Having escaped to Hollywood after catching her boyfriend in bed with her best friend, London stage actress Kate McPhee is offered a gig on the popular daytime television series Live for Tomorrow. As Devon Merrick - police detective, car crash victim, and love interest for at least two men - she knows all the secrets and sins pulsating in fictional Hope Canyon. But the real drama is off the set, where the soap is indeed slippery. Enter Meredith Contini, the show’s power-wielding diva. Meredith has two rules: Know your place and Stay in it. Kate broke both on day one, which is why she suddenly found her character switching sexual orientation. That brilliant solution came from Daphne del Valle, the show’s barking-mad obsessive/compulsive producer, who drives herself and her actors to enthrall the audience. (“Sell the hurt. Sell the rage. Sell the hunger. Sell the loooooove.”) As gay detective Devon Merrick, Kate is a smash. The show is a hit. But Kate’s private life seems to be becoming something of a drama itself. Especially since everybody thinks she really is gay, which is a problem since she thinks the best cure for her real-life broken heart is to get a man into her bed. But who? Kirk, her sexy, tan, and talented leading man, is involved with Meredith. There’s Matt, the magician who makes her tea, but will her fourteen-hour days keep them from the promise of tangled sheets? And there’s Wyatt, her handsome new co-star, who Kate believes is the great love of her life. Except that he’s married, and his wife, Christine, is Kate’s new makeup artist and the one sane friend she has made in Los Angeles. As the line between television and reality blurs with increasing speed, tension tightens and passions surge. Does Wyatt want Kate as much as she wants him? Will Christine find out? Will Kate lose her new friend? Will Meredith finally have Kate fired? Will Kate ever get to “come out” as heterosexual on the set? Are her steamy kiss scenes fated to be only with beautiful women? Emmy Award–winning actress Finola Hughes whips up a frothy, scathingly funny novel worthy of any afternoon time slot in this delicious romp that takes readers through the twists, turns, and dish that drive the madness that is daytime television.
Soapsuds: A Novel
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
When stage actress Kate McPhee quits London for L.A., leaving behind her cheating boyfriend and former best friend (yes, they were in bed together), she speedily lands a gig on the hit soap opera Live for Tomorrow, playing its beautiful, vampire-fighting lesbian cop, Det. Devon Merrick. Sounds like a cushy job—until she discovers the 20-hour shooting sessions, the bevy of perfect blondes making her life hell, the vapid but oh-so-gorgeous men, and her archenemy, the domineering matriarch of the show, Meredith Contini, who's a girlie-girl 60-something still trying to play 35. Determined to succeed, Kate sucks it up and makes the most of the sunshine and the sexy-but-dumb men passing her way, but as her popularity grows, Meredith grows more and more jealous, and Kate's life starts looking more and more like a soap opera itself. Readers will enjoy this spicy, sly behind-the-scenes look at the soap opera world—Hughes won an Emmy for her work on General Hospital and her bio somewhat resembles her heroine's—and Kate is a funny, warm character who could have popped out of a Jennifer Weiner novel. The book is overlong, and the plot wanders from place to place, but the humor and good-natured banter make it worth the ride. Agent, Richard Barber. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
You'll never work in this town again? That may describe Hughes, after her fellow soapsudsers read the actress' first novel. Naturally, the action takes place in Pine Valley and Port Charles, the fictional settings of the two soaps, All My Children and General Hospital, on which Hughes played a leading role. Like Hughes, the book's heroine, Devon Merrick, is a Brit and a soap actress. The fun here is all for soap watchers; others will be put off by the book's convoluted narrative (much of the tale is told in the form of dialogue from Merrick's show Live for Tomorrow) and its over-the-top writing. But the behind-the-scene looks at off-screen romances, on-air sex, and backstage backstabbing will titillate fans, who will notice the similarities between the most unlikable character and a certain real-life soap star. This tiny terror totters around on four-inch heels, hawks products on QVC, and has her own Barbie-doll likeness--just like Susan Lucci, AMC's Erica. The ending is dumb, but Hughes wouldn't have had much practice with those--soaps go on forever. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
SO much better than expected.....,
By Chick-lit fan "A reader" (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Soapsuds: A Novel (Hardcover)
I picked up the audiobook of Soapsuds expection to be amused, but nothing more. I was really pleasantly surprised, this book is surprisingly funny and well-written. The story centers on Kate McPhee, a Bristish stage dancer and actress who takes a job on an American soap opera, Live For Tomorrow (just like the author, Finnoula Hughes). The result is part fish-out-of-water story, part coming of age tale. It truly doesn't have much of a plot, but following Kate's experience is still vastly entertaining. Sometimes the Alice in Wonderland references get tiresome, but that is the basic theme of the book.
