Book Review: "If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't)"

If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't) is, apparently, Betty White's sixth book. (This was news to me - I only know because she mentioned the others in the foreword. Well, now I know what I need to try and track down!) God bless her for being so dedicated to her craft. And I must say, this book gives some insight into the world of this wonderful lady. The book is comprised of a series of short stories from different facets of Betty's life on all sorts of different topics, but it seems that her favorites to talk about are her husband Allen (who she still speaks so fondly of that it's almost heartbreaking) and about animals. Soooooo much about animals. I always knew there was something about Betty that just made her inherently lovable to me; I think I found the key to what it is. ;) It seems most of my favorite people are all animal people! But it's definitely news to me just how *much* of an animal person Betty is, and I love it. I love all her stories, and could listen to her all day. A hueg 5 star rating, and here's hoping I can find her other books and that they're as enjoyable as this one was!

Book Review: "Hollywood Is Like High School With Money"

When you hear the name of the author Zoey Dean, it's quite likely that the first thing you'd think of would be the A List series. (It's also quite easy to dismiss her as an author if basing her off of said-series.) I would just like to say that Hollywood Is Like High School With Money is nothing like that. No, this story is vibrant, fresh, and it pops. You connect with the characters. You KNOW it probably won't end well, and you root for the underdog anyway, even when she's doing wrong. But most of all, Zoey has finally broke out of her mold of teen books. She's writing for a slightly older demographic, and the effort shows in spades. Yes, there's still nods of the head towards those teen books here and there throughout, but mostly, it is written intentionally for an older audience, and is a million times more enjoyable. It also offers a very candid, honest view at the world of being a personal assistant to someone important (which is impressive for still technically being classified as fiction), and that it's not all fun and games and brushing elbows with the rich and famous. The title of this book rings true in many ways over, and is felt reverberating throughout the entire story.

I absolutely LOVED this book and would re-read it again and again. A big 5 stars to you!

Book Review: "Star Power (Talent #3)"

In this final installment of Zoey Dean's Talent series, the girls are truly finding themselves on the up and up. Mac has taken it upon herself to become everybody's agent. (It used to just be Emily's.) She starts out meaning well, but soon becomes heady with power and starts letting it get to her. Emily is still in full swing of her Davey Woodward crush, and it's only coming out more and more in spades since working with him on set in a romantic role. Becks has been signed on as the fourth Dixie Girl, which are a world-renowned surf team. And Coco is trying to make a name for herself as a singer, and not as just Cardammon's daughter. But since Mac keeps putting her managerial duties first and friendship second, and as is to be expected, ends up making a huge mess out of things. As with most things, things find a way of working out in the end, and ends up on a cute note.

I'll be sad to see the girls go, but at the same time, one can really only put up with so much middle school drama. After all, isn't living it firsthand once enough? But I did enjoy the story, and I'm rating this one a 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: "Hollyweird"

Hollyweird by Terri Clark is a fun little read that's essentially a new spin on the classic good vs. evil tales. 3 girls win a trip out to LA to meet their favorite actor and idol, Dakota Danvers, and be treated to the whole celebrity treatment while they're there. What they don't know is that their idol...is the son of Satan.

But all hope is not lost. Just as unknowingly as they'd gotten mixed up with hell's minion, one of God's fallen angels, Jameson, is provided to them as a protector. They don't know it right away that he's an angel, but in time, the truth is revealed, as is the knowledge that the supernatural world of demons, vampires, witches, werewolves, etc all exist in the underground. Likewise, it's brought to their attention that much of the celebrity world is part of this preternatural existence. (What an interesting thought that would be if it really did work that way?) But Jameson has been given the assignment of being put in charge of defeating Dakota before he unleashes evil on the entire world...and his plans are coming together faster than anyone could possibly think. The only help in the world that he has is that of which he entrusts in the girls.

There's a lot of aspects of this book that remind me of one of my favorite films ever, Stanley Donen's Bedazzled. Good vs. evil, the 7 deadly sins, etc. It all comes into play here in a fresh, modern spin on a classic tale. It's a quirky, easy read (you could easily read it in one sitting if you were so inclined), and I highly recommend it to just about everybody :) 5 star rating!

