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Description
A hilarious, emotional love story about an extremely anxious publicist who’s tasked with keeping an extremely gay starlet in the closet—but who ends up falling for her instead.
It’s 2005, and Ali is a publicist for Hollywood’s biggest stars. Part of her job entails keeping gay celebrities in the closet—which is pretty ironic, since she’s a lesbian herself. When Ali is assigned a new gay client, Cara Bisset, who’s breaking onto the scene with a (hetero) romantic blockbuster, keeping Cara’s sexuality under wraps becomes Ali’s biggest challenge yet.
Cara is unruly and unpredictable and hates that she has to hide such an integral aspect of her identity. After a series of increasingly close calls, Ali is sent on the worldwide promotional tour for the movie to help keep Cara in line. Instead, she finds herself drawn to Cara’s confidence and bravery. For the past year, Ali has been mired in grief after losing her partner in a freak accident. But with Cara, Ali’s fears about the world subside, and she begins to question the Hollywood closeting system she’s helped perpetuate.
As Cara’s fame continues to rise, both Ali and Cara have to decide which is more important: maintaining the status quo or risking it all for another chance at love.
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Praise
"An endearingly funny and propulsive look at the ever-changing nature of celebrity, second chances, and what it takes to be our most authentic selves. (And if that's not enough, there's a dog that will steal your heart.) A beautiful reminder of how far queer people have come, in part by bravely telling our stories. I am a Celia Laskey fan."
—Steven Rowley, New York Times bestselling author of The Guncle
"Deeply emotional and tender, COVER STORY is the perfect time machine to the absurdity and nostalgia of 2000s Hollywood, celebrity culture, and the not-so-distant struggle of being out in America. Deftly told with contemplative and often hilarious prose, this beautiful, hot, and heartfelt sapphic love story had me cheering and wiping tears by the end.”
—Carlyn Greenwald, author of Director's Cut
"Celia Laskey’s Cover Story is romance at its best: marvelously entertaining and profound. Cover Story is sexy, adorable, and laugh-out-loud funny. The protagonist, Ali, is immensely relatable, both in her struggles and her strengths. I was rooting for Ali from the first page. The love interest, Cara, is refreshingly frank. (My new book “boyfriend” is Cara, hands down.) I was delighted that the narrative didn’t rely on characters’ misunderstanding each other or hiding their feelings. Laskey shows us how love should be, tender and full of open communication. And while Laskey invites us to laugh, she also explores themes of grief and anxiety, lightening the story with humor but never belittling her characters or making them the butt of the joke. Laskey’s writing is witty. Her observations are so on-point, I found myself underlining something in every chapter. I found myself in every chapter. At one point in the story, Ali’s father says “grief and joy can sit right beside each other, sometimes. And you might as well give yourself more opportunities for the joy to sit down.” Cover Story is a joy to read and a tribute to the healing power of love."
—Karelia Stetz-Waters, author of Satisfaction Guaranteed
"Throwing back to the early 2000s, Laskey digs past Hollywood’s glitz and glam, opening the door to the hushed reality for many a Tinsel Town starlet. COVER STORY is hilarious, heartbreaking, and heartwarming. And incredibly sexy, as seductive as any tabloid with characters you can’t help but root for as they navigate relationships, grief, and change. COVER STORY is an incredible page-turner certain to keep readers starstruck!"
—Diane Marie Brown, author of Black Candle Women
“The perfect rom-com! Cover Story is delightfully familiar, yet exceedingly fresh. Smart, sexy and entertaining, this is a book that tackles big topics with a light touch and lots of heart. Sure to charm the pants off of anyone who loves the early aughts, adorable dogs, Hollywood hijinks, or just plain fun.”
—Cecilia Rabess, author of Everything’s Fine
"Nothing's ever flashed me back to my own mid-aughts studio assistant days like Celia Laskey's COVER STORY. This savvy Hollywood tale packs a real punch when it comes to issues of homophobia in the industry and beyond that still resonate deeply today. COVER STORY, though, is also so much fun—a beautifully described Los Angeles setting, a sexy starlet at the brink of major fame, and a love story truly worth rooting for. I laughed, I cried, I wanted to pet Glen the dog."
—Amy Spalding, bestselling author of For Her Consideration
"Cover Story is a sharply written, delightfully boisterous novel about celebrity, publicity, anxiety, and sexuality that is both a celebration of love and an insightful examination of loss. It will be the smartest and sexiest romantic comedy you’ll read this year."
—Camille Perri, author of The Assistants and When Katie Met Cassidy
"Cover Story is everything you want a rom-com to be—hilarious, heartbreaking, sexy, and filled with early aughts nostalgia. I defy anyone to not be swept off their feet by Hollywood heartthrob Cara Bisset."
—Laura Kay, author of Making It
—Laura Kay, author of Making It
"Cover Story is a supernova of a romance novel, bursting with humor, heartbreak, and hope. Celia Laskey takes readers on an unforgettable journey through closeted celebrity hijinks in early 2000s media and the emotional rollercoaster of love after loss. Ali and Cara have a permanent place in my heart."
—Susie Dumond, author of Looking for a Sign
"With humor, wit, and realistically flawed characters, Laskey brings us a beautifully layered, queer love story that delivers on forbidden romance with a Hollywood backdrop. Beneath the surface, COVER STORY explores identity, the depths of grief, and changing friendships, making it so relatable, you simply don't want to put it down."
