Daytime Drama

by Sarahlyn Bruck

Overview

Soap opera star by day, harried, single mom by night, Calliope Hart's life is a delicate balancing act. When the network cancels her show, Callie's world crumbles and she must decide whether it's more important to fight to save the show or take a risk and start over from scratch.

By day, for 25 years, soap opera fans have known actress Calliope Hart as Napa Valley's resident diva, Jessica Sinclair. By night, Callie is a flustered breadwinner, scrambling to provide for her 12-year-old son and her mother. So when the network announces that her show will be canceled, Callie is beyond shocked—she doesn't know who she is anymore.

At first, driven by financial concerns for her family that include blackmail payments to her son's biological father, she rallies fans to save the show. But is that what she really wants? When she learns that her mother has been driving her son to auditions she's strictly forbidden—and worse, that he's been offered opportunities—Callie sees her own child's youth and drive in competition with her age and experience. Set in modern-day Hollywood, Daytime Drama is a story about having the guts to reach for the sky. Callie must decide whether to play it safe or summon the courage her son displays to risk her lucky meal ticket and reinvent her career—and, for the first time, test her mettle as an actress and a mom.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940180211378
Publisher:	Hamilton Street Press
Publication date:	07/25/2024
Sold by:	Draft2Digital
Format:	eBook
File size:	599 KB

About the Author

Sarahlyn Bruck writes contemporary women’s fiction and lives in Philadelphia with her husband and daughter. She is the author of Designer You, first published by Crooked Cat Books in 2018 and re-released by Hamilton Street Press in 2020. Designer You won the Indie Star Book Award for 2019 and was included on the 2018 “35 Over 35” list. Her second novel, Daytime Drama, will be published by TouchPoint Press in 2020. When she’s not writing novels, Sarahlyn moonlights as a full-time writing and literature professor at a local community college.

Editorial Reviews

2021-04-26
Bruck offers a novel about a soap opera actor who tries to follow her dreams.

Callie Hart is a caring mother, a loyal girlfriend, and a talented, veteran actor on the soap opera Napa Valley. However, unlike her “fiery, independent” character, Jessica Sinclair, Callie has a penchant for playing it safe, and when she learns that her soap has been canceled, her once-predictable future becomes a great unknown. At the same time, Jonah, her 12-year-old son whom she’s tried to protect from show business, begins to seek his own path, going on auditions without her permission. Meanwhile, Jonah’s irresponsible father, guitarist “Dirty Al” Karpowicz, asks Callie for an increase in his quarterly payments, for which he long ago gave up his parental rights; Jonah doesn’t even know his dad’s identity. Even Callie’s relationship with her current boyfriend, Napa Valley head writer Paul Kinder, grows fraught due to her reluctance to let him deeper into her life. Fortunately, Callie draws inspiration from the love of her loyal fans and learns to tap into her inner Jessica Sinclair. As she tries to save her show, she learns to take even bolder risks in life, opening her eyes to new possibilities for herself and those she loves. Bruck’s story is satisfying from beginning to end, and readers will particularly enjoy watching Callie’s transformation into a hero who rallies her admirers, overcomes adversity, and learns to dream bigger. Although much of the work is playful in tone, Bruck also tackles some serious subject matter along the way, such as the discrimination faced by middle-aged women in entertainment fields. Deftly defying convention, Bruck also gives her protagonist a boyfriend who’s younger than she is but whose eagerness to commit surpasses her own. The fact that Bruck provides the characters, even Dirty Al, with satisfying endings makes the book even more enjoyable.

A fun, frothy tale that will leave readers excited for a sequel.

Kirkus Reviews