First published 2012
Ruth Saunders brought her seventy-year-old grandmother from Massachusetts to Los Angeles with big screenwriting dreams. Now twenty-nine, she finally hits pay dirt when her sitcom The Next Best Thing gets picked up by a network. Ruth becomes the showrunner, but her celebration is short-lived. Difficult actors make impossible demands. Network executives obsess over budget numbers and ratings. Her unrequited feelings for her boss create awkward workplace moments. Meanwhile, her grandmother announces wedding plans that catch Ruth completely off guard. Ruth must navigate writer's room politics, on-set drama, and backstage power plays while trying to keep her show alive. As she discovers, getting your break in Hollywood is just the beginning. The real challenge is surviving success in a town where creative dreams collide with business realities. This is a story about a young woman learning what it costs to make it in entertainment, where professional triumph and personal happiness don't always align.
Genres: fiction, romance, literary-fiction, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Los Angeles, Massachusetts
Period: 21st-century
389 pages · Hardcover · Atria Books