Cinematic Destinies Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given an advance reader’s copy of this book from SparkPoint Studio in exchange for an honest review.

Romance novels can be predictable. I’ve talked about this in my review of I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella. However, it’s not inherently a bad thing. Sometimes, readers want feel-good stories to balance out the sad and mopey ones. At the same time, for a romantic story to be good or even great, they have to have substance – something that readers will think about long after they’re done with the book. Cinematic Destinies by Patricia Leavy falls into that camp. Some people might predict the outcome beforehand, but it contains a lot of substance and touching scenes.

Cinematic Destinies is the third book in the “Red Carpet Romance” series. Legendary actor Finn Forester and his wife philosopher Ella Sinclair Forester met on location for the making of Jean Mercier’s film Celebration. The world has been entranced by their fairy-tale romance since Finn proposed to Ella on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. As the couple now prepares to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary, they wonder if their three children will ever find love. Eldest daughter Betty is in a medical residency program in New York City and has convinced herself that distancing herself from her emotions is the key to success. Youngest son Albert – a recent college graduate – is trying to find his footing in Boston while struggling with his identity. And, there is Georgia. She’s a free spirit, a spitting image of her mom, and an actress following her dad’s footsteps. Georgia has recently been cast in Mercier’s final film, mysteriously titled Beauty. When she arrives on set, sparks fly on set with her co-star Rupert Reed aka Roo. Is history repeating itself? How has growing up in the shadow of the world’s most iconic love story affected each of the Forrester children?

While Cinematic Destinies is the third entry in the “Red Carpet Romance” series, I haven’t read the other two, The Location Shoot and After the Red Carpet. Nonetheless, it can be read as a stand alone because it gives plenty of background information about what happened with Finn and Ella. That’s why I didn’t feel lost while reading it.

How predictable is Cinematic Destinies? I saw many plot points coming like the second-act breakups and third-act makeups with all the three adult children. At the same time, I didn’t feel cheated knowing that because the book’s intention was to make readers happy, and it succeeds on that.

What surprised me was how much introspection there was on Finn and Ella’s part about their relationship and how they raised their three kids. They are not as sentimental as one would think. For instance, they often wonder if their highly publicized romance created high expectations for their children to find love. They want their kids to find happiness with a special someone, yet they never really told them the full truth of how they achieved theirs. In addition, Albert struggles to come out of the closet to Finn due to growing up with cameras all around and his love for his dad. Finn wonders if he has truly been a good father because of this. 

Unlike the previous two books in the series, Finn and Ella take the backseat, so Betty, Albert, and Georgia can drive the plot. I found Betty’s and Albert’s stories to be the most interesting, for I can relate to them in various ways. The former buries her emotions while working in a medical residency even though she is fond of Khalid – her roommate and fellow resident. As mentioned earlier, the latter is struggling to come to terms with his sexual orientation. It also doesn’t help that he’s in a relationship with a guy named Ryan that he wants to keep private despite his boyfriend’s frustrations. 

While I noticed that Georgia and Roo’s romance followed the patterns one would expect in a romance novel, I still found them to be cute and charming. They have a lot of chemistry, which is seen by everybody around them, especially Jean Mercier aka the pseudo Francis Ford Coppola. Also, they had some adorable scenes while they traveled around Iceland during the breaks in shooting. However, during that sequence, I thought, “Ok, something has to happen. They can’t be this happy for this long.”

And of course, it went down the way I expected it to.

Even though the storylines with Betty and Albert were more engaging, my favorite scene in the book involved Georgia and Roo watching old movies together. They see Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This touched me because I actually watched the latter with all the guys I dated, including the man that became my husband. However, I became confused when Roo mentioned that it was banned by religious sects. As far as I know, it wasn’t. It was actually another movie, Monty Python’s Life of Brian. 

Cinematic Destinies by Patricia Leavy is a very good romance novel. While there are parts that were expected in a story like this, I was surprised by how deep it could get. I love that it shows how Ella and Finn’s whirlwind of a romance affected their children in different ways in their search for the one. Also, any story that references Monty Python will always have a pass in my book. I would recommend it to those who love fairy-tale romances and stories that involve actors, cinema, and coming into one’s own identity. Cinematic Destinies comes out tomorrow, September 9, so grab it wherever you get your books.

Before I go, I want to let you know that I had the opportunity to interview Patricia Leavy for the website. The transcript will be posted this Wednesday.

Also, I will be posting my 250th review next Monday. To mark this occasion, I will rate each of the 249 books that I have reviewed on this site, including this one. Be on the lookout for it this Friday!

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