Stevie’s review of The Road to Her by Ke Payne
Lesbian Young Adult published by Bold Strokes 16 Jul 13
While soap actors do feature from time to time in novels, romance or otherwise, it’s usually the divas that we get to see: the fading star who’ll do anything to clutch on to the last tatters of fame, or those at top of their career, who are considered TV Royalty and have an attitude to match. Thus, it is very refreshing to meet one as a protagonist, who’s on her way to the top and yet has a refreshingly down-to-earth outlook on life. Admittedly, her love-interest (on-screen as well as off) starts off as a bit of a diva, but the road to true love never runs smooth, and all that.
Holly was a child star. She’s been a mainstay of a teatime teen soap for eight years, and she loves the series and her fellow cast members. Her one serious relationship ended when her girlfriend went travelling and fell for the daughter of the family she was staying with. So now she’s happily single and excited to learn that her character is to be at the centre of Portobello Road’s first lesbian storyline.
Elise joins the show to play Holly’s love interest. A year younger than Holly, she’s spent the past year and a bit trying out for roles in L.A., and so seems very sophisticated at first, especially when she criticises Holly’s acting and ruffles a few feathers. And she dates boys. Boys on the cast, boys she meets in nightclubs, lots of boys. When she and Holly finally get together, Elise doesn’t want anyone to know, not even Holly’s best friend – and on-screen mother – Bella, who has been a mother figure to all the younger cast members since forever.
Not only that, Elise doesn’t want to be seen in public with Holly at all. No clubbing, no shopping, no going rowing together. Definitely no borrowing each other’s clothes. None of the things they did when they were just friends is safe now, because one of their fans (and their fans do seem rather cute: smushing the names of characters and actresses together adorably, and making sweet fanvids that the girls then watch together) should happen to see them and guess their secret.
Eventually Holly gets sick of the deception. She was never particularly out about her sexuality, but she doesn’t like deception either. And it’s what Elise does to get her back that really makes this into a top grade for me. I can so see it happening, and I’m sure all their cute, adorable fans loved them for it too. A real feel-good story that’s right on the boundary of Young Adult and New Adult.
Grade: A
Summary:
Sparks fly when twenty-year-old Holly Croft, star of the UK soap Portobello Road, meets Elise Manford, the actress who’s going to play her on-screen love interest in the soap’s first ever lesbian storyline.
Enigmatic Elise’s super-confident attitude and unwelcome advice drives Holly to distraction at first, but as fans go wild over the storyline, and the pair start to spend more and more time together, Holly begins to see another side to her costar. Liking what she sees, Holly slowly finds herself falling in love, but can she ignore her growing attraction to Elise when the lines between fact and fiction begin to blur?
Read an excerpt.
