Product Description

Passion, power, sex, betrayal, and seduction–it’s all in a day’s work.

Having escaped to Hollywood after catching her boyfriend in bed with her best friend, London stage actress Kate McPhee is offered a gig on the popular daytime television series Live for Tomorrow. As Devon Merrick–police detective, car crash victim, and love interest for at least two men–she knows all the secrets and sins pulsating in fictional Hope Canyon. But the real drama is off the set, where the soap is indeed slippery.

Enter Meredith Contini, the show’s power-wielding diva. Meredith has two rules: Know your place and Stay in it. Kate broke both on day one, which is why she suddenly found her character switching sexual orientation. That brilliant solution came from Daphne del Valle, the show’s barking-mad obsessive/compulsive producer, who drives herself and her actors to enthrall the audience. (“Sell the hurt. Sell the rage. Sell the hunger. Sell the looooooove.”)

As gay detective Devon Merrick, Kate is a smash. The show is a hit. Kate’s private life seems to be becoming something of a drama itself. Especially since everybody thinks she really is gay, which is a problem since she thinks the best cure for her real-life broken heart is to get a man into her bed. But who? Kirk, her sexy, tan, and talented leading man, is boffing Meredith. There’s Matt, the magician who makes her tea, but will her fourteen-hour days keep them from the promise of tangled sheets? And there’s Wyatt, her handsome new co-star, who Kate believes is the great love of her life. Except that he’s married, and his
wife, Christine, is Kate’s new makeup artist and the one sane friend she has made in Los Angeles.

As the line between television and reality blurs with increasing speed, tension tightens and passions surge. Does Wyatt want Kate as much as she wants him? Will Christine find out? Will Kate lose her new friend? Will Meredith finally have Kate fired? Will Kate ever get to “come out” as heterosexual on the set? Are her steamy kiss scenes fated to be only with beautiful women?

Emmy Award—winning actress Finola Hughes whips up a frothy, scathingly funny novel worthy of any afternoon time slot in this delicious romp that takes readers through the twists, turns, and dish that drive the madness that is daytime television.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1076011 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-25
• Released on: 2006-07-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From Publishers Weekly
When stage actress Kate McPhee quits London for L.A., leaving behind her cheating boyfriend and former best friend (yes, they were in bed together), she speedily lands a gig on the hit soap opera Live for Tomorrow, playing its beautiful, vampire-fighting lesbian cop, Det. Devon Merrick. Sounds like a cushy job—until she discovers the 20-hour shooting sessions, the bevy of perfect blondes making her life hell, the vapid but oh-so-gorgeous men, and her archenemy, the domineering matriarch of the show, Meredith Contini, who's a girlie-girl 60-something still trying to play 35. Determined to succeed, Kate sucks it up and makes the most of the sunshine and the sexy-but-dumb men passing her way, but as her popularity grows, Meredith grows more and more jealous, and Kate's life starts looking more and more like a soap opera itself. Readers will enjoy this spicy, sly behind-the-scenes look at the soap opera world—Hughes won an Emmy for her work on General Hospital and her bio somewhat resembles her heroine's—and Kate is a funny, warm character who could have popped out of a Jennifer Weiner novel. The book is overlong, and the plot wanders from place to place, but the humor and good-natured banter make it worth the ride. Agent, Richard Barber. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
You'll never work in this town again? That may describe Hughes, after her fellow soapsudsers read the actress' first novel. Naturally, the action takes place in Pine Valley and Port Charles, the fictional settings of the two soaps, All My Children and General Hospital, on which Hughes played a leading role. Like Hughes, the book's heroine, Devon Merrick, is a Brit and a soap actress. The fun here is all for soap watchers; others will be put off by the book's convoluted narrative (much of the tale is told in the form of dialogue from Merrick's show Live for Tomorrow) and its over-the-top writing. But the behind-the-scene looks at off-screen romances, on-air sex, and backstage backstabbing will titillate fans, who will notice the similarities between the most unlikable character and a certain real-life soap star. This tiny terror totters around on four-inch heels, hawks products on QVC, and has her own Barbie-doll likeness--just like Susan Lucci, AMC's Erica. The ending is dumb, but Hughes wouldn't have had much practice with those--soaps go on forever. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
FINOLA HUGHES was born and educated in London. She originated the role of Victoria in the West End production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats, and made her American film debut in Staying Alive. Perhaps best known for her role as Anna Devane on General Hospital–a role she played for seven years, winning an Emmy in 1991–Hughes resurrected the character on All My Children. Now the host of How Do I Look? for the Style Network, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband, artist Russell Young, and their sons, Dylan and Cash.

DIGBY DIEHL is the bestselling co-author of The Million Dollar Mermaid and Angel on My Shoulder. A noted book critic, he is working with Coretta Scott King on her memoirs. He lives with his wife, Kay, in Los Angeles.


From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic Summer Read
You won't be letdown if you buy this wanting a fun insider look into daytime tv. Though fiction, the writer hits a homerun with her take on life in the Soap-lane. Definitely a great beach or pool book!

Hughes writes a winner
I found this novel to be a laugh out loud joyride. The characters are likable and interesting in their absurdity. Kate is great, Meredith and Daphne are a riot. I totally recommend this book.

SO much better than expected.....
I picked up the audiobook of Soapsuds expection to be amused, but nothing more. I was really pleasantly surprised, this book is surprisingly funny and well-written. The story centers on Kate McPhee, a Bristish stage dancer and actress who takes a job on an American soap opera, Live For Tomorrow (just like the author, Finnoula Hughes). The result is part fish-out-of-water story, part coming of age tale. It truly doesn't have much of a plot, but following Kate's experience is still vastly entertaining. Sometimes the Alice in Wonderland references get tiresome, but that is the basic theme of the book.

The first day at work, Kat's impressive acting skills earn her attention of the show's over-the-top alpha female producer, Daphne, but also the show's resident diva, Merideth Contini. The resemblance between Meredith and Hughes' real-life former co-star Susan Lucci is uncanny, and even the characters have similar names- Regina Abel and Erica Kane. (Get it- Cain and Abel?) The detestable Merideth's jealousy and divalike tantrums get Kate's character, Detective Devon Marrick, switching sexual preference straight away. But the change makes newcomer Kate more popular than ever, and leads to a big level of fame for her that she has a tough time getting used to.

Throughout the book, we go through Kate's friendships with other cast members, as well as her relatioonships with men- or rather, the barely-there relationships that can exist when she works 12+ hours a day. She had her heart broken by her ex in London, and he eventually shakes her up further by showing up in LA. There is also a magician, a writer with 4 dogs, and finally, a married co-star who Kate falls for, who happens to be married to her best friend. The rest of the book is just a dishy behind-the scenes look at the soap opera world, but it is fascinating, and comes from someone who knows her stuff. The characters have surprising warmth and depth, and Kate is a very likeable and actually relatable. The narrator of the audiobook is fantastic, and is wonderful at doing vioces. Overall, a great listen.