean O’Sullivan, which she does not want.

Josie used to be a child actor under a different name until her career came to a catastrophic end during an incident that involved puppet immolation. She’s been hiding ever since and dating Sean will put her back in the public eye. Sean really wants to date Josie though because she seems uninterested in him and HOW DARE.

This book didn’t work for me very well because it’s really a mad-cap, wacky sort of comedy. The situations the characters find themselves in are very over the top and sometimes felt like they would have worked better for visual comedy versus something on the page. For example, the heroine shows up to a date with the hero in full space alien FX makeup in order not to be recognized…which might have been funnier if we had seen her unexpectedly appear in costume versus reading about it.

If a reader doesn’t mind zany shenanigans, the book does work really well in audio and it’s closed door, which I know some readers are searching for. There are two narrators for the audio book (male and female), and some sections are transcripts of podcasts and talk shows, so that makes for a lot of varying voice acting opportunities. It’s definitely fun to listen to.

Hollywood Hookup was just okay for me, but I can see it having more mileage with others.