Love Songs for Skeptics

October 15, 2020
With her childhood crush returned to London and her career on the line, a 30-something woman finds herself contemplating life and love. Zo� Frixos, the 34-year-old editor of Re: Sound, is being verbally accosted by boy-bander Jonny Delaney. In the middle of a party honoring Zo�'s mentor, Patrick Armstrong, Jonny, "The Cute One" in the impossibly popular group Hands Down, has decided to launch a tirade against Re: Sound's negative review of the band's latest album. The magazine, established in the 1960s heyday of Jimmy Page and Keith Richards, is now struggling in the age of digital media, but Zo� isn't about to let an artificial pop band take away what's left of their rock 'n' roll cred. Though she escapes with a pithy comeback, Hands Down's publicist--the infuriatingly tall, dark, and handsome Nick Jones--calls Zo� out, sparking a heated rivalry. To make matters worse, her publisher, Mike, has bad news: Re: Sound will be shut down if they can't get their circulation numbers up. Zo� is placing her hopes on scoring an interview with the reclusive Marcie Tyler, a legendary artist who has been out of the spotlight for a decade. But as Marcie's newly appointed PR man, Nick holds the key to Re: Sound's success, and he's not above using positive press for Hands Down as leverage. In her personal life, Zo�'s got another man vying for her attention: Her childhood crush Simon Baxter has returned after decades, as charming as ever. And with her brother Pete's big, fat Greek wedding on the horizon, moussaka's about to hit the fan. Zo�'s career struggles and romantic woes make for a relatable plot about what really happens after childhood dreams come true, and a vibrant cast of supporting characters adds plenty of humor and heart. Like a favorite playlist, this cozy rom-com hits the right notes.

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November 23, 2020
Journalist Pishiris’s lackluster debut follows a London magazine editor on her quest for love and career fulfillment. Thirty-something Zoë Frixos’s hopes for getting together with her longtime crush, Simon Baxter, who is newly single, are complicated when he starts spending time with his college friend Jessica Honey, who is now a famous singer. Zoë and handsome publicist Nick Jones initially clash when Zoë disparages one of Nick’s clients to him. Then Nick signs as a client Marcie Tyler, a multiplatinum-selling artist said to have influenced David Bowie, and Nick and Zoë work out a quid pro quo: Zoë will convey a message from Marcie to Jessica, with whom Marcie had a falling out, and Nick will arrange for an interview with the famously reclusive Marcie, which Zoë believes will boost sales and save jobs at her ailing music magazine. Zoë realizes that she’s attracted to Nick and frets about him and Simon while uncovering more about the bad blood between Jessica and Marcie, as well as a surprise about Nick. Unfortunately, flimsy characters and ill-advised passages (much ink, for instance, is given to a game of Risk) don’t do this any favors, and Pishiris fails to rework any of the many chick-lit tropes at play. This is an easy one to miss. Agent: Jemima Forrester, David Higham Assoc.