Few people have more at stake than Poppy Peterson, publicist to NFL’s rising star quarterback, Cash Curran. Best friends since childhood, Cash lent a lifeline to Poppy after a setback, giving her a place to stay and handing her the reins in managing his publicity. Now Poppy has made it her sole pursuit to set him up for success, but she didn’t anticipate a Twitter fiasco—more specifically, she never thought Cash would be so stupid as to publicly hit on a popstar to his fifteen million Twitter followers. Lyric Adair is music royalty, past superstardom and in the realm of untouchable, but somehow she finds Cash’s attempts at flirting to be charming. The two initiate a romance, one that comes with a glaring NDA and a sit down with Lyric’s revered publicist, Rosaline Sinclair. Poppy has long admired Rosaline, but being on the receiving end of her attention is unsettling. Worse, Rosaline is convinced the romance will crash and burn. Cash and Lyric’s flourishing romance only forces Rosaline and Poppy into closer quarters where the tension is high and so is the heat. As Cash and Lyric get more serious, Rosaline and Poppy confront their flawed expectations as what they truly are: self preservation, and if they can set them aside to face the real music beating between them.
Only Alexandria Bellefleur could hand me a romance novel during these unprecedented times and leave me feeling hopeful despite it all. Bellefleur’s latest, Playing for Keeps, is a romance novel of epic pop culture references, twitter exchanges, meta curveballs, and of course an unconventional sapphic romance between two clashing publicists. As newbie publicist to an up and coming NFL star, Poppy Peterson attempts to have it all with celebrated publicist Rosaline Sinclair, while a powerful popstar and a football himbo engage in a poorly timed but nevertheless endearing romance. Playing for Keeps does not wait around to kick off this delightfully chaotic narrative, and in Bellefleur’s signature style it’s a witty and highly engaging romp through the trials of PR and modern fame. Bellefleur continues to play it close to home in the Pacific North West, a setting plentiful in queer romance and culture (complete with easter eggs to her former novels). The Alexandria Bellefleur Cinematic Universe—the ABCU as it were—is a dynasty entirely of its own and watching it flourish continues to be a joy for readers everywhere. Playing for Keeps marks a new shift for Bellefleur, unequivocally displaying her power in subverting the space between fiction and reality, with marvelous results.
Playing for Keeps can be enjoyed on the level of chronically online to the cannot tell-a-pop-culture-reference-to-save-their-life individual just here for a good time. Because beneath the premise of two publicists managing their clients in a reverse Set It Up situation—they wish they didn’t have to set it up, we have a deep look into familial boundaries, recovery from alcoholism, and the vulnerable act of putting yourself back together after a life setback. That and of course a complicated sapphic workplace (ish) romance. Bellefleur has always proven her ability to integrate the absurd with the real, showcasing this blend as essential for human existence. This time around her references are on another level with Twitter back and forths, magazine articles, and interviews relating to the popstar x quarterback romance and their two publicists (who are being shipped online). These online exchanges are humorous on the surface, but Bellefleur instills deeper references: like @ Evanbuckleystan98 leaving some deep cut commentary here and there. In Playing for Keeps the social media landscape is an essential component for its development, both on the level of plot and the romance. Bellefleur expertly ties this together with Poppy and Rosaline and the result is a distinctly layered contemporary romance with myriad pop culture moments to sink your teeth into.
It’s safe to say that so long as Alexandria Bellefleur is writing romance, things aren’t looking so bad. Romance as a space where characters can make mistakes and take charge of their lives is very much Bellefleur’s playing field. I loved her attention to boundaries and going no contact with family members who are no longer serving your mental health and life goals. Poppy’s struggles with being an afterthought, parental neglect, and being under scrutiny at all times was definitely the heart of this story. It’s a triumphant moment for her to realize she is not a failure and to surround herself only with people that believe in her competency. Though this romance is from a single point of view, Rosaline and the secondary romance still have a presence. The ins and outs of the PR management of Cash and Lyric’s romance is adjacent to everything going on between Poppy and Rosaline, but it still is a strong contender plot wise. Playing for Keeps does feel strictly oriented to this current moment in time, at least where the beginnings to this story come from and the various allusions to celebrities and general pop culture. Yet still it charmed me and it’s definitely a book I could venture back to again like most, if not all of Bellefleur’s extensive backlist..
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing the advance review copy.
Trigger warnings: alcoholism (character in sobriety, but discussed), parental neglect
Literaryrobin 