Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Leading Man

SERIES:  Hollywood Heartthrobs

AUTHOR:  Valerie Ullmer

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  188 pages

RELEASE DATE:  September 2, 2022

BLURB:

Spencer Atreus.

Gorgeous movie star, workaholic, and the ultimate laid back, can’t-help-but-love-him kind of guy.

Oh, did I mention gorgeous?

But the reason I, Westley Lee, hid my attraction to the man was two-fold.

I loved my job. As his personal assistant, he depended on me and I’d come to crave being wanted by him, even though it wasn’t exactly as I imagined. Also, being part of his life, even in the peripheral, was better than not being with him at all. And while it screamed desperation on my part, every intimate thought I had about him was locked in the recesses of my mind as I kept up appearances.

Until one night changed everything.

Seeing Spencer in pain crumbled all the walls I’d built between us to protect my heart. And in a moment of pure weakness, he saw through my barriers and I was unable to keep him in the dark about my feelings.

But will we find our happily ever after when a threat endangers our entire future?

Leading Man is a M/M romance featuring a A-list Hollywood actor falling for his PA. The story includes feelings long denied, insta love, opposites attract, and an interracial romance with a definite HEA.

**This book features themes of stalking, arson, and violence (not between the main characters).

REVIEW:

Westley Lee is the Personal Assistant to Spencer Atreus – one of the biggest movie stars on the planet.  He’s been his assistant for several years.  And despite not know who Spencer was when he took the job, he feel head over heels in love with the man.  But he’s successfully hidden his feeling the entire time.  Until Spencer is hurt.

When Spencer is attacked the night of his latest movie’s wrap party, Westley (who Spencer always calls Lee) is the one to take charge and take care of him.  He gets him the care he needs and he stays with him to make sure that he is following doctor’s orders and resting so that he can heal.  He’s got a press tour coming up and he needs to be back in shape and ready for the grueling travel.  He’s got premiers to attend and things to take care – which thankfully Lee and his manager Maggie can handle to a great degree.

Meanwhile, Spencer has been nursing his own feelings for Lee since the beginning.  He just hadn’t realized exactly what they were.  But the deep friendship – Westley is truly his best friend, sounding board, steady hand steering the ship – has always been something more.  When he lets his guard down and kisses Westley when he’s injured, well things change.  It’s clear that these men have been dancing around the real depth and nature of their feelings for some time.  There is the whole boss/employee thing.  But truly Lee has been Spencer’s best friend as well as his assistant for years.  He lives in the guest cottage.  He travels to every movie set with him.  He handles his business stuff.  He pays the bills.  Spencer trusts him more than anyone he knows – maybe with the exception of Maggie.  He knows what he wants now and he intends to try to get it.

Westley is nervous about the changing dynamic of their relationship.  He assumed that Spencer was straight and that his feelings would remain unrequited.  When Spencer confesses that he is bisexual, Lee is stunned.  But despite his reluctance, he wants to give Spencer everything he wants.   Meanwhile there is an issue with Spencer’s so-called friend that results in their leaving town for a bit to let the media frenzy die down and for Maggie and the PR team to figure out a plan to deal with the lies and false stories that have blown up.

When they return and go public with their relationship, things take another turn.  The so-called friend is there to still try to cause problems – although underestimating Westley is a bad idea 😉  Spencer and Lee get on with their lives and head out on the press tour.  They have a wonderful time until they get a call from home.  It’s clear that things haven’t blown over and that this threat will not go away.

Well, I really wanted to like this book more than I did 🙁  For me, there was just too much talking and too much sex.   I get that they had both been celibate for some time and they were so happy to be able to be open with their feelings.  But by 80% through, I was skimming the sex scenes which were many and long winded.  OK, I get it.  They were hiding their feelings from each other.  They’re both vers.  It just turned out to be a lot.  It’s really too bad because I really liked Westley.  Spencer I still didn’t feel like I had a good handle on.  Even the blurb description – workaholic and ultimate laid-back kind of guy – threw me off.  That’s an oxymoron if ever I heard one.  Workaholics are rarely laid back people.  I never got that sense from reading about how much he worked and took every role and hadn’t dated in all the years that Westley has worked for him.  I felt like the story was fine but the dialogue was a bit stilted and frankly not very authentic.  Just way too much talking and not enough showing.

I should also mention that although Westley Lee is Korean American, this seems to have very little impact in the story – other than when they were in Korea for the press tour and when Spencer comes out to his parents and tells them he’s with Lee.  Lee’s Korean born parents are very accepting of him being gay – their only child.  Spencer’s parents have always supported him and kind of assumed anyway.  This part of the story I felt was a bit brushed over.  Even Spencer mentions that he’s never seen Lee’s parents in all the years he’s worked for him.  I’m not sure what the point was of having the interracial aspect of this story since it didn’t factor much into the story.

Overall the writing was Ok and I am interested in the other stories in this series – which hopefully will be the stories of Spencer’s costars who we see again in the epilogue.

RATING:

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