While that description might not appeal to some, let me get into what the book's about first. We meet Maggie, a drama teacher who was recently fired for trying to put on a play. While the play was for high schoolers, parents and the school board spoke out against her so she was fired. It ended up being a huge court case and it made Maggie fall out of love with teaching.

Due to that, she ends up on a talk show where she meets the creator of Waverley who hires her to be the show's intimacy coordinator. Who is starring on the show? Cole James. James played in a teen drama as a kid and since then, has mostly been known as his character. It's so bad that people don't even think he can handle a role on Waverley.

Even though Cole and Maggie get along immediately, Maggie doesn't hit it off with the show's other lead: Tasha. We eventually find out some backstory about Tasha which is related to some past trauma due to a predatory producer. If you're sensitive to that, please be sure to tread with caution as Tasha does have some moments during the story.

However, the book also does an excellent job of showing us what an intimacy coordinator is and what they do. It's a job that most people don't talk about and is something that hasn't been featured in a romance book I've read before. Honestly, it's such a fun twist on a regular Hollywood style romance and I loved that.

The other thing I adored was just how slow and tension-filled the romance between Maggie and Cole was. It was clear they didn't want to cross boundaries while working but seeing them fight their attraction for each other was delicious. While things did go the more predictable route, it was awesome to see how everything played out for them. Lastly, I just loved Cole's character and how he was portrayed. I'm sure a lot of teen actors and child stars go through the same struggles he did. Most of us see them as just one character and it's hard to reconcile that in our minds but I think Emma Barry did an awesome job, showing that.

I enjoyed this book! It was a good and interesting commentary on the film industry. I wish I connected with the characters more and believed the love story more, but overall was an entertaining read.

Bad Reputation is my first Emma Barry book, and it certainly won't be my last. It felt like watching a movie, being so absorbed into the story that, for a second, you forget it's not real. The characters are all fleshed out, and the narrative, while quintessentially Hollywood, is surprisingly unique. The consent in this story is off-the-charts amazing, and when the slow burn finally hits a boiling point, everything is glorious.

Bad Reputation is a well-written and entertaining slow-burn romance. I loved the premise, thought the story was unique, and found the characters intriguing. I enjoyed the romance and appreciated how the author handled the complicated situations.

My biggest issue with this book was the pacing. The pacing was too slow at times which made it hard to stay in the moment.

Overall, I thought this was an okay read and look forward to checking out more from this author in the future.

I love Emma Barry's writing so much and always have a great time! She is really great at showing the emotional connection of the characters so while this is a slowburn it almost does not feel like one. I also think she is really clever with some of her phrasing.

I really loved both Maggie and Cole as characters. They are both figuring themselves and their careers at in their 40s (I think) which was really cool to see.

I loved seeing an intimacy coordinator in action and seeing how passionate and great Maggie was at the job. The TV show setting was great.

I also loved the tiny secondary romance which was really cute and I loved how they came together and seeing them together afterwards.

This doesn't have a third act break up and has a third act conflict which mostly worked for me. It happened a tad late for my liking, but it's fine bc Maggie and Cole were mature and worked it out pretty quickly so it worked.

BUT ALSO THE ENDING WAS GREAT AND THE LAST LINE IN THE EPILOGUE HAD ME LIKE !!!!!!

Overall I had a great time with this one.

CW: creepy men in hollywood

I mostly like Emma Barry's books though I often feel they could be better, more complete.
In Bad Reputation we get an actor who was a teen star and is now struggling to find his way towards a more serious and fulfilling career and former drama teacher fired for staging an allegedly inappropriate play in her high school who is an intimacy coordinator in Hollywood.
I know, it is a lot and honestly, there was too much going on with the characters which made many aspects of the story appear just superficial. There is a lot external conflict (family issues, work-related stress, harassment, personal drama) and I felt it just lacked depth.
Cole was mostly motivated by a desire to make amends for his past but we never get to see what his big transgressions were. We constantly hear about his regrets but never learned any details about his mistakes.
Maggie, I can understand her struggles to settle into a completely new career, her sadness over the loss of what she though was the best path for her. But again, I feel like the termination of her teaching career was not explored in depth.
The work of intimacy coordinator was presented in great detail and I really liked it. The whole process of making movies from a more technical perspective was an interesting element in the story.
I overall liked the romance though their first intimacy scene did not work for me at all - too much directing, not enough spontaneity.
||The scandal with his agent did not make much sense to me but honestly, it's just a minor quibble||.
Way too neat happy ending, everything is resolved, all the villains are punished, all the good guys get their HEA and everything is right in the world. It's nice but more wishful thinking than reality for me.
Overall, I have mixed feelings about this book. It wanted to explore some Big Emotions but there was way too much external drama. Still, I like the author's style and appreciate the topics she explores, so I will definitely be reading more of her books.

CW: sexual harassments (off page, in the past), parental abuse (off page in the past), censorship

I loved it. I stayed up too late on consecutive nights to read this.

Maggie was fired from her job as a high school drama teacher for directing a play a parent objected too. Through twists of fate, she finds herself as the intimacy coordinator for a historical drama set in Scotland. Cole was a teenage heartthrob whose career has been steady if not high profile and who is deeply bothered by missing the signs of a toxic situation in his breakout role. Now he's ready to make a comeback as the star of the historical drama.

This is a story about Maggie and Cole, of course, but it's also a story about the things wrong with show business and the people working to make them better. I love how Maggie rises to and embraces the challenge of her new role, remaining professional despite her profound physical and emotional attraction to Cole. I love how Cole desperately wants to do the right thing for the people in his life. And I love how they both realize they love the other but absolutely cannot say a word because it would be unprofessional.

