Love isn’t Always Pretty in Liz Kay’s Monsters: A Love Story
I love to see truth in writing when it comes to love and relationships. Not the longing eyes or the soft caresses, but the real stuff. The love between two complicated, flawed, and entirely screwed-up humans.
Because that’s what real love looks like: Messy, complex, and absolutely wonderful.
It’s that same truth that drew me immediately into Liz Kay’s debut novel, Monsters: A Love Story. Kay doesn’t shy away from showing a recently widowed mother, Stacey Lane, who isn’t falling apart but definitely isn’t thriving, either. She’s in that daunting middle ground—the place of acceptance, with no desire to move forward.
Monsters: A Love Story
Hardcover $26.00
Monsters: A Love Story
By Liz Kay
Hardcover $26.00
And the least likely person to help her move on is famous movie star Tommy DeMarco. He’s a womanizer who will find any excuse to avoid real feelings or emotions, a fact that instantly draws him to Stacey. They are two incredibly lost humans thrown together in the sensational world of A-list Hollywood, after Tommy reads Stacey’s novel and wants to turn it into a movie. Which works for Stacey, who wants any opportunity to leave her life, if only for a few short days at a time. As they work together on this shared passion project, their unsteady, secret relationship tips over just as it is about to come alive.
This isn’t a novel for those look for overly romantic sex scenes, or flowery words of love and devotion; rather, it is for those who want to see honesty slowly emerge in two people who will do anything to hide their pain, including lashing out, numbing themselves, and pushing away those feelings they secretly long to experience. This pair has sex initially because they are drawn to each other, not because of love. And it’s their individual feelings of grief, loss, and confusion that eventually show them how much they have actually invested in each other.
Kay isn’t afraid to paint a raw portrait of a mother who doubts her ability to parent, and fights turbulent inner battles over the needs of her family versus the wants she has as an adult woman. Stacey has sex without feeling, strikes Tommy down with her sharp tongue, and doesn’t seek forgiveness for her actions. But at least she’s not alone in her harshness. Through it all, Tommy is there to call her out, match wits with her, and to reveal himself as a person who is just as flawed as she is, which might turn out to be just what she needs. Though Stacey tries desperately not to fall in love with Tommy, and even as others try to steer them away from each other, their fates were locked in from the day these two lost souls found each other.
An electric, fast-moving novel, you will be drawn into the lives of these two unlikely lovers as they navigate a burgeoning relationship, coming out of their shells and embracing the people they swore they would never let themselves become.
And the least likely person to help her move on is famous movie star Tommy DeMarco. He’s a womanizer who will find any excuse to avoid real feelings or emotions, a fact that instantly draws him to Stacey. They are two incredibly lost humans thrown together in the sensational world of A-list Hollywood, after Tommy reads Stacey’s novel and wants to turn it into a movie. Which works for Stacey, who wants any opportunity to leave her life, if only for a few short days at a time. As they work together on this shared passion project, their unsteady, secret relationship tips over just as it is about to come alive.
This isn’t a novel for those look for overly romantic sex scenes, or flowery words of love and devotion; rather, it is for those who want to see honesty slowly emerge in two people who will do anything to hide their pain, including lashing out, numbing themselves, and pushing away those feelings they secretly long to experience. This pair has sex initially because they are drawn to each other, not because of love. And it’s their individual feelings of grief, loss, and confusion that eventually show them how much they have actually invested in each other.
Kay isn’t afraid to paint a raw portrait of a mother who doubts her ability to parent, and fights turbulent inner battles over the needs of her family versus the wants she has as an adult woman. Stacey has sex without feeling, strikes Tommy down with her sharp tongue, and doesn’t seek forgiveness for her actions. But at least she’s not alone in her harshness. Through it all, Tommy is there to call her out, match wits with her, and to reveal himself as a person who is just as flawed as she is, which might turn out to be just what she needs. Though Stacey tries desperately not to fall in love with Tommy, and even as others try to steer them away from each other, their fates were locked in from the day these two lost souls found each other.
An electric, fast-moving novel, you will be drawn into the lives of these two unlikely lovers as they navigate a burgeoning relationship, coming out of their shells and embracing the people they swore they would never let themselves become.