Make Believe is a light-hearted love story, set in the cynical, cutthroat world of Hollywood. Dustin Prewitt is a handsome screenwriter with a taste for women, money, big houses, and hot cars. His life is turned upside-down after Laura Keene, his beautiful but crazy movie star wife, apparently commits suicide by drowning herself in the ocean. But Dustin's not exactly broken-hearted, because Laura comes from one of the richest families in America, which means he's about to come into an enormous amount of money. And then Dustin meets Penny Ruemmler, who rescues animals and works in a clothing store. He falls in love with Penny. But is Laura really dead? They never recovered her body. If she came back, would Dustin dump the penniless Penny to get back with his wife? Or would he give up everything for love?
Set in the bright lights of Hollywood, Epperson’s Make Believe centers on high-rolling screenwriter Dustin Prewitt and a series of events that challenge his cynicism. Dustin is married to the erratic Laura Keene, an actress experiencing a fall from fame and who has a pattern of cheating on her husband. After she discovers his own liaison with a Polish actress about to reach her own zenith of stardom, Laura goes off the deep end, disappearing into the sea and presumed drowned, leaving a note directly blaming Dustin for her death. In the aftermath, Dustin evaluates what his life has come to in the volatile world of celebrity and wealth, asking what he actually wants from himself. Does it include the selfless pet lover Penny?Making Make Believe stand out from others in the awakening-from-cynicism genre is its light touch and the convincing internal thoughts of its screenwriter protagonist, which prove almost meta in their analysis of his own life, as this storyteller proves an engaging stand-in for readers who are just as cynical or well-read (take your pick) when it comes to stories of romance or thoughts about how life imitates art imitates life. It’s all bundled together in Prewitt’s telling, which boasts crisp, engaging dialogue, insider Hollywood detail (“It’s always an ominous moment for your script when someone says he has some notes”), and a story that finds him building toward change–maybe even happiness.
The stakes get gradually higher and higher through each section of the novel, culminating with the reserved and logical narrator achieving an epiphany in surroundings he’d never have anticipated: maybe sometimes happy endings aren’t just for the rom-coms he occasionally writes, and that sappiness and cynicism are both just states of minds. Readers of upbeat commercial fiction who believe the same–and are tired of rom-com formula–will find a protagonist to root for and a story to savor.
Takeaway: This accomplished, upbeat novel finds a screenwriter facing his cynicism and maybe feeling his way toward love and happiness.
Great for fans of: Bridget Morrissey’s Love Scenes, Rachel Winters’s Would Like to Meet.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-
