Spoiler warning: this one covers the full arc of Spotlight, book two in Australian author Eden Finley’s Famous series. If you’re not caught up, bookmark this and read Pop Star first.
Ryder Kennedy quit the biggest boy band on the planet to be a dad, and Spotlight is the story of what happens when the music comes looking for him anyway.
I liked this one a lot, mostly because of Lyric Jones, who might be the most wholesome love interest I’ve met in Finley’s books so far.
READ MORE: My review of Pop Star, book one in the Famous series
Who are Ryder and Lyric?
If you read Hat Trick, you’ve met Ryder already.
He’s a former member of Eleven, the boy band at the centre of the Famous series, and Spotlight picks up two years after the group split.
Originally from Texas and estranged from his parents, Ryder now lives in Calabasas, off Mulholland Drive, where he does freelance producing work out of his home studio.
He’s also a single dad to Kaylee Margaret Kennedy. Her mother, Maggie Costa, has been Ryder’s friend since grade school and enlisted in the US Army straight out of high school.
Ryder didn’t leave Eleven because he was done with fame. He left because he didn’t want Kaylee growing up in the tabloids.
Then there’s Lyric: long blond hair usually up in a man bun, a voice that deserves a record deal, and a nannying job that sits well down his list of career plans.
Music runs in the family, at least by name. His brother Chord is an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles, married to Brenna, with a son named Chase, and his sister is Melody.
The premise: the nanny who can sing
The two meet by chance, and not smoothly, with Ryder overhearing Lyric tell his nephew exactly what he thinks of Eleven. It’s hilariously awkward.
Kaylee is having a hard time at preschool, Ryder is finding out he can’t do it all alone, and Lyric ends up with a job he assumes will be short-term.
Then Ryder hears him sing.
This is where the book gets its hook. Ryder never really wanted to give music up, and producing Lyric’s demo gives him a way back in without stepping on stage himself.
Lyric isn’t so sure. “I think I was born to run from it,” he says of the spotlight in the book’s blurb.
The story plays out over a few weeks or months, almost entirely in and around Los Angeles and mostly at Ryder’s place in Calabasas, before jumping ahead a few months for the ending.
After the sprawling map of Hat Trick, it’s a much smaller, cosier book: one house, one home studio and three people working out whether they’re a family.
Why Lyric makes the book
I love Lyric.
He’s wholesome in a way that never tips into boring, and he’s so clearly perfect for Ryder that half the fun is waiting for the two of them to catch up.
The dynamic works because each has what the other is missing. Ryder has had the fame and walked away from it; Lyric has the talent and keeps finding reasons not to chase it.
And all the while Lyric is falling for the whole package: not just the boss, but the idea of being part of Ryder and Kaylee’s family as more than the nanny.
It’s a nanny romance and a single-dad romance, but the music is what gives it weight. The question isn’t only whether they’ll get together, it’s whether either of them can have the career and the family at once.
READ MORE: My review of Hat Trick, the Fake Boyfriend book where Ryder first turns up
The Eleven of it all
Part of the appeal of the Famous series is seeing where each member of Eleven landed after the break-up, and Spotlight keeps that thread going.
Harley Valentine, the lead of Pop Star, is back in a supporting role.
There’s also Cash Kingsley, one of Ryder’s producing clients and a one-time hook-up. I have a feeling we’ll be hearing more from Cash later in the series.
What’s next
Spotlight is an easy one to recommend: sweet, warm and carried by a character I’d happily follow into another book.
I’m hoping the remaining books let us follow more of Lyric’s career, because his story feels like it’s only just started.
Next up is book three: Fandom, and more of the Eleven boys as I get deeper into the Famous series.
Spotlight is available for purchase at Eden Finley’s official website.
The audiobook, narrated by Iggy Toma playing both Ryder and Lyric, was released on November 17, 2020.
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Mild spoiler warning: this review contains spoilers for Can’t Say Goodbye, Football Royalty and Eden Finley’s Fake Boyfriend series.