by Ann Garvin
First published 2023
Poppy Lively's accountant stole every dollar she had. Now she's broke, about to lose her house, and running out of options. When an old flame who became a Hollywood producer offers her a job in the costume department on a film set, she takes it. She packs her bags, keeps the whole thing secret from her daughter, and flies to Los Angeles. The problem: Poppy has never worked in wardrobe, barely watches movies, and cannot sew. She spends her first days at the studio floundering and invisible, until a difficult movie star named Allen Carol notices her. Carol is drawn to Poppy's bluntness and her total lack of interest in celebrity. Then Poppy stumbles onto something corrupt happening on the lot. Nobody takes her seriously, and she decides to use that. Figuring out who is at the center of it costs her something real. What started as a desperate grab for financial survival turns into a question she cannot dodge: keep her head down the way she always has, or speak up. A scruffy dog helps. Ann Garvin, USA Today bestselling author of I Thought You Said This Would Work, delivers a funny and genuinely moving story about a woman who had nothing left to lose.
Genres: drama, contemporary, adult-fiction, comedy, mystery-thriller
Vibes: character-driven, emotionally-moving, empowering, funny, heartwarming
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, second-chance, speaking-truth-to-power, unlikely-friendship
Setting: Los Angeles, Hollywood
303 pages · Paperback · Lake Union Publishing