Book Review: "Almost Famous (Talent #2)"

This second installment of Zoey Dean's Talent series is thankfully a huge step up from its predecessor. Whereas the first book in the series was bland and boring, this one is filled with juicy drama all the way through, and really fleshes out what each character is all about. It's all in the tone of middle school drama gone VERY awry, and eventual revenge. However, morality is to be upheld, and the underlying message is that revenge doesn't pay, no matter how badly you've been burned. (It would've been too predictable if everything had ended up working out according to plan with the revenge plots.) I think there's a lot of themes throughout this book though that most people can relate to on some level, as most people have been harassed in school at some point in their lives; maybe not to the degree these girls are, but it still gets its point across. Regardless, I'm voting this one a big 5 stars :)

Book Review: "Talent"

Outside of her The A-List series, Zoey Dean has another offering for us with a miniseries meant for a slightly younger demographic, starting with this book, Talent.

The premise is basically this: Emily, a typical all-American girl from Iowa, comes to LA to visit the city with her mother and her best friend for a week. Just as Hollywood-obsessed as most girls their age, they soak up every little detail about the business that they can... but especially when it comes to their movie star obsession, Davey Woodward. There's the typical levels of teenage star obsession...and then there's these girls. Who, after hearing that Davey has a movie premiere party just 10 blocks away from where their hotel is they're staying at, sneak out after Emily's mom falls asleep that night. Paige gets turned away from the door immediately, whereas Emily succeeds in lying her way into the party. She's quickly discovered by the one girl who caught her little 'performance', whose mother just happens to represent Davey - along with 90% of the rest of young Hollywood. Feeling that she's stumbled upon something special here, she decides to try and make Emily a star. However, as her mother's not willing to even hear her out for her efforts, she's left to do this almost entirely on her own...and it inevitably proves to be much harder than she ever could have anticipated.

I get the feeling that this book was aimed for a middle school demographic, and is written as such. It's not bad - it's actually a very cute read, not to mention a quick one at that (despite being almost 300 pages). It's just interesting enough to have picqued my interest into wanting to check out the next book in the series. :) Rating this one 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: "City Of Angels (The A-List: Hollywood Royalty #3)"

The final book of Zoey Dean's A-List series has now truly drawn to a close...and I must happily say that I was finally impressed with this off-shoot of the original series. If you've read my reviews of the other two books in this trilogy spin-off, you'll know that I felt the other two books left much to be desired and paled vastly in comparison with its mother series. This book, however, makes me a little sad to see it go so soon now. Why couldn't all three have been written as well as this one?? I'd be rooting and cheering for more if they'd all been like this! (I'm tempted to shoot the author an email, asking if there's any chance there might just be one more story left in her to round out these books...perhaps to tie up loose ends a little more, but I'm sure that it's just not in the cards.)

The characters that I'd more or less resented in the past two books, I finally came to love in this one. Especially when it came to the rockstar romance drama of Daisy and Ash, it truly made me yearn for more. In all honesty, I would be beyond thrilled if there were a series just for them out of all this, as I feel that in this book, they became my favorite characters. Maybe I'm a little bit biased, as I once lived a romance verrrrry similar to the one that was outlined here, but that's neither here nor there. Then there's the drama of Jake with Amelie and Jojo, which made me yearn with every ounce of my being to finally see Jake end up with Jojo and get their own happy ending story. Hell, I even wanted to see Myla and Danny hook back up, once and for all, but that wasn't to be, either. (Insert dramatic sigh here.) I just... I feel like I just now finally got into these books, and now it's all over. :( This really bums me out, because this story was written so well. Please, Zoey Dean, write one more for me?

A big 5 star rating to this one!

Book Review: "Sunset Boulevard (The A-List Hollywood Royalty #2)"

Well, we're 2 down, 1 to go for the A-List: Hollywood Royalty trilogy! And I have to admit, I'm somewhat relieved that I'm nearly done with these. I was hoping that my lack of emotional connection to much of any of these characters was just the mark of it being a different series from the original and trying to get into the swing of something new. So far, that doesn't seem to be the case. The author is trying so hard to be hip that most of the characters sort of meld together in a kind of mismatched amalgam of the overly-trendy. Once again, the story mainly revolves around the characters' dating scene, and how they all trade lovers faster than square dance partners. There's also the topic of the filming of a movie taking place at the high school as well as...well, no. Everything else still classifies as relationship drama.

