Blog Tour Review, The Fiction Writer : A Novel 

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The Fiction Writer : A Novel
Jillian Cantor

304 pages
Park Row
published November 28, 2023

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About the book

From USA Today-bestselling Jillian Cantor, THE FICTION WRITER follows a mid-list writer hired by a handsome billionaire to write about his family history with Daphne du Maurier and finds herself drawn into a tangled web of obsession, marital secrets, and stolen manuscripts.

Last night I dreamt I went to Malibu again…

The once-rising literary star Olivia Fitzgerald is down on her luck. Her most recent novel–a re-telling of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca–was a flop, her boyfriend of nine years just dumped her, and she’s battling a bad case of writer’s block. So when her agent calls her with a high-paying ghostwriting opportunity, Olivia is all too willing to sign the NDA.

At first, the write-for-hire job seems too good to be true. All she has to do is interview Henry “Ash” Asherwood, a reclusive mega billionaire, twice-named People’s Sexiest Man Alive, who wants her help in writing a book that reveals a shocking secret about his late grandmother and Daphne du Maurier. But when Olivia arrives at his Malibu estate, nothing is as it seems. Ash is hesitant to reveal any family secrets, and he seems more interested in her than their writing project. The more Olivia digs into his grandmother’s past, the more questions she has—and before she knows it, she’s trapped in a gothic mystery of her own.

With as many twists and turns as the California coast, The Fiction Writer is a captivating story exploring the boundaries of creative freedom and whose stories we have the right to tell.

My Review

First let me admit I have never read Rebeca so I cannot make comparisons but this is a contemporary retelling of it.  While it comes across as a simple story, this one is quite complex.  There is a book in a book, which is one of my favorite things, and the author of this book is not known to the reader.  I became obsessed with trying to figure out who wrote this book.  I overanalyzed every almost clue in trying to decipher the author.  Of course that was alternated with me figuring out who was reliable and who was evil.  I was convinced everyone was evil and out to get Olivia.  Everyone.  And while my initial thoughts were correct, I was never sure and wavering until the very last chapter.

Back to the complex plot.  In addition to the book in the book, there are some weird things happening to our main character, coincidence or sabotage, a little bit of a romance and accusations about the book Rebecca.

I spent a bit of time yelling at Olivia for her poor choices.  She seemed clueless to all the warning flags that were constantly popping up.

I was a fan of the gothic atmosphere and thought the author nailed this.  Almost like a secondary character.  The book was a slow burn with pretty much all the characters being unlikable, but with needing to know who wrote the book in, I kept reading.

Overall this was a quick read that kept me guessing.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jillian Cantor is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author of eleven novels for teens and adults, which have been chosen for LibraryReads, Indie Next, Amazon Best of the Month, and have been translated into 13 languages. She has a BA in English from Penn State University and an MFA from the University of Arizona. Born and raised in a suburb of Philadelphia, Cantor currently lives in Arizona with her husband and two sons.

SOCIAL LINKS:

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