Sugar and Spice by Max Hudson

They call it the city of Angels, but for the twenty-nine-year-old child star turned hermit known as Oscar Hernandez, Los Angeles is the city of nightmares. After playing a beloved TV icon from the ages of ten to seventeen, Oscar completely fell off the face of the Earth. People aren’t sure if he died, was addicted to drugs, or changed his name and left the country entirely. It’s one of Hollywood’s greatest mysteries, and Oscar will do anything to keep it that way. Suffering with severe anxiety and PTSD triggered by his traumatic childhood, Oscar is content to spend the rest of his days locked up in his penthouse apartment, wasting all his time surfing the internet and whittling his savings down to nothing.

That is, until super-hot—and secretly gay—reality TV star, Jesse Sugar, mistakenly brings an entire camera crew right to Oscar’s front door. True to form, Oscar is immediately triggered and starts having a panic attack, but to everyone’s surprise, Jesse somehow knows exactly what to do. He’s kind, patient, and grounding; pretty much the exact opposite of callous playboy that the media makes him out to be.

Over time the two of them start developing a strong friendship. Oscar helps Jesse separate his personal life from his famous family name and Jesse encourages Oscar to seek therapy for his issues. As their relationship grows and blossoms, so does the pressure of keeping both Jesse’s sexuality and Oscar’s name out of the news. Will these two unlikely lovebirds be able to make their own little piece of Hollywood magic in a town that seems to be stacked against them, or will they both inevitably fall back to their old ways?