—Ashley M. Coleman, author of Good Morning, Love
Praise for So Happy for You
"Hilarious and wise, So Happy for You reveals the deeper and more sinister truths behind one of society’s most commonplace institutions—marriage, and does so with a pitch-perfect, relentlessly inquisitive narrator at the helm. At its core, this is an investigation of friendship and just how much we will sacrifice of our true selves in the name of tradition. This novel made me laugh, made me think, and spun its way to a wholly surprising and thrilling conclusion, where ‘together forever’ takes on a much more terrifying connotation than most of us can imagine. Laskey is a magician, combining the important social commentary this genre needs with a knock-out page-turning narrative that will leave you guessing to the last page." —Chelsea Bieker, author of Godshot and Heartbroke
"Hilarious and wise, So Happy for You reveals the deeper and more sinister truths behind one of society’s most commonplace institutions—marriage, and does so with a pitch-perfect, relentlessly inquisitive narrator at the helm. At its core, this is an investigation of friendship and just how much we will sacrifice of our true selves in the name of tradition. This novel made me laugh, made me think, and spun its way to a wholly surprising and thrilling conclusion, where ‘together forever’ takes on a much more terrifying connotation than most of us can imagine. Laskey is a magician, combining the important social commentary this genre needs with a knock-out page-turning narrative that will leave you guessing to the last page." —Chelsea Bieker, author of Godshot and Heartbroke
"So Happy for You is the sort of devilishly clever summer read I crave. Like the worst wedding in history, I watched it unfold with my hands over my eyes and a laugh in my throat, eager to see it fly off the rails."
—John Fram, author of The Bright Lands
"Celia Laskey's sly thriller completely transfixed me from beginning to end. Tart and playful, this tale of a wedding weekend gone fatally wrong is part psychological game, part societal inquest, and part best friend break-up from hell. I loved this trim and thrashing read."
—Amy Jo Burns, author of Shiner
“Magnificent. In So Happy for You, Celia Laskey has masterfully crafted the tense, messy, big-hearted, and deeply original queer love story we didn’t know we’ve been waiting for, as much full of human characters as incisive social commentary. I can’t wait to see what Laskey gives us next.”
—Peter Kispert, author of I Know You Know Who I Am
“So Happy for You skewers the wedding-industrial complex with uproarious bitterness and gleeful fury, and a spiraling absurdism that will leave you wondering whether it's all that absurd after all. If you've ever gritted your teeth through a nightmare wedding, this one's for you. A firecracker of a book.”
—Micah Nemerever, author of These Violent Delights
"[A] campy, captivating and slightly creepy exploration of the complexities of female friendships and the wedding industrial complex."
—E! News
"At once hilarious and insightful... a great beach read."
—Shondaland
"Funny, dark, [and] slightly crazed...So Happy for You is part romp, part social commentary on being a queer woman in a culture dead set on literally zipping women into tight dresses and marching us down the aisle."
—Glamour
"Laskey excels at writing queer fiction that dazzles...So Happy for You is the kind of book best enjoyed with no distractions, beside a beautiful body of water."
—Vogue
"Campy, eerie, and unexpectedly very funny."
—Cosmopolitan
Praise for Under the Rainbow
“Laskey composes elegant portraits of each character, drawing us into intimate worlds that pulse with light and sound…these individuals will come together in ways that leave them forever altered; a few will even grow to recognize the humanity in people they’ve long reviled. In Laskey’s artful hands this moral is delivered with such conviction and grace that it somehow feels fresh, and thus, essential.” —New York Times Book Review
“Laskey composes elegant portraits of each character, drawing us into intimate worlds that pulse with light and sound…these individuals will come together in ways that leave them forever altered; a few will even grow to recognize the humanity in people they’ve long reviled. In Laskey’s artful hands this moral is delivered with such conviction and grace that it somehow feels fresh, and thus, essential.” —New York Times Book Review
“Prismatic...intimate and psychologically keen...Laskey's vision of inclusion is all-encompassing.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Under the Rainbow will ring true for a wide audience, regardless of gender expression and sexuality, for its wry humor and universal truths.”
—Lambda Literary
“Celia Laskey's Under the Rainbow is a timely look into what it means to be queer in spaces that aggressively refuse you. Smart and compulsively readable, Laskey has woven together narratives that seek to embrace each other through the hurt. There is love and loss alike sandwiched in its pages; pain and pleasure. Laskey is a talented, sharp writer and her debut novel has its fingers on the pulse of the human condition.”
—Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things
“Under the Rainbow marks the arrival of a wildly talented, observant, political, feminist writer to the literary ranks. Celia Laskey is a true original, and she’s here to stay.”
—Emily Rapp Black, New York Times bestselling author of The Still Point of the Turning World
“Celia Laskey has written an excellent, big-hearted, and very funny novel about our contemporary divisions and grievances. Under the Rainbow is wonderfully current, yet it refuses to sacrifice love or empathy to politics, it refuses despair and destruction. Those of us who moved away from the rural places where we were born will recognize every one of her remarkable characters, and find in their braided stories incredible pathos and joy.”
—Shannon Pufahl, author of On Swift Horses
“I absolutely love this book. With wit and empathy, Celia Laskey has written a kaleidoscopic portrait of queer, rural life at a crossroads. . .The result is a novel that made my heart feel full.”
—Joseph Cassara, author of The House of Impossible Beauties
“The best sort of novel, one that leaves you sad it’s over but already looking forward to the author’s next.”
—Lori Ostlund, author of After the Parade