Monsters: A Love Story by Liz Kay
ISBN: 9781101982471 (hardcover)
ISBN: 9781101982488 (ebook)
ASIN: B0177AGNZQ (Kindle version)
Publication Date: June 7, 2016
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
A cracklingly funny and poignant debut novel about the ways we love, even when we’re not at our best. Stacey Lane feels like a monster. Tommy DeMarco might be one.
Since her husband died eight months ago, Stacey’s been a certified mess—a poet who can’t write anymore, a good mother who feels like she’s failing her kids. She’s been trying to redefine herself, to find new boundaries.
Tommy has no respect for boundaries. A surprisingly well-read A-list Hollywood star, Tommy’s fallen in love with Stacey’s novel-in-verse, a feminist reimagining of Frankenstein, no less. His passion for the book, and eventually its author, will set their lives on a collision course. They’ll make a movie, make each other crazy, and make love—but only in secret.
As Stacey travels between her humdrum life in the suburbs of Omaha and the glamorous but fleeting escape Tommy offers, what begins as a distracting affair starts to pick up weight. It’s a weight that unbalances Stacey’s already unsteady life, but offers new depth to Tommy’s. About desire, love, grief, parenthood, sexual politics, and gender, Monsters: A Love Story is a witty portrait of a relationship gone off the rails, and two people who are made for each other—even if they’re not so sure they see it that way.
Stacey Lane’s husband died unexpectedly and she and her kids are still grieving his death and trying to find their balance. Things are going reasonably well until she receives an email stating her book of poetry is being optioned for a film. Life as she knows it will never be the same in Monsters: A Love Story by Liz Kay.
Stacey Lane’s life changed when her husband died. It changes again when she meets Hollywood superstar Tommy DeMarco. Tommy wants to adapt her novel-in-verse into a film. Stacey knows next to nothing about film adaptation, but she’s pulled into the process from the very beginning simply because Tommy is enthralled with her book and becomes enamored with her. Stacey begins to fly back-and-forth from Nebraska to California to work on the script, watch the filming, etc. She and Tommy begin to have a highly dysfunctional relationship that isn’t quite a romance, or at least it isn’t to Stacey. As a result of the film, Stacey’s book is in the spotlight and she’s invited to numerous book festivals. Between her travels to California and other places, her children begin to spend just as much time with her sister as they do at home. In an effort to bring more normalcy to her life, Stacey begins to date again and before she knows it she’s engaged to be married. Unfortunately, her children don’t really like her fiance, Tommy is furious about the engagement, and Stacey’s isn’t quite sure why.
Monsters: A Love Story is a fast and fun read about a dysfunctional romance at its best and worst. Stacey and Tommy come across as two intelligent people, but when it comes to their quasi-relationship they become ignorant of what the other wants or expects. They share late night phone calls, text one another constantly, and Stacey spends all of her time at Tommy’s house (and in Tommy’s bed) when she’s in California. It was interesting to watch their relationship evolve, as well as watch the perceived devolution of Stacey’s role as a mother and evolution of Tommy’s role as a father. Stacey and Tommy aren’t the perfect couple and they don’t come across as idealistic about romance. Tommy is jaded about romance and Stacey just comes across as somewhat clueless when it comes to Tommy. To say that Monsters: A Love Story isn’t the typical romance is a massive understatement, and that is part of its charm. Monsters: A Love Story is an entertaining story about two unlikely people falling in love in unusual circumstances and is, perhaps, the perfect choice for a lazy weekend.
Read an excerpt from Monsters: A Love Story here.
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Author: thebookdivasreads
I'm a reader, an avid reader, or perhaps a rabid reader (at least according to my family). I enjoy reading from a variety of different genres but particularly enjoy fiction, mystery, suspense, thrillers, ChickLit, romance and classics. I also enjoy reading about numerous non-fiction subjects including aromatherapy, comparative religions, herbalism, naturopathic medicine, and tea.
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