It's dry, kinda boring, and almost totally predictable. Yes, I say this as a 27-year-old reading this book, but at the same time, I can almost guarantee you that the average teen would say the same about this book and that it's not even with its price for the read. Ugh. Rating this one a generous 3 stars.

Book Review: "The A-List: Hollywood Royalty"

Like many a best-selling teen book series, Zoey Dean's The A-List has its own new spin-off: The A-List: Hollywood Royalty. Out with the old, in with the new as far as the cast of characters goes. There's very, *very* subtle references to old characters such as Sam Sharpe, but they are mentioned only in passing and as if you must know who they're speaking of.

The new cast of characters is almost befitting of any given group of Disney channel teen stars in the past decade. And almost all of them, you can practically tell what real celebrity they're based loosely off of. (The most obvious of these is Myla - the name practically heralding to Miley, and the family beckoning the the Brangelina pack.) Unlike the last cast of characters, who at least were a sophisticated sort of Hollywood overpampered teen jet-set, the new ones are just spoiled rotten brats with entitlement issues and nothing but teen dating angst problems.

The entire tone of the book is vastly different from that of the original series as well. (If I didn't know better, I would swear that this were ghost-written by somebody else.) I'm sure that the author was trying to go for something hip, fresh, and new, but it just comes off as typical run of the mill teen novel fodder. Where the original A-List books seemed to be a notch above the rest, bordering on being considered acceptable adult reading material, these are most definitely targeted towards a younger demographic. I'm not sure that I like that. Regardless, there only seems to be two more books in this series so far, and doesn't look like there will be more as far as I can tell as of yet. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.) I think I can see why. I'm only rating this book a 3 out of 5 stars - not utterly unreadable, but far from a pleasurable read, I must admit.

Book Review: "California Dreaming (The A-List #10)"

So, we've come to the end of the line of the original A-List series. And it certainly does go out with a bang! A plane crash, the implosion of Ben and Cammie, a wedding, a breakup, family drama, a major medical emergency... you name it, it's in here. As we wave off these characters we've grown to know and love over the past ten books as they ride off into the proverbial sunset, there's a glimmer of sadness in realizing we won't get to see what exactly it is that they'll make of their lives. Or will we...? There's a second A-List series with an all new cast of characters that might just mention in passing the originals, for all we know. There is hope for the future!

I'm rating this book a 5 out of 5 stars. It has anything and everything you could want, from comedy, to romance, to drama, to angst, to...like I said. Everything. It's all in here. Very well written, and a very nice close to the series.

Book Review: "Beautiful Stranger (The A-List #9)

This ninth installment of the A-List series certainly seems to be starting to wind everything down now, now that it's approaching the end of the series.

This book is filled with all sorts of unpredictable twists and turns; Sam gets engaged, Sam falls out of engagement. Ben wants to start a club of his own with the aid of his father, who claims he'll back him in anything. (The dad backs out.) Cammie funds the project. Anna discovers that Yale might not be all that she'd always imagined it was going to be after all. Adam kicks Ben's ass. There's an impromptu trip to NY. And much, much more (you didn't expect me to give everything away, did you? ;)).

Still, you can't read this particular book in the series without that niggling little feeling in the back of your mind knowing that it's getting pretty near the end of the series, and there's a certain sadness that comes along with that. It took me a while to learn to take these characters under my wing, so to speak, but now that I finally have, it seems all too soon that it'll be time to let them go. (Isn't that always the way?) Still, rating this one a 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: "Heart Of Glass (The A-List #8)

Oh boy - Heart Of Glass, the 8th installment of Zoey Dean's The A-List is a juicy read if ever I've seen one! Buckle up, kids - it's a bumpy (but thrilling!) ride.

Sam is house-sitting for a famous friend of her family's and invites Cammie and Anna to come keep her company and to enjoy the luxuries of the place on the 4th of July. They decide to go for a walk down the beach behind the house, and they unknowingly trespass into the backyard of one of Cammie's father's worst enemies in the business, who ends up getting no greater joy than busting Cammie and Anna and having them arrested for something as petty as said-trespassing.

Luckily for the girls, they're able to get off fairly easily - no jail time, and the community service that they have to serve is the plushest ever in history: working on helping organize a fashion show that benefits at-risk girls. Not too shabby. They quickly befriend one of the main girls there, Champagne, whom they feel could quite easily have a future in modeling if she just knew the right people. This is where Anna and Cammie step in, and make it their mission to make this girl a something.

