Blog Tour Review & Giveaway: Hard Glamour by Maggie Marr

Today is my stop on the blog tour for Hard Glamour by Maggie Marr, hosted by ATOMR Tours. I am excited to share my review and a giveaway with y'all today.

Hard Glamour

(Glamour #1)

Author: Maggie Marr

Publication Date: January 14, 2014

Genre: New Adult

Source: eARC via ATOMR Tours

~Synopsis~

A promise to keep…

Honoring her mother's last wish, Lane Channing vows to follow her dreams. She takes the 'big risk' and leaves her small Kansas town behind and heads to LA, the city of dreams. She's got a stellar job lined up, an old jeep, and 20 bucks to last her to her first paycheck. Her hopes shatter when she arrives to find her job's been given to someone else. Now she's broke and will soon be living on the streets if she doesn't do something fast. Welcome to cutthroat - Lane is most certainly not in Kansas anymore.

On the cusp of success...

Dillon MacAvoy has one goal–to become a star--whatever it takes. Even if it means honing his bad-boy can’t-be-tamed-and-forever-single image. Besides the image isn't far from the truth. Dillon cares only about his younger brother and his career. He's on the brink of superstardom if he can just decide on the next right script. But for that, he needs a script reader he can trust. 

In a strange twist of fate... 

Lane Channing is Dillon's last chance. If Lane lasts the summer without becoming MacAvoy's latest conquest, she's guaranteed a job in entertainment. No problem, as long as she can ignore the heat that pulses through her every time Dillon is in the room. After all, love and commitment with a sweet, hometown girl would only ruin the Dillon MacAvoy brand.

~Review~

Hard Glamour was a romantic story about love, sacrifice and going for your dreams. It was an enjoyable read and I found it easy to get into and quick to read. While I didn’t love the characters or feel a heartfelt, special connection to them, I did like the characters and felt like they really grew and developed.

Lane is still greiveing the loss of her mother but before she passed, she made Lane promise she would go for her dreams. Lane wants to get into the entertainment business so she takes off to L.A. for a summer internship at a talent agency. There’s only one problem; it’s unpaid and they gave it to someone else. Dillon is an up and coming actor and a bit of a jerk. He has a ton of scripts to go through but he can’t keep a reader for more than a week because he keeps sleeping with them. A chance of fate brings Lane to Dillon’s door. She needs a job and a place to live and Dillon needs a reader that he won’t sleep with. While Lane is beautiful, Dillon views her as unattainable because of her innocence. However, the more they get to know each other, the closer they get to falling in love.

I did like Lane and I respected her for taking a chance and going after her dreams. I couldn’t imagine what she would be going through, losing her mom and the only family she had left. She wants to make her proud and honor her dying wishes. She has a tough break when she gets to L.A. and I felt so bad for her. She has no money, no home and no job but she still puts a brave face on and she is a go getter. She doesn’t take no for an answer and as long as she can last the summer as Dillon’s reader, she’s got a full time apprenticeship when she graduates. I also liked that she didn’t fawn all over Dillon like every other girl and while she was insanely attracted to him, she fought it hard because he wasn’t always the nicest guy to her and her dreams are important.

Dillon was a guy that had to grow on me. I will admit that I did not like him in the beginning and I hate how hot and cold he was with Lane. He was kind and charming one minute and an egotistical jerk the next. I’m really over the good girl reforming the playboy bad guy but I felt like it worked here because Dillon isn’t really a playboy that never wants to settle. He just doesn’t feel like now, at this time in his life, that he is ready to be in a relationship so he doesn’t do them. He wants to meet the right girl and settle down someday but his image is being built as the single, sexy playboy for his career and a relationship at this time would ruin that. He sees Lane as the kind of girl a guy marries and settles down with, not just a fling and that’s why she’s unattainable to him.

My favorite part of this book was Dillon’s growth as a character. I didn’t like him at all in the beginning and by the end I was definitely digging the guy. He comes across as a jerk but he is secretly a really sweet guy. He’s an animal lover, a really great brother and a caring man. Lane gets the chance to see these things in Dillon and there’s no way she can resist falling for him. I also loved that Lane knew how important his career was for him and she put that first, even sacrificing her own happiness. The chemistry between these two was written really well and I could definitely feel the tension, especially when they were trying to deny their feelings for one another. I also liked that once Dillon went there and stopped fighting it, he didn’t turn back. He was all in and ready to give up everything he thought he had to do just to be with Lane. He may not have been ready for his forever girl but once he found her, he wasn’t letting go.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Hard Glamour and this is a series I will continue to read. I liked the side characters, especially Choo, Dillon’s brother and Amanda, Lane’s friend. Dillon and Choo’s relationship was explored well and all of the things that Dillon did to take care of his brother melted my heart a little. My only pet peeve would be how often Dillon used the word “baby” when talking to Lane. By the end of this book, I never wanted to hear that endearment again.

~IPOD Picks~

“Breakaway” by Kelly Clarkson

“Let Her Go” by Passenger

PURCHASE LINKS:

Amazon | Barnes and Noble

About the Author

Maggie Marr grew up in the Midwest and made the move to Los Angeles to work in the movie business. She was a motion picture literary agent for ICM before becoming a full time writer. She's written for film and TV and ghostwritten for celebrities. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and children. 

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