Book Review: "The View Was Exhausting" by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta

When Taylor Jenkins Reid calls a book “a pure delight,” you listen. Boy, did I love this romantic, soapy story of a couple whose on-again, off-again relationship keeps the public utterly captivated!

“The world thought Win had the perfect love story with the perfect man, passionate and devoted, always breathless, always in the honeymoon stage, stormy and on-again, off-again but still that strange, magical thing: true love. But Win had something better than that. She had a friend, and a secret.”

Whitman “Win” Tagore is a beautiful British Indian actress whose talent is mesmerizing. She burst on the scene as a teenager and has had a successful career, but hasn’t quite reached the heights she deserves because the film industry has impossible expectations for an actress of color.

Sometimes the stress gets to her and publicity turns against her. And that’s when she turns to Leo Milanowski, the playboy heir to a hotel fortune, who at times is followed by his own cloud of trouble and ennui. The two have been romantically linked numerous times, and whenever they’re together their romance lifts both of them out of whatever scandal either faces and distracts the public into buying into their love story.

But while their romance is for show, there’s no denying the pull they feel for one another. And when Leo finds himself in the midst of a real scandal it threatens to undo everything—and it forces them to realize what’s real and what’s for show.

I thought The View Was Exhausting was just excellent. I love “Hollywood” novels even if this didn’t take place in Hollywood, and I thought it raised some interesting discussion about racism in the film industry. I was utterly captivated from start to finish!