A Star Is Scorned

Gilded-Age Hollywood meets Christina Lauren in the third of Maureen Lee Lenker's rompy 1930s rom-coms. When movie star and notorious womanizer Flynn Banks finds his reputation in serious trouble, his studio insists he publicly date his new co-star, Liv De Lesseps, to save it--except Liv might swashbuckle her way into his heart for real.

Flynn Banks, incurable reprobate and silver-screen swashbuckler, has all the fame, booze, and dames he could possibly want. But when a former tryst accuses him of jilting her at the altar (he would never!), he must quickly reform his image in the eyes of the Production Code office, who control what makes it on to movie screens. To his dismay, the studio decides he'll pretend to date his new costar, the prissy if beautiful Liv De Lesseps.

Livvy isn't exactly thrilled with this arrangement, either. She didn't even want to be an actress. But if she wants to ensure her younger sister has a shot at her dancing dreams and keep a roof over their heads, she has no choice but to do what the studio tells her. The problem is, Flynn Banks was her girlhood crush, and soon, it's hard to resist the on-screen charms that once made her swoon. But Flynn has sworn never to commit to a girl for longer than an evening. Can they keep up this charade without shattering it--or each other's hearts?

Maureen Lee Lenker is the author of It Happened One Fight and His Girl Hollywood. An award-winning journalist, she has written for Turner Classic Movies, The Hollywood Reporter, Ms. Magazine, and more. She currently writes for Entertainment Weekly, where she maintains a quarterly romance review column, Hot Stuff, in addition to covering film, TV, and theater. She is a proud graduate of both the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford. Maureen calls Los Angeles home, where you'll either find her at the beach or in a repertory movie-house, if she's not writing.