Very excited to be discussing one of my favourite books of 2019 with Lara from Words With Lara! It made sense seeing how obsessed we both are with all of Lucy Parker's books that I ask Lara to come and discuss Lucy's latest release, Headliners in all its glory with me. Also, I loved Headliners so much that I'm giving away a copy of it! More info at the bottom of this post!
ELLA: Hey Lara! I am so excited to chat everything Headliners with you! We’re both such fangirls of Lucy Parker’s books and I know you were just as excited as I was for Headliners. There are so many things I want to talk/scream about but the first thing I’m really eager to discuss is the TV setting in this book! I was OBSESSED with how much fun it was to read about and now want a million books set in this setting. What did you think?
LARA: Lucy Parker is definitely one of my favourite authors and I was SO excited for Headliners (sidenote: thank you for introducing me to her). I LOVED the TV setting. I really wasn’t sure of how I’d feel about it (I’m not good at change and this was a bit different from the other books in the series), but it worked out so well and really provided an awesome setting for the two main characters to interact.
ELLA: Couldn’t agree more, Lucy managed to pull it off with such effortless flair. What did you think of the “mystery” element and how it fit into the story/book? I personally enjoyed the mystery in Headliners more than I did the one in Lucy’s previous book, The Austen Playbook, but that’s just me. I really enjoyed how the mystery added an interesting plot element (although I knew who the person was behind the accidents pretty early on haha).
LARA: I think I preferred the mystery in The Austin Playbook, but I totally agree that the one in Headliners fitted both the story and the genre a lot better. Honestly, I had no idea until right before the reveal who the person was behind the sabotaging, but I’m pretty useless when it comes to predicting things like that. I’ll blame the fact that I was too tied up in obsessing over the romance to pay any attention to anything else.
ELLA: I think the mystery in Headliners was so much smaller compared to the one in The Austen Playbook which is why I preferred it as it didn’t take over or take anything away from the romance, but I can totally understand your point! Talking romance, let’s move onto the most important part of the whole book! I bloody love how good Lucy is at writing enemies to lovers and it was perfection in Headliners.
LARA: Lucy Parker is the best. She is the reason that romance was my most read genre last year (coming from someone who used to avoid contemporary and romance like it was the plague). And if it’s done well the enemies to lovers trope is SO much fun to read… Needless to say, Lucy Parker absolutely smashed it.
ELLA: Yeah, I think romance might’ve been my most read genre of 2019 as well! I’ve still yet to find contemporary romances as good as Lucy Parker’s, though not for lack of trying. (She’s just too good!) I’m also not the biggest fan of contemporary but now that I’m officially in my twenties (ahhhh), I think I’m reaching for it a bit more. But one of the reasons I’m such a big fan of Lucy Parker’s work is how FUNNY every one of her books are! It’s one of the reasons why her books work so well for me as the humour is so cheerful and uplifting.
LARA: One thing I love about Lucy Parker is how good she is at writing in hilarious, snarky and sassy leads without making it seem forced or annoying. Sabrina and Nick had the best banter (that’s the only way I can think to describe it?) and reading their dialogue was so much fun. ELLA: YES! I really, really loved Sabrina. And Nick and Sabrina’s dialogue was A+++. I felt genuinely really sad when I got to the last page of the book and knew that that was the end of their story! I really would like to see a novella about these two as I think their story could definitely be carried on for a bit longer (or maybe that’s just wishful thinking). Also, I just LOVE how Lucy Parker writes her grumpy heroes! They never go into abusive or mean/unkind territory which is something that I come across a lot in romance, especially with the enemies to lovers trope. I hate when it goes down that track as horrible behaviour should never be framed as sexy or heroic or like part of a hero’s/love interest’s personality, y’know? Anyway, I really love how Lucy Parker avoids going down that track.
LARA: Ugh I totally understand what you mean, I can’t stand characters like that and it’s made me DNF books in the past. Give me a soft grumpy hero anyday over the ones that just turn out to be assholes and that’s their entire personality.
ELLA: I’m trying to nail down my *favourite* parts and moments in the book and it’s so hard! I don’t want to spoil anything for people that haven’t read it yet but one of my fav moments of the whole book was the Thames dip. I knew as soon as I got to that part of the book that HEADLINERS was going to go on my favourite books of 2019 list!
LARA: Honestly I don’t even know where to start with my favourite parts, but I think you’re probably absolutely spot on! If you want to know what Ella’s talking about you’re going to have to read the book.
