Book Review: "Secrets Of My Hollywood Life: Paparazzi Princess"

Secrets Of My Hollywood Life: Paparazzi Princess by Jen Calonita is to date (at least of the ones I've read this far) the most heart-wrenching story in the series. Kaitlin's soap opera, Family Affair - that she's been a part of since she was 4 years old - is going off the air at the end of the current season, and therefore leaving Kaitlin to soon-be unemployed. As her family's primary breadwinner, she's being pressured from all sides to quickly pick her next project, despite her mother shooting down whichever ideas she likes and trying to force her own ideas of what she thinks Kaitlin should do onto her. Add onto this the stress of her best friend seemingly growing distant from her as she begins to make her college plans for on the opposite side of the country, everyone around her but herself getting their driver's licenses, her boyfriend also potentially moving away to another state for college, on top of the mounting pressure from her mother to shop every business opportunity out there and pick one immediately, is a recipe for disaster. Enter Ava and Lauren, who are the novel's equivalent of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie back when they were hard partying BFFs. Sensing Kaitlin's vulnerability, they latch onto her like lice and milk her for all she's worth. Kaitlin's good girl image begins to take a nosedive the more she's seen with them - sort of a guilty by association type deal. In the midst of all this, Kaitlin's mother forces her to at least show up for an interview with one of the hottest, but most notoriously manipulative record producers in the industry. He forces her to do a quick demo of a song they'd written for her, of which the book was titled after. All hell breaks loose, as it doesn't at all reflect how she feels about Hollywood and was never meant to be released for the public to hear. (Naturally, it gets "leaked".) Things eventually hit a fever pitch, and something has to give.

I don't want to give away too much of the storyline, so I'll stop there with it, but I have to say that there were more than a few times I got misty-eyed reading this book. I can't wait to see what's next! Rating this a huge 5 out of 5 stars, and would rate higher if I could!

Book Review: "Secrets Of My Hollywood Life: Family Affairs"

Secrets of My Hollywood Life: Family Affairs by Jen Calonita is the third, and so far juiciest book in the series so far!

Now that the drama with working on the film Pretty Little Assassins is done and over with, Kaitlin figures that her life will finally be able to regain some normalcy, going back to Family Affair life. Only, it won't be as it was before: the show's getting a new actress. And she seems to be hellbent on destruction of all that's around her to make her own star shine.

The new girl, Alexis, starts out acting sweet-as-pie to anyone and everyone around her; trying to butter up the writing staff especially to get in their good graces, even though her story arc is only intended to last half a season. But she makes such a splash with the public on top of her charming graces with the staff of the show that they decide it might not be such a bad idea to keep her own as a potentially permanent character. Herein ensues the drama.

Sky feels that Alexis is trying to impede on their territory, and Kaitlin thinks she's just being jealous of the new girl. But the more that Kaitlin witnesses, the more she begins to see through the facade and that the nice act is just a put on, and for once, Sky is 100% correct: this girl wants to destroy both of their jobs and become the star of the show. And will stop at nothing to get it. Trying to prove this to everyone else, however, is a feat to be seen.

I don't want to give out too many spoilers here, but the ending of the story has a completely unexpected twist. For one, I never expected to ever see Kaitlin and Sky teaming up and acting -friendly- to each other in a million years. So you would assume that life on the set after all is said and done would be so much more pleasant now that they've seemingly made friends, but a much bigger bombshell than anyone could ever expect rocks their world and changes their lives forever.

Want to see what I'm talking about? Grab yourself a copy of this fantastic book today! Once again, I rate this book a huge 5 stars!

Book Review: "Secrets Of My Hollywood Life - On Location"

Secrets of My Hollywood Life: On Location by Jen Calonita is the second book in the popular hit series. This time around, our main character Kaitlin Burke has been cast to star as the leading lady in an upcoming film by Hollywood's hottest director of the moment. It's a dream come true in more ways than one; not only does she idolize this director, but this is the ultimate career comeback after the stunt she pulled in the last book. But all is not well; not only does her onscreen rival from her soap opera series (who also does everything in her power to make Kaitlin's life a living hell offscreen as well) get cast as the nemesis, but Kaitlin's ex-boyfriend and fellow Hollywood hunk gets gast as the co-star and love interest. Sparks will fly. (And they do.)

All the while, Kaitlin is trying to carry on as normal of a relationship as possible with her boyfriend, Austin - who's one of the only people she knows who's not in the business. He doesn't understand a lot of the ins and outs of Hollywood politics, so most of what happens on location is a huge shock to him.

Throw into the mix as well a meddling PR con-artist who's out for blood, and you've got a recipe for disaster. And that's not even the half of it. It's all one huge Hollywood headache, and enough drama to make even the most veteran of actors question whether or not this film will even come to fruition.

I thought this book was an amazingly good read, and I absolutely couldn't put it down. (I read through it in a matter of a few days!) Definitely 5 stars for this baby, and I'm itching to sink my teeth into the next juicy piece of the series!

Book Review: "Secrets of My Hollywood Life"

Secrets of My Hollywood Life by Jen Calonita is the first book in a series by the same title, written for teens. The premise of this first book is essentially a spin on the classic starlet-leading-a-double-life plot. (Think Hannah Montana, without the redneck overtones.) Kaitlin Burke is the hot young star du jour, best known for playing one of the long-running starring roles on the soap opera Family Affair. Since she's been playing the role since she was a toddler, she's never known any semblance of normalcy in her life, ever. She's always craved it and been obsessed with how all the 'normal' kids live, even though most people would kill for the sort of opportunities she's had. Her family has never let her really take so much as a break the entire time she's been on the show, telling her that "vacations are for normal people" and not for stars who want to keep their name in the public conscious.

Naturally, she eventually hits the point of burn out and needs a break. But, where wuold she go? In her obsessive quest for normalcy, she develops a plan that, instead of working non-stop during the soap opera's hiatus, she'll go to school like a normal teenager instead. But how could she, America's #1 'It Girl', go to school without being mobbed and without being placed on a pedestal? Easy. Create another persona. One who's poor, British, can't afford nice clothes, and looks absolutely nothing like her, and adopt a false name and backstory.

All is not well with this plan though. Not only was she offered the audition of a lifetime by her favorite ever film producer/director almost the same day that she hatched this plan, but the media is taking notice of her absence on the typical Hollywood scene. Her co-star, who's always hated her and fought with her like cats and dogs, is planting nasty rumors about her left and right as well. And of course, there's the stress of maintaining the double life and making sure that they in no way whatsoever overlap, and that nobody finds out.

But as you can imagine....she eventually does get found out. And it's not pretty. But, the aftermath is completely unexpected and I didn't even see it coming. I'm very impressed!

Overall, I thought this was a really well-written book. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series! I'm rating this a 5 out of 5 stars. :)