Review: Headlines by Ella Frank
SYNOPSIS:
USA TODAY bestselling author Ella Frank concludes the story of Sean Bailey and Alexander “Xander” Thorne in Headlines.
Xander
If I had to describe Sean Bailey, it would be as the sexy, caring, wonderful man I’ve gone and fallen in love with. I never could’ve imagined a world where he was my everything. But with each passing day, the connection between us grows stronger, and the idea of a world without him is something I can’t imagine.
But Sean’s love doesn’t come without complications. As the older brother of my lifelong best friend, this new love has caused relationships to break down and communication to become stilted, and the one question that remains is: am I willing to give up the love and friendship of one for the chance of love and forever with another?
Sean
I didn’t mean to fall in love with Alexander Thorne, my brother’s ex and the number one prime-time news anchor in the country. I mean, no one could’ve seen that coming—least of all me. But that’s exactly what happened over these past couple of months: I fell in love.
That’d be complicated enough, I suppose, but Xander? Well, he fell in love with me too, and while it’s caused some major upset in the dynamics around here, I have to believe that a love this real can only lead to somewhere amazing.
This thing between us started out as a job, a friend helping out a friend. But after playing the role of Xander’s boyfriend, I find myself wanting the job full-time, because neither of us are playing anymore.
Headlines is the final book of the Prime Time Series and should only be read after book one, Inside Affair, and book two, Breaking News.
REVIEW:
I liked this story but I didn’t love it. Which I find to the be case when I usually hit book 3 in Ella Frank trilogies. In the case of the Prime Time series, book 2 and 3 could have been completely eliminated and just wrapped up in a novella. While I enjoyed all the steamy, sexy scenes between Xander and Sean, the story lacked substance. There isn’t really anything to carry the plot and for the most part, the book is just about them living their lives together.
Obviously, the main tension in this book is Bailey and his drastic reaction to finding out Sean is gay but is also in love with Xander. The majority of the story is Bailey having a temper tantrum and then with the flick of a light switch, he pulls his head out of his *ss and everything is fine. It all felt very over the top and unnecessary. In addition, it felt like a disservice to Bailey and Henri’s relationship, we already seen all the crap they went through in the Confessions Series and Ella did this couple dirt in this book. And a small detail that won’t leave my brain is that I wish Ella would clarify if Bailey/Xander are vers or bottoms. Both men are portrayed as exclusively bottoms in their respective stories and I have questions in regards to when they were together…
In terms of the Sean and Xander romance, well at the end of Breaking News we saw these two find happiness with each other and that was pretty much the theme in this story. They continue their HEA and do normal couple sh*t; meeting the parents, living together, arguing, and working out their differences. Again, while I didn’t hate this, there wasn’t really anything to carry me through the story plot wise.
I found myself getting bored at times and putting the book down. There was an attempt to make some external drama with a story leaking about Xander and Sean to a gossip magazine but it was such a minor blimp that it was swept under the rug and back to the narrative of Xander and Sean living their lives we went. I continued on and finished the book and I have to say, the ending was super cute. It was a nice surprise that wrapped things up in a bow. But overall, the plot line desperately needed more.
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