After taking a guest teaching gig, Oscar-winning Valeria Sullivan finds herself trapped in a battle of wits with her sexy co-professor, but can she keep her cool when things heat up in and out of the classroom? At twenty-nine, Valeria Sullivan is a celebrated, award-winning actress. But when her acting options start to decline and her attempt to transition to directing is complicated by a bad interview on a late night show, Val decides she’s had enough of Hollywood. Intent on pursuing a neglected passion, she pours herself into a guest professorship at USC, hoping to transition to academia fulltime. Standing in her way is her co-professor, Maeve Arko, whose brilliance and beauty is matched only by her contempt for Val. As Val rises to the challenges that teaching throws at her, though, Maeve starts to soften, and soon sparks are flying. Now with a job and a girlfriend she adores, Val should be happy. But Hollywood isn’t done with Val quite yet. Her directorial debut, Oakley in Flames, starts getting attention, and soon Val has to choose between her obligations to her class—and Maeve—and the burgeoning dream Hollywood career she may not be ready to leave behind.
Carlyn Greenwald Livres


"For aspiring cinematographer Luna Roth, coming out as bisexual at twenty-four is proving more difficult than she anticipated. Sure, her best friend and fellow queer Romy is thrilled for her-but she has no interest in coming out to her backwards parents, she wouldn't know how to flirt with a girl if one fell at her feet, and she has neither a gaydar nor a sexual history to speak of. Not to mention she really needs to focus her energy on escaping her emotionally-abusive-but-that's-Hollywood talent manager boss and actually get working under a real director of photography anyway. When she meets twenty-eight-year-old A-list actress Valeria Sullivan around the office, Luna begins to think she might just have a solution. She'll use Valeria's interest in Luna's cinematography to get a PA job on the set of Valeria's first indie-and if Valeria is as gay as Luna thinks she is, and she happens to be Luna's route to losing her virginity, too . . . well, that's just an added bonus. Enlisting Romy's help, Luna starts the juggling act of her life-impress Valeria's DP to get another job after this one (and to escape moving back in with her parents), get as close to Valeria as possible, and help Romy with her own make-it-or-break-it career moves while she's at it. But when Valeria begins to reciprocate romantic interest in Luna, the act begins to crumble along with it-straining her relationship with Romy and leaving her job prospects precarious. Now Luna has to figure out if she can she fulfill her dreams as a filmmaker, keep her best friend, and get the girl. . . or if she's destined to lose it all"-- Provided by publisher