I did something bad

The charm of Notting Hill butts up against the suspense of J.D. Robb in War's uneven debut. Khin Haymar, a freelance journalist in Yangon, Myanmar, is in a bad place after a messy divorce. She gets a chance to turn her life around when the editor-in-chief of Vogue Singapore offers her a job on staff if she can suss out secretive Hollywood heartthrob Tyler Tun's next move for a cover story. Media-trained Tyler is obviously hiding something, but before Khin can find out what, a drunk Australian stranger stumbles onto the set after their first meeting and assaults Khin--and Khin and Tyler accidentally kill him in self-defense. Tyler wants to go to the police, but Khin convinces him not to, arguing that their lives and careers will be ruined. But with the police continually showing up on set, and Khin's editor breathing down her neck, keeping any secret--let alone one this high stakes--grows steadily harder. The will-they-won't-they between the leads is gripping, but the story really shines in the ride-or-die friendships between Khin and her two best friends, Nay and Thidar, and between Tyler and his costar, May. Unfortunately, the otherwise lighthearted celebrity romance never quite gels with the murder plotline, creating a sense of tonal whiplash. This is a bumpy ride. (Oct.)

Hollywood meets Myanmar in a murder-meets-romance plot. Freelance journalist Khin Haymar jumps at the chance to do a cover story on Hollywood star Tyler Tun forVogue Singapore even as she's reeling from the recent end of her short-lived marriage. The assignment feels like a ticket to a permanent job and life in Singapore, away from her seeming failures in Yangon, Myanmar, where she lives and where Tyler is about to start filming a movie. Shadowing Tyler for two months and getting a scoop about his future plans seems like it will be easy--till the two of them accidentally kill a stranger who was menacing Khin on location at a park late at night. Though initially suave and genial to the point of unknowability, Tyler lets down his guard around Khin after they collude to hide the incident from the Myanmar police, a decision they make to avoid being railroaded into prison and ruining the first major Hollywood movie directed by and starring people from Myanmar. But Khin's professional goal and ethics start to war with her feelings for Tyler once he confides several secrets, setting up an inevitable third-act dark moment that any romance reader will see coming. This debut novel falls into the "romantic suspense" category and shows some newbie flaws, including a greater reliance on telling rather than showing character traits. But the Myanmar setting and characters are novel, as is the theme of supporting abortion access in a country where it's illegal (an issue Khin has written about). While more could have been done to flesh out the Yangon backdrop and finesse the deus ex machina resolution to the murder plot, it's a creditable attempt to rejuvenate a somewhat neglected subgenre with celluloid glamor. For fans of movie star fiction and rarely seen Asian romance. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.