The Redhead Plays Her Hand

Book excerpt: Grace’s star is on the rise with a new TV series, but then the director asks her to lose fifteen pounds. When she goes public with her struggles with weight, she suddenly develops a huge fan club of people who are happy to see a curvy actress speak up, and she becomes a flashpoint in society’s ongoing conversation about what’s beautiful and what Hollywood’s responsibility is to portray women of all shapes and sizes. Meanwhile, Jack is voted the Sexiest Man Alive and becomes a little too enamored with the star lifestyle. But while he can have anything he wants, he can’t have the one thing he really needs: a public relationship with Grace, which his manager says will hurt his career. When Jack begins to spiral downward into parties, booze, and Hollywood brat behavior, it’s time for Grace to set him straight—and maybe dare to walk the red carpet together, hand in hand.