There's a major storyline dealing with Cole's best friend and her confronting trauma from an early role. And that trauma coming to confront her. It felt well handled yet was still completely gut punching. Maybe check content warnings if this pings for you.

Emma Barry is so deft at managing a story with internal emotion and lots of external plot. It was simply a joy to read.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was an interesting character driven romance novel. I really enjoyed both Cole and Maggie. Maggie was rather interesting because her character raised some interesting topics. I think that you will most definitely think when you read this one because of her job in the beginning and why she was fired. I have a hunch that some people are going to be triggered by this and not like it. I, on the other hand, really enjoyed it. Diverse families exist, love is love and all types of families deserve to be normalized. I think that the author handled this topic in a very real and interesting way because it has played out this way before across the county. The writing was well done throughout the book, and I found it utterly relatable. However, things did drag for me in the middle, and I found my mind wandering. It was easy to put the book down and then I was a little hesitant to pick it back up. I liked the characters; I just felt the pacing slowed down so much that I wasn’t fully engaged.

Emma Barry, the Author of “Bad Reputation” has written an appealing, witty and delightful novel. The Genres for this novel are Workplace Romance, Romantic Comedy, and Contemporary Fiction. The author vividly describes how the show must go on, and her colorful and dramatic characters. Maggie Nivens is a high school teacher that is fired for directing a questionable play. Now she has the opportunity to be an “Intimacy coordinator” on a new film. Have you ever heard of that role before? I didn’t but Maggie certainly provides extra emotional input. Cole James has had quite the reputation as an actor from years ago. Let’s just say he’s easy on the eyes, and has the reputation of being “easy”. Cole wants to be taken seriously.

Emma Barry provides information of how gossip, and powerful directors, producers take advantage. Will Maggie and Cole be able to provide a less toxic atmosphere, and show improved attitude in this industry? I highly recommend this thought-provoking show stopper.

Emma never disappoints with her romance novels. They are always unique and interesting. I always learn something any time I read one.

This one centered around Hollywood and intimate scenes. I never knew there were coaches for this kind of stuff. And it's good to know there are.

I liked the chemistry between the characters. The MLI was down to Earth despite being a celebrity. He was trying to get his career in order from being sort of a B lister for quite some time.

The FMC was fired from her teaching job for reasons that were unfair. So she was completely starting over.

Great chemistry and interesting story!

ooooh...this is a lovely slow burn with a couple that defies easy categorization. Cole is what you might call a "recovering himbo." He's an actor clawing his way back from the good-time-boy image he inflicted on himself from his time on a Degrassi (?) type show. Maggie, a former high school drama teacher who was run out on a rail by conservative reactionaries whose political blind spots had no regard for facts, is reinventing herself as a Hollywood intimacy coordinator.

It took me a hot second to see how her career progression would happen, but honestly? It makes perfect sense. As a former theatre kid (and theatre professional), the truly thoughtful people in the high school theatre space are the ones most concerned with safety, appropriateness, and boundaries. Full marks, chef's kiss, all the yes.

The rest of the story is such a lovely slow country dance of these two and their colleagues and friends coming together and making something wonderful (think: Bridgerton meets Outlander). There's some Hollywood bullshit and the bleak moment is a soft one (which I, for one, appreciated).

Some of the best romances leave you wanting books for the secondary characters, so let me go on the record as wanting Tasha's book.

Emma Barry gets better and better with every new book, and this was SUCH a total win from beginning to end, immersive and heartfelt, starring a couple who are older than the usual romance pairing (38 and 41, IIRC), trying to figure out the next act of their lives in the midst of a perfectly-realized and fascinating setting.

Cole is an actor who’s spent the last 16 years trying to make up for his thoughtless teen years, when he starred in a hit show and did a lot of stupid teenage stop, and torpedoed his career for a while. He’s not just trying to improve his career, though; he’s trying to make up for his years of not noticing what was happening around him, after a recent documentary brought out the toxic awfulness that happened to actresses on his show (not from him, but from the adults in charge). He’s just gotten his best role in years, starring in a season of Waverly - in this world, it’s the new hit show that’s an equivalent to Bridgerton, full of gorgeous costumes and romance and sex, and based on Sir Walter Scott’s Waverly novels (given happy endings). He’s desperate to prove himself as an actor and as a person.

(Can I just note that I LOVED that whole concept and was so pleased Emma included a fun set of details about the show after the end of the book? I would totally devour every episode if it were real.)

Maggie spent the last 16 years as a drama teacher and thought that would be her life forever - until a nasty rightwing parents’ group got her fired for putting on a supposedly “inappropriate” play. She won the lawsuit to get her job back, but the toxicity meant she couldn’t take it anymore. Now she has a second chance, as the intimacy coordinator on Waverly, and she’s desperate to make her new life and career work.

So it’s the worst timing for both of them to fall in love with each other…but it is the most satisfying slow burn, because they’re both grown ups who take their responsibilities and ethics seriously. Around 60% of the way in, I had to take a couple hours away because I was so full of EMOTIONS - I mean, they were SO PERFECT for each other! I needed them to be together! But also, I understood why they couldn’t, and I didn’t want them to throw away important things. Augh!

I loved the ending, and I just loved THEM, along wiht every fabulous moment along the way. And they were surrounded by SO many great characters in the cast and crew of Waverly. I loved every single vivid detail of the filming and prep work! And seriously, I want this show.


I really loved this book and will definitely be re-reading it!