Reading the Paranormal: Stage Smart by Aly Stiles [Review]

Stage Smart (Work For It #8) by Aly Stiles
Format: ebook
Source: provided for review
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: March 4, 2024

Work For It
1. Street Smart
2. Heart Smart
3. Book Smart
4. Smart Mouth
5. Play Smart
6. Look Smart
7. Smart Move
8. Stage Smart - Paperback | Kindle

Aly Stiles
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

My record label had one rule… and I broke it.

In my defense, “don’t fall in love with your producer” isn’t exactly fair when your producer is Val Andrews, a sweet, talented, totally genuine prince in an industry of egotistical frogs. It’s especially not fair when your forbidden crush becomes a constant temptation while on tour with a vengeful ex and an enigma named Chad.

All I want to do is make incredible music and show the world I’m more than a vapid starlet. But when a cryptic memo reveals a sinister plot to destroy my career, it becomes clear there’s only one person I can trust—the one they said I can’t have.

Thoughts on Stage Smart: Okay. I'm going to say that I 100% know this is Val and Larinda's book, but Chad. Chad has grown on me. He's clueless and has the painful ability to make everything awkward within moments of starting a conversation, but he's not terrible. I mean, I kind of knew that from Nate and Nat's book, but this one really sealed the deal.

But enough about Chad and his Mer-Nuts and Mer-Kins and whatever other thing he comes up with that makes little to no sense. This is Val and Larinda's story. Val, who has been kicked around by his parents his entire life and doesn't see how wonderful and kind and TALENTED he is because of it. And Larinda, who doesn't know how to say no. Straight up, the lady is surrounded by people who do not have her best interests at heart and they put in her terrible situations and she just keeps going along with it because she's categorically unable to say NO.

Just about the only thing she's really fought for was having Val produce her album. And her record company is still trying to do everything possible to ruin that.

Now she and Val are on the road for her album tour and things are getting more and more complicated every time they turn around. Probably in part because of Chad, but that's another story for another day. Let's just say that Larinda is told to stay away from Val, the two of them can't stop chemistry-ing around one another, Larinda's sort-of ex is making everyone's life miserable, and Val and Larinda are forced to sneak around so nobody finds out about their relationship.

It's complicated and tangled and there's some double-agent spy stuff going on thanks to Chad. Because Chad.