The first day at work, Kat's impressive acting skills earn her attention of the show's over-the-top alpha female producer, Daphne, but also the show's resident diva, Merideth Contini. The resemblance between Meredith and Hughes' real-life former co-star Susan Lucci is uncanny, and even the characters have similar names- Regina Abel and Erica Kane. (Get it- Cain and Abel?) The detestable Merideth's jealousy and divalike tantrums get Kate's character, Detective Devon Marrick, switching sexual preference straight away. But the change makes newcomer Kate more popular than ever, and leads to a big level of fame for her that she has a tough time getting used to. Throughout the book, we go through Kate's friendships with other cast members, as well as her relatioonships with men- or rather, the barely-there relationships that can exist when she works 12+ hours a day. She had her heart broken by her ex in London, and he eventually shakes her up further by showing up in LA. There is also a magician, a writer with 4 dogs, and finally, a married co-star who Kate falls for, who happens to be married to her best friend. The rest of the book is just a dishy behind-the scenes look at the soap opera world, but it is fascinating, and comes from someone who knows her stuff. The characters have surprising warmth and depth, and Kate is a very likeable and actually relatable. The narrator of the audiobook is fantastic, and is wonderful at doing vioces. Overall, a great listen.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Soap fans will enjoy,
By Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Soapsuds: A Novel (Hardcover)
Who better than Finola Hughes to write the definitive satire of soaps? Hughes has won four Daytime Emmys between 1990 and 2002 and many Soap Opera Digest awards for her roles in General Hospital (1990-2002) and All My Children (1999-2003). She is currently the host of How Do I Look? on the Style Network.
Kate McPhee flees London and a betrayal by her lover and best friend, to work on a soap opera in Los Angeles. Her character on Live for Tomorrow is Devon Merrick, and she is a cop. The script writers want her played in an edgy, hard way, with the possibility that she may be gay. The book is a bit confusing at times with literary asides from Alice in Wonderland, script excerpts, and odd bits of dialogue, but you get used to the pace, which mimics the pace of Kate's insanely busy life. Kate's inability to relate to the bitchy, matriarchal "star" of the soap, and the pneumatic California "Barbies" who are sprinkled through the cast, make it difficult for her. She finds friends among the make-up artists and crew, and eventually finds time to make friends in the "real" world. You will enjoy Kate's growing fame, and her crazy situations, such as showing up at the Daytime Emmy award show in the same dress as her soap's star, who demands she go back to the hotel and change. This causes Kate to miss accepting her award when she wins! One aside: I did dislike Kate's constant self-image problems when comparing herself to the tall, thin, and stacked young female colleagues. She imagines herself huge, with various rather gross attributes getting worse by the minute. This fades as the story progresses and as Kate realizes she has talents that the others do not possess.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
fun for Soap opera chick lit fans,
This review is from: Soapsuds: A Novel (Hardcover)
When British actress Kate McPhee learns that her live in lover was cheating on her with her best friend, she needs to get away from them. She accepts a job on the soap opera Live For Tomorrow and quickly realizes that daytime programming is nothing like the theatre work she did back home. She quickly learns to avoid diva Meredith Contini who has been on the show since its inception and refuses to let an actor or actress upset her.
Kate also learns how to cope with the fans who have taken her into their hearts. She has the unique experience of attending a soap opera convention where anything goes; she is paid extra to be interviewed on radio and television shows where she has to be careful of what she says concerning future plots. Kate also gets used to fans believing she is the lesbian detective she plays in a storyline involving vampires. After a major adjustment she realizes that the group is her American family and she belongs there. Finola Hughes, who originated the role of Anna Devane on General Hospital and All My Children, takes readers backstage so they can see how a soap opera is produced and how much of the character belongs to the star. The actors work long hours under grueling conditions because they need to work, not just for the money but because of the desire to perform. Kate McPhee is a charming chick lit lead protagonist who feels that California, especially Hollywood, is an alien planet. Soap opera fans will wonder if the characters are based on actual people and if so, who and on what show. Harriet Klausner
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Listmania!
|
|
