Cover Story

By: Celia Laskey

Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

A hilarious, emotional love story about an extremely anxious publicist who's tasked with keeping an extremely gay starlet in the closet—but who ends up falling for her instead.​

It's 2005, and Ali is a publicist for Hollywood's biggest stars. Part of her job entails keeping gay celebrities in the closet—which is pretty ironic, since she's a lesbian herself. When Ali is assigned a new gay client, Cara Bisset, who's breaking onto the scene with a (hetero) romantic blockbuster, keeping Cara's sexuality under wraps becomes Ali's biggest challenge yet.

Cara is unruly and unpredictable and hates that she has to hide such an integral aspect of her identity. After a series of increasingly close calls, Ali is sent on the worldwide promotional tour for the movie to help keep Cara in line. Instead, she finds herself drawn to Cara's confidence and bravery. For the past year, Ali has been mired in grief after losing her partner in a freak accident. But with Cara, Ali's fears about the world subside, and she begins to question the Hollywood closeting system she’s helped perpetuate.

As Cara's fame continues to rise, both Ali and Cara have to decide which is more important: maintaining the status quo or risking it all for another chance at love.

©2025 Celia Laskey (P)2025 Grand Central Publishing

Critic reviews

"Cover Story is a sharply written, delightfully boisterous novel about celebrity, publicity, anxiety, and sexuality that is both a celebration of love and an insightful examination of loss. It will be the smartest and sexiest romantic comedy you’ll read this year."—Camille Perri, author of The Assistants and When Katie Met Cassidy