By Amy Finnegan
Genre NA contemporary
Pages 392
First sentence "Celebrity Seeker claims that I'm dating Troy again," I say as I skim the pages of the gossip magazine.
Synopsis
When Emma Taylor, famous actress, starts a new TV series and discovers that her new costar is "The Bod", who's real name is Jake, who's also the guy her best friend Rachel has obsessed over for years things might get complicated. Emma's sworn to not get into anymore relationships with costars but there's no denying her growing attraction to Jake. Can Emma hold to her vow to not get into a relationship with a costar? And if she does how will she tell Rachel? Can their friendship survive?
If you read my Read Along Discussions, you probably can tell this wasn't a favorite book. However, I didn't outright hate the book and there was one good thing about it. The peek behind the scenes of a Hollywood TV series was so fun. Especially since the author's brother has been in the industry for years sharing stories and Amy, herself, has been on the set of the TV shows Parenthood and Parks and Recreation. So you know this glimpse of Hollywood is legit.
What's lacking
Where do I begin? There were just too many things about this one that bothered me. I couldn't get invested in any of the characters. None of them felt real to me. I wanted to like them. I wanted to like the book. All my book club friends loved it. I just couldn't get on board, I guess. The book, while perfectly clean and great to recommend to younger audiences without fear of exposure to "scary" scenes, was almost too clean. Everyone knows Hollywood is far from squeaky clean. The author even omitted swearwords. Now that's fine but it just didn't ring true to me. But my biggest hangup with the book was it's length and lack of plot. 392 pages with only a tiny, minor plot conflict was just too long! And don't believe all those people that tell you that this one had a slow building romance because it simply isn't true. The characters are instantly attracted to each other and admit as much. They even start hanging out almost immediately. But, because of the tiny little plot hiccups, they don't officially become a couple. That's not slow burning romance, people, don't be fooled!
Yea or Nay
This book takes light and fluffy up a notch to cotton candy. Sweet and cute but no substance!
Shame about this. It's a big problem when you can't really connect to the characters. Plus it definitely sounds very sugar-coated, and while I do like fluffy books, I'd still prefer them to be realistic. Thanks for the review - I might give this a miss for now.
ReplyDeleteYeah, while I admire the author's decision to make it truly appropriate for younger audiences, Maybe choosing the TV/movie scene wasn't a great place to do that.
DeleteHa ha ha! You kill me. I still think it's slow-building because while they were attracted to each other, they let their friendship build before they acted on the romance because of the plot hiccups. I agree the plot is lacking and it is a little too squeaky clean, but I still loved it, lol.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it funny how there's certain books that are totally unrealistic but that you love anyway? I have several I feel that way about. Sadly this wasn't one of them.
DeleteTOTALLY agree with you on this one!
ReplyDeleteWe are so in sync these days.
DeleteThanks for the review, Jenny. Sorry this didn't really work for you. It does sound a bit too sweet and nice for a book about Hollywood. That's still cool the author has some first hand knowledge and experience around that world though.
ReplyDelete-Lauren
www.letsgetbeyondtolerance.blogspot.com
The behind the scenes stuff was great.
DeleteI hate insta love disguised as slow burn. I think I'll steer clear of this one unless I'm looking for a bit of mindless romance.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the minority here so you may like it.
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