Book Summary: 

Lilah Hunter and Shane McCarthy are madly in love—at least, their characters are. As the stars of the hit paranormal TV show Intangible, Lilah and Shane spent years pining for each other onscreen . . . until Lilah ditched the show at the end of season five in hopes of becoming a movie star. With no such luck, she’s back to film the much-hyped ninth and final season, in which Lilah and Shane’s characters will get together at last.

But coming back means facing one of the biggest reasons she left: Shane. Ever since their secret behind-the-scenes fling imploded at the end of season one, the two of them have despised each other.

Now reunited on set for the first time in years—with the world’s eyes on them and their post-show careers on the line—they’ll have to grit their teeth and play nice. But under pressure to give Intangible’s fans the happy ending they’ve been waiting for, Lilah and Shane are forced to get closer than ever. And if they’re not careful, they might just get blindsided by one final twist: a real-life happy ending of their own.

My Review:

While I wouldn’t label this a romantic comedy, as a contemporary romance with a friends to lovers to enemies to lovers vibe, Will They or Won’t They takes you behind the scenes of what makes and breaks a Hollywood couple, the ups and downs of making it big, and how getting everything you wish for may be more of a curse than a blessing.

You never know where life will take you. At least that is what Lilah contemplates as she returns to the set of the show she left behind in a blaze of glory. Never in a million years did she expect to find herself back on the set of Intangible. When she left at the end of season five, her future was in front of her and the mistakes of the past were on the other side of the bridge burned in retaliation to a heated goodbye with her former flame Shane. Now returning, humbled by her lack of options, humiliated by career failures, she has no idea how to find her place amongst the people she thought she could do without, including a costar that can’t stand the sight of her. It wasn’t always this way, once upon a time Lilah and Shane were a team, partners, as well as lovers. Passionate and all in with everything they do, an overreaction lead to a series of petty paybacks that ripped them further apart. That was then, this is now and the probability of making amends is looking less and less possible. As the last season of the show moves forward, tempers are high, hostility is front and center, and the only way to get this last project over with is to resolve the issues of the past, putting the ghost to rest once and for all.

Will They or Won’t They is thought provoking, insightful, detailed, and evolving. Jumping from past to present, you get the full picture of what happened. As each incident is rehashed, you find yourself shifting from taking one person’s side to the other until you realize both were equal to blame. Having been given the tools to deal with her anxiety and bullying, Lilah was a fortress to anyone who wanted to get close to her. From the experiences she had in her youth, completely understandable but she was so determined to protect herself at all cost, no one of intimate interest could get in – especially Shane. For her, Shane didn’t know her, have feelings for her, and was just like everyone else who simply loved the idea of her. She worked harder to push him away than she did to let him in. Shane wasn’t innocent either, going out of his way to hurt her in retaliation of feeling rejected.

While the book itself felt extremely drawn out, the main characters kept you intrigued as you didn’t know which moment was going to be THE moment. It was like watching a game of chicken, waiting to see who caved first. Lilah fighting the idea of love or falling in love with every part of her being. Shane rejecting that his feelings not only didn’t subside, but were stronger than they were before. In true callback to the name of the book, you held on wondering if they would or would not get together and which way was better for the both of them.

There was a lot of passion and heat in this book. From the flashback, to the almost moments in the present, the intimate shoot, pushing buttons to get to one another, there was so much sexual tension but when the Ava actually allowed the characters to connect, to come together – there was an explosion of emotion, so much unsaid that the intensity of those pages were some of the best parts of the books – not because of the steam but because of the rawness and vulnerability of the characters.

The characters were frustrating yet so insightful. For Shane – he didn’t know what he wanted out of his life, he just wanted to take care of those in it. Thrust into the limelight, he was taken away from what made him happy but put in a position where the people pleaser in him could thrive. His family, his fans, his coworkers – if he kept doing what was asked of him – he would be ok. With the show ending, he had to face a reality he had successfully avoided – what happens after.  For Lilah – her constant battle of past and present kept her (and the reader) spinning. Two timelines splitting two different personas – raging war on her anxiety. She is an example of “if I knew then what I know now”. When she was younger, she refused to sacrifice for the sake of possibilities. Her future was ahead of her and the sky was the limit. Jumping into the present, knowing where the road chosen takes her – she can’t go back and redo it and can only rummage through the destruction she caused when she set of the bomb by leaving the show. Her full circle return was the last thing she wanted but having her present self met her past mistakes was ingenious.

The idea of couples therapy in the book was brilliant. It forced the characters to have the conversations they were determined to avoid. Hashing out situations that would have otherwise remained roadblocks to their ability to move forward. This allowed the reader to see the inner workings and the outer responses, proving how solid of a wall they were determined to build around each other.

Lilah’s lightbulb moment at LNL was insane. For this entire book, she was the holdout and you almost gave up on anything changing that. Call it self-righteousness, self sabotage, nothing seemed to be able to change her mind or attitude towards a possible future with Shane. If the L word came into her thoughts, she rationalized it’s impossibility. It took seeing what she would have dubbed at the ultimate revenge/payback/comeuppance – watching him fail to finally make her realize how much she cared. It was such a quick reversal that you almost didn’t believe it and had to re-read it to make sure you weren’t mistaken. 

Will They or Won’t They will capture your attention and keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. If you thought Ross and Rachel were complicated, Lilah and Shane will blow your mind.