Book Review: "Reality Check"

Reality Check by Jen Calonita is a slight stray away from my usual type of books that I grab at the library, and I'll tell you, was on a total whim - I saw her My Secret Hollywood Life series on the shelf and grabbed all of them, hoping I'd nabbed the whole series (and I did) and spotted this one off to the side and wasn't sure if it was part of the series or not. It's not, but I got it anyway and read it first. (Not to mention, I thought the cover was absolutely freakin' adorable.)

This story is about 4 friends who live together in a beachside town in New York. Just a small, rural place- nothing like the big city whatsoever, and they all live very ordinary everyday lives. The main character, Charlie, works in a coffee shop; Keiran spends 99% of her time babysitting her younger siblings. Hallie works at her parents' restaurant, the Crab Shack, and Brooke...well, Brooke always felt she was destined for stardom and will do anything to get away from being viewed as a farmer's daughter.

Their lives are all turned upside down practically overnight when Susan comes into town. Susan is one of the head honchos at the Fire and Ice network - basically, a new and improved hipper version of MTV and the WB rolled up into one. Little did they know Susan had been scouting the country for the stars of a new reality show, and had fallen in love with them. They eagerly sign up to do the show, with promises of fame and fortune and the ability to pay for college.

But then things begin to change. They find out that their idea of reality and the network's idea of reality are two very different things. Not to mention, everyone begins to treat them differently, and many people blow in and out of their lives with the intent to use them for screen time. One such suspect is the local rich girl, Marleyna, who never had the time of day for any of them before and had always hated Brooke. Suddenly, they're BFFs and Brooke's been isolated from the rest of the group and suddenly treating them all like crap and like they don't matter. Particularly Charlie, who she's been jealous of from day one for being the star of the show.

Bad things continue to happen until the girls finally hit a boiling point and want off the show. But the network keeps dangling the phrase "breach of contract" over their heads to intimidate them into staying. What happens? Read the book to find out. ;)

Personally I thought it was a pretty cute book and an easy read (I finished it in about 5 days). It also gives a little insight into the world of reality television, because many of the details here and based from real life accounts from different reality series. (It also makes me question just how much I saw in The Osbournes back in the day when I was obsessed with that show...) That said, it is very much a girly girl book, and if you're someone who rolls your eyes at that sort of thing, you should probably skip this. Otherwise, go grab yourself a copy and have a nice read! I'm rating this one a 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: "Rhymes With Witches"

Rhymes With Witches by Lauren Myracle (yep, another one ;)) is a story revolving around the phenomena that is high school girl cliques, and into perhaps just why those girls seem to cast SUCH a spell over everybody they meet. Easy...witchcraft! There's a reason bitches rhymes with witches, right? ;)

This book could technically fall under the category of supernatural, although not by traditional standards. It's a good book for getting one's feet wet if they're squeamish about the idea of supernatural storylines though - it just dabbles in it without going too heavily. Since Lauren Myracle writes primarily for tweens and teens, that seems like about the right age demographic for such a book anyhow.

I'm going to rate this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars. It's good, but nothing particularly fantastically out of the ordinary.

Book Review: "Backstage Pass"

Backstage Pass by Gaby Triana is an intimate, albeit fictional, portrait of the lives of rockstar children. Not a troubled, strung out, rebellious child in sight - such is the reputation that so many of them wrongfully have - but the well-adjusted teenager who longs for nothing more than a stable home in any one given place, who yearns for life beyond tour buses and concert venues. From my own mild brushes with fame (and the offspring of said stars), I can pretty safely say this book is actually more or less the true reality of what it's like to be the child of a rockstar. Nowhere near as dramatic as the tabloids might like you to believe.

This is the story of Desert McGraw; daughter of fabled rock god Flesh: lead singer of Crossfire, and her quest for normality as an american teenager in Miami; wanting nothing more than the typical, everyday generic teen life - the highschool relationships, drama, the whole deal. She tries to maintain anonymity for as long as she can, but she unknowingly befriends a girl who seems to be her father's biggest fan, and starts to date a boy whose stepmother is a reporter for a tabloid. Naturally, her secret gets leaked fairly quickly, and it becomes more of the same mess she's had to deal with in every town she's lived in. On top of everything else, her father is collaborating with a modern young pop star - and failing miserably at it; her mother's personal assistant seems to be out to backstab the band; and her dad cheats on her mother. Desert has to deal with adversity in the best ways she can, while at the same time learning that she's not the center of the universe and that her friends have just as big, if not bigger problems than she does.

I really enjoyed this book thoroughly. Might be partly because of my lifelong obsession with rockstars and the business, but regardless, I loved this. Rating this one a 5 out of 5 stars!