Product Description

Passion, power, sex, betrayal, and seduction–it’s all in a day’s work.

Having escaped to Hollywood after catching her boyfriend in bed with her best friend, London stage actress Kate McPhee is offered a gig on the popular daytime television series Live for Tomorrow. As Devon Merrick–police detective, car crash victim, and love interest for at least two men–she knows all the secrets and sins pulsating in fictional Hope Canyon. But the real drama is off the set, where the soap is indeed slippery.

Enter Meredith Contini, the show’s power-wielding diva. Meredith has two rules: Know your place and Stay in it. Kate broke both on day one, which is why she suddenly found her character switching sexual orientation. That brilliant solution came from Daphne del Valle, the show’s barking-mad obsessive/compulsive producer, who drives herself and her actors to enthrall the audience. (“Sell the hurt. Sell the rage. Sell the hunger. Sell the looooooove.”)

As gay detective Devon Merrick, Kate is a smash. The show is a hit. Kate’s private life seems to be becoming something of a drama itself. Especially since everybody thinks she really is gay, which is a problem since she thinks the best cure for her real-life broken heart is to get a man into her bed. But who? Kirk, her sexy, tan, and talented leading man, is boffing Meredith. There’s Matt, the magician who makes her tea, but will her fourteen-hour days keep them from the promise of tangled sheets? And there’s Wyatt, her handsome new co-star, who Kate believes is the great love of her life. Except that he’s married, and his
wife, Christine, is Kate’s new makeup artist and the one sane friend she has made in Los Angeles.

As the line between television and reality blurs with increasing speed, tension tightens and passions surge. Does Wyatt want Kate as much as she wants him? Will Christine find out? Will Kate lose her new friend? Will Meredith finally have Kate fired? Will Kate ever get to “come out” as heterosexual on the set? Are her steamy kiss scenes fated to be only with beautiful women?

Emmy Award—winning actress Finola Hughes whips up a frothy, scathingly funny novel worthy of any afternoon time slot in this delicious romp that takes readers through the twists, turns, and dish that drive the madness that is daytime television.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #462479 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-25
• Released on: 2006-07-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From Publishers Weekly
When stage actress Kate McPhee quits London for L.A., leaving behind her cheating boyfriend and former best friend (yes, they were in bed together), she speedily lands a gig on the hit soap opera Live for Tomorrow, playing its beautiful, vampire-fighting lesbian cop, Det. Devon Merrick. Sounds like a cushy job—until she discovers the 20-hour shooting sessions, the bevy of perfect blondes making her life hell, the vapid but oh-so-gorgeous men, and her archenemy, the domineering matriarch of the show, Meredith Contini, who's a girlie-girl 60-something still trying to play 35. Determined to succeed, Kate sucks it up and makes the most of the sunshine and the sexy-but-dumb men passing her way, but as her popularity grows, Meredith grows more and more jealous, and Kate's life starts looking more and more like a soap opera itself. Readers will enjoy this spicy, sly behind-the-scenes look at the soap opera world—Hughes won an Emmy for her work on General Hospital and her bio somewhat resembles her heroine's—and Kate is a funny, warm character who could have popped out of a Jennifer Weiner novel. The book is overlong, and the plot wanders from place to place, but the humor and good-natured banter make it worth the ride. Agent, Richard Barber. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
After catching her boyfriend in bed with her best friend, Kate McPhee leaves London for LA and a career in acting. She lands her first job in the soaps. But when leading lady Meredith Contini sees Kate as a threat, she changes the script to get even. However, Kate's popularity continues to rise. Finola Hughes's delivery is fast, clipped, and at times comedic, but the one-dimensional story line is both difficult to follow and tasteless. The steady pace of practice dialogue scenes seems endless and soon becomes irritating. This romp through the "soaps" will appeal only to soap opera fans, and not many of them. G.D.W. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
You'll never work in this town again? That may describe Hughes, after her fellow soapsudsers read the actress' first novel. Naturally, the action takes place in Pine Valley and Port Charles, the fictional settings of the two soaps, All My Children and General Hospital, on which Hughes played a leading role. Like Hughes, the book's heroine, Devon Merrick, is a Brit and a soap actress. The fun here is all for soap watchers; others will be put off by the book's convoluted narrative (much of the tale is told in the form of dialogue from Merrick's show Live for Tomorrow) and its over-the-top writing. But the behind-the-scene looks at off-screen romances, on-air sex, and backstage backstabbing will titillate fans, who will notice the similarities between the most unlikable character and a certain real-life soap star. This tiny terror totters around on four-inch heels, hawks products on QVC, and has her own Barbie-doll likeness--just like Susan Lucci, AMC's Erica. The ending is dumb, but Hughes wouldn't have had much practice with those--soaps go on forever. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Fun summer read
After reading through the classics in Univ. for 4 years, I will happily admit that on vacations/ the summer time, I enjoy a good beach read. That's exactly what Finola and Digby deliver in their first collaboration together. I have read my fair
share of chick lit, and beach reads, and with the exceptions of Bridget Jones, and more recently Bergdorf Blondes, I have yet to find very many that are consistently fun, cheeky and keep yo you throughly entertained from beginning to end. However, Soapsuds also hits the mark in my humble opinion. It has a few flaws that are typical in a first try, but overall, if you are looking for a fun read, grab Berdorf Blondes (a 5 out of 5) and Soapsuds.

Welcome to the world of soap operas.
When London stage actress Kate McPhee finds out that her boyfriend and best friend are in bed together, she decides to accept the role offered to her from Hollywood. Off Kate goes to begin her role as gay Detective Devon Merrick on daytime televison show "Live For Tomorrow". Devon is a police detective, a master or martial arts, a love interest for two or more men (and women), and a hard core vampire huntress!

The show's wild and unpredictable producer, Daphne del Valle told Kate to "Sell the hut. Sell the rage. Sell the hunger. Sell the loooooove." And that is exactly what Kate does! She is on her way up the escalator of fame. But even though her character on the show is gay, Kate is not in reality. Yet the public is not listening. The character, Devon, has taken a life of her own. Kate decides that what she needs is a man in her bed. But who? There is a magician, a dog with four dogs, a co-star, and no end in sight. Problem is she has no one near and dear except her cat.

To make matters worse, there is the show's power-wielding dragon ... uh, diva. Meredith Contini considers herself the queen on the show and resents Kate almost from the start. Not wanting competition from Kate, Meredith begins battle plans to have the newbie fired.

**** Welcome to the world of the soap opera, where characters can be killed off or scarred beyond recognition only to reappear the next season with some sort of zany or lame excuse.

Finola Hughes and Digby Diehl team up to bring the Hollywood soap opera feeling to life in novel form. Now you can take a soap opera with you where ever you may go. Whether Kate's off camera life is anything like the one of a real soap star is unknown by me. But it sure is a lot of fun to read. Here you will see some of daytime's secrets in making those dramatic, pulse pounding scenes. For those of us who do not watch daytime television, pick up this novel and see how crazy the life of a TV personality can be. It is enough to make the Stars' pull their own hair out. (Perhaps they should put some stock in wigs.) An excellent drama that will have you laughing often. ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.