The Hollywood Assistant by May Cobb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
After a tough break-up, Cassidy Foster, ends up accepting a new job halfway across the country, via her well-connected best friend, Lexie.
Cassidy moves from her native-Texas to California to take a position as a personal assistant for a wannabe actress, Marisol, and her director husband, Nate Sterling. The glitzy couple welcomes Cassidy into their home with open arms, and she’s quickly taken up into their tumultuous lives.
It’s an amazing gig. Cassidy just needs to help them with various tasks a few hours a day and she’s going to be pulling in more money than at her last thankless job.
The more she gets to know the couple though, the more cracks she begins to see. Perhaps they aren’t so perfect after all, and even though it’s Marisol she’s really meant to be assisting, it’s Nate she’s finding herself most drawn to.
He begins asking her to read scripts for him, and seems quite pleased with her work. Then he starts asking for other things, and their relationship develops.
It’s clear to her now that they aren’t the perfect couple. When one of them ends up dead however, Cassidy becomes the authorities perfect suspect.
How is she going to convince them of her innocence when all signs are pointing to her? Granted, she hasn’t made the best choices in this whole thing, but she isn’t guilty, right?
Maybe Cassidy is not as a reliable of a narrator as you’ve been led to believe…
I’m a May Cobb stan, an enthusiast, if you will. I always look forward to her new books and offer forth no apologies for that. This was such a fun Summer Thriller, IMO. It gave me Summer vibes the whole way through, even though I have no clue in what time period it was actually set.
The L.A. setting, the glamorous food, drink and wardrobes, as well as the ritzy Hollywood couple with poolside hijinks, makes this absolutely scream Summer.
It’s full of obsession, deception, lies and OTT-drama, and I was here for every single freaking second of it. I will pick up anything Cobb writes, because we like what we like.
I love how risque this was. Cassidy’s position within this new job quickly becomes uncomfortable, but in such a fun way. Nate and Marisol were so hard to figure out. I wasn’t sure what was truth and what was lies.
I felt like she was being manipulated, but it was difficult to tell by who. That def kept me invested. Both Nate and Marisol seemed so sincere in their interactions with Cassidy. I thought all of that was very well composed by Cobb.
I know this type of twisted OTT-Domestic Drama isn’t for everyone, especially for Readers anticipating more thrills, but for me, Cobb’s stories always seem to hit.
I don’t watch any Reality TV, but I have a feeling that I’m getting the same dopamine rush that viewers who love those shows are getting when I read one of Cobb’s books. They’re just pure entertainment, and so far from my own life it’s not even funny, but it is.
As far as the ending, I saw what was happening way before our MC, but I felt like that made sense. Also, it added to the intensity. I was like yelling at my audiobook like you would during a great Slasher Movie, ‘look behind youuuu…’
Overall, I had a blast reading this. I was fully invested throughout and loved the various twists and scandalous drama along the way.
Thank you to the publisher, Berkley, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I look forward to WHATEVER high octane drama Cobb comes up with next!!