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!