About the Book

Book: Getting Reel

Authors: Alyssa Roat and Hope Bolinger

Genre: Christian Sweet Contemporary Romance

Release Date: August 5, 2023

When explosive personalities collide, can a control-freak director and last-chance actress work together to win a film competition?

Ryan Torino loves the feeling of control, especially when it comes to his photography work and indie movies. And when he gets the opportunity to enter an indie film festival—rumored to have Hollywood bigwigs attending—he can’t afford for anything to be less than perfect, especially the casting of his leading role.

Enter Zinnia Preston, who has been trying to break into the acting scene since college. Now in her late twenties and working the not-job-of-her-dreams, Zinnia knows this indie film project may be her last chance to make it onto the screen. Ryan is intimidated by Zinnia’s strong personality, but he can’t deny she’s the one for the job. Meanwhile, Zinnia wants to throttle Ryan for his perfectionistic tendencies, but she needs this gig.

The tension between the two threatens to derail the project, and to both of their frustration, clashing visions aren’t the only reason sparks seem to fly every time they interact. When an old nemesis arrives back in town, Zinnia and Ryan will need to set aside their differences and work together to have a chance at winning. If not, they can kiss that Hollywood riding-into-the-sunset ending goodbye.

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About the Authors

Hope Bolinger is the managing and acquisitions editor at End Game Press and the author of 25+ books. When she isn’t accidentally writing a book in seven days, she likes to model, do theater, and hike around northeast Ohio. Find out more about her at Hopebolinger.com

Alyssa Roat is a multi-published author and has worked in a wide variety of roles within the publishing industry as an agent, editor, writer, and publicist. When not reading and writing, she likes to swordfight, rock climb, throw axes, and generally engage in tomfoolery with her silly cats. Her name is a pun, so you can find more about her at alyssawrote.com.

More from the Authors

Something many people don’t know about me (Hope) is that I’d planned to go into film before college. I did an internship at a great Christian film company my senior year of high school.

And I’m actually dating someone who had worked for Netflix and Disney for a while.

Even Alyssa, my coauthor, did a semester in LA to learn all about film.

So why did all of us leave it?

Well, we felt called to publishing instead. As for my boyfriend, he’s waiting for that next door. Perhaps it’ll be opened by the time this post goes up.

In the book, we tackle not only the film industry, but the idea of control. I think, if we’re honest with ourselves, we like to micromanage whatever we can. Alyssa and I each wrote a character whose circumstances are way beyond their control.

Zinnia feels like she’s too old to jump into the Hollywood scene now. And Ryan feels torn between his love of film and the pressures his family puts on him to join their business.

The entire cast of characters seems to want to control everything.

I don’t want to spoil anything, but let’s just say—like Alyssa and myself—the characters do have to learn how to put their plans in God’s hands. Knowing that whether or not he allows them to continue into the world of film, that he has everything under control.

And maybe we as readers need that reminder too.

That no matter if we’re being controlling, or have someone in our lives who is trying to micromanage everything, ultimately, we have a powerful Creator who knows the number of hairs on our heads.

It was bittersweet to end this series with Alyssa, our last coauthored work together. I don’t know when we will get a chance to coauthor again, but hopefully we can.

This process has taught us about control. Letting go, letting other ideas in. Knowing that book deadlines and publication dates don’t always go to plan.

And honestly? I wouldn’t have it any other way.

My Thoughts

Getting Reel is another amazing story written by Alyssa Roat and Hope Bolinger. I love the two characters they have created. Ryan and Zinna are so very different from each other.

Ryan wants to break into the film business. However he struggles with OCD and is trying to manage that. He’s been getting discouraged since his big break hasn’t happened and it looks like he is going to have to set aside his dreams work for his dad.

Zinna is dealing with strained sibling relationships. She wants to make it as an actress. Another dream that is seeming hard to achieve. Zinna is also feeling that she’s never going to measure up to her sister. She struggles with insecurity.

Zinna and Ryan do not get along right away. However we see God working and they learn to heal. We also see that sometimes what we want isn’t what God wants.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Celebrate Lit for allowing me to read a copy of this book, all thoughts are my own.