Impossibly Tongue Tied
Josie Brown
Avon, December 2006, $12.95
ISBN: 0060815884

Nina and Nathan Harte moved to Los Angeles so that he can find work as an actor. To help them achieve their goal, Nina works two jobs as an adult phone line operator and as a clerk at a grocery store, with her spouse's understanding and in agreement.

Nina meets agent Sam Godwin who is attracted to her. He takes Nathan's demo and gives it to married director Hugo. As Nathan begins to make it in Hollywood he dumps Nina for a man-eating popular actress and then sues her for custody of their young son based on her unfitness to be a mother because of her phone sex employment job.

This is a fascinating look at Hollywood relationships, though five degrees of Bacon seem more like one degree, as everyone is interconnected, for instance Hugo's wife thinks he is having an affair, while he is actually on the telephone with Nina etc. The key cast members seem real, especially the star Nina, who believes in Nathan until he betrays her twice with the affair and with the custody suit. The rest of the prime players add understanding of how Nina, Nathan and Sam think. In spite of it's a small world concept, IMPOSSIBLY TONGUE TIED is an interesting work of contemporary fiction that readers of Jackie Collins will enjoy.