Review: Fade to Black by Emily Prescott

June 20, 2026

Synopsis:

October 3, 2014
The happiest I’ve ever been in my life was when I was talking with you. This can’t be it.

Being reminded of this message on one of the worst night’s of my life is the definition of a silver lining. I’d been truly blocked on what to write for my next screenplay, but now I’m eager to plot out a romance born of online messages and flirty glances shared with my best friend’s older brother, Graham. I’m on fire to write about millennial messaging angst and give these characters the happily ever after that Graham and I never got.

Will it be good enough for a theatrical release? I hope so. But the writing is a struggle almost as soon as I start, and it only gets harder when Graham texts to say he’ll be in Los Angeles for three weeks.

He wants me to tour him around LA and though we’ve formed a loose friendship over the years at his family Christmases and backyard BBQs, our resurrected message threads bring everything up for me. It’s infuriating because he has no idea.
Graham is as calm, cool, and cocky as I remember from those summer trips to Old Orchard, and it has me wondering if any of it had been real. If it could be again. Or if like many things, the question of us is better left in the past.

Review:

I’m a big fan of second-chance romances, and this one was right up my alley.

We meet siblings Jenna & Graham and their sister by heart, Beverly, who have a tight bond and always have each other’s backs. There is a bit of a spark between Beverly and Graham, which they both hold back on while growing up to avoid risking their friendship and bond. It comes across clearly to me that there was always potential, but they never acted on it – it was always in the back of her mind.
They occasionally meet over the years and stay in contact, but at some point, that stops. Beverly is unsure why, but it always hurts her a bit. Both move on with their lives, until one day Graham is in town and reaches out. The fact that he’ll be staying next door is a surprise (obviously not 🙂 ), giving them the chance to finally ask the question – do they want to give it a chance or not?

I enjoyed the way the story was told. It felt fresh and different. We get a mixture of past events and the present, and with Beverly being a screenwriter, some of it is told as a script.
What came across exceptionally well to me was the fact that both of them know each other inside and out. Graham was her biggest cheerleader when she dreamed of becoming a screenplay writer. With her love for rom-coms, he watched every movie she put on his watchlist to better understand her passion for the genre.
If you like a slow burn, this is the right book for you. They were dancing around each other so much that I became frustrated with them at times 🙂
This was an enjoyable read, which will probably resonate even more with anyone interested in romance movies and with an interest in Hollywood or filmmaking.

🌙 Recension: Fade to Black by Emily Prescott
📚 Genre: Romance
📅 Release Date: June 20, 2026
📖 Publisher: ‎ Penny Luck Studio LLC
📗 available in various formats – included in Kindle Unlimited
📱 Read as: Kindle
💸 I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
🗣️ Language: English
📆 Pages: 305
⭐️ 4/5