Meanwhile, there's plenty of drama in Sam's homestead. Sam suspects that Poppy is cheating on her father with her yoga instructor, which she refuses to tolerate, as she hates the woman to begin with. Knowing that her good friend Parker is an aspiring actor, and knowing full well that she could offer him the deal of the lifetime, she gives him the opportunity to appear in her father's newest big box office film if he'll agree to try to seduce her stepmother, just to test the waters and see how easily she'll stray, so she can get photos taken and leak them to the press. He has a lot of scruples about doing this, but agrees to help.

There's tons more drama in the book as well in the sub-storylines, but I don't want to give everything away as spoilers in this review. ;) All I can say is that this particular book in the series is exceptionally written, and I'm giving it a big 5 stars!

Book Review: "Some Like It Hot (The A-List #6)"

Some Like It Hot, the 6th book in Zoey Dean's The A-List series, takes a little bit of a step down from all the glamourous traveling that takes place in the last two books. Instead, this time, the storyline revolves around the senior prom. ...Yes, you read that right. (Speaking as someone who didn't even both going to her own prom because she thought it sounded lame, I might be a little bit biased against this particular book.) Sam decides she's going to make a documentary about the patheticness of the girls who revolve their entire life around that one "magical" evening; Cammie finds the whole thing an embarassment and doesn't even want to go; Dee has to get a day pass from the mental institution she's still in to go to it at all; and Anna just wants to go with Ben. But alas, a new face has appearance on our horizons: enter Maddie; a longtime family friend of Ben's family who's living with him for the summer. After a stomach stapling operation, she's dropped hundreds of pounds, but still looks the ugly duckling, despite having curves in all the right places that make even Anna jealous. But she figures that since Maddie's going to her own prom with Ben's friend, it won't hurt anything if she and the girls give her a makeover. Except that what Ben hasn't told Anna yet is that he'll be taking Maddie to her prom as well...and Maddie isn't exactly subtle about her crush on him. Major jealousy issues ensue. There's also a bombshell concerning the case around Cammie's mother's death that finally comes to light that just might change everything.

This story wasn't awful, but it does feel that it was lacking something, even with as many different storylines all got packed into one book. I'll rate this book a 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: "Tall Cool One (The A-List #4)"

The girls are back in the 4th installation of the A-List series by Zoey Dean, and they've all got their own storylines going on this time around! Cammie and Adam are trying to give a love affair of their own a whril; Sam's stepmother Poppy has unofficially adopted Dee as one of her own (and have been connecting on a spiritual level all their own); and of course, Anna takes center stage as her sister Susan has once again gotten out of rehab and disappeared into thin air - having brought the both of their parents together to try and present a united front for her, if only she'd show up. Anna takes an impromptu trip to Mexico to scout out a hotel for her father and give imput whether he should purchase it or not, and is quickly met with a sleazy business associate, an Australian hottie who quickly takes a shine to her, and general paradise. Sam shows up at the most unexpected moment and scores a potential love interest of her own while there, and she and Anna embark on some unexpected adventures. You know what they say - what happens in Mexico stays in Mexico! (Or was it Las Vegas? Oh, never mind.)

I like that this book gives us a temporary break from the false glitter and superficiality of Hollywood and a brief glimpse at the girls experiencing things that are a little bit more important in life. Just as it's a vacation for Anna, it's a vacation for us, the readers, as well. I really enjoyed this one, and am looking forward to seeing where the storylines continue to unfurl in the next book. :) Rating this one another 5 out of 5 stars!

Book Review: "Secrets Of My Hollywood Life: There's No Place Like Home"

Well folks, we've officially hit the end of the line in this series. Secrets Of My Hollywood Life: There's No Place Like Home is the sixth, and final, book of the hit series by Jen Calonita. And parts of it are definitely heart-wrenching.

Kaitlin has come a long way since the first book of the series as far as both her life and her career are concerned. But with that also comes the ever-looming realization that she's not in control of her own life, and that if she doesn't make some changes, she never will be. (There's a lot to be learned from this lesson.) Everything around her is changing as well, which makes things that much harder to digest. She's starring on a hit tv series; her mother is pushing her to film not one but TWO films with huge big-name producers; Sky has stolen her personal assistant right out from under her as her new manager; and there's college looming ever-closer as the clock ticks onward. A collapse is imminent. But nobody could ever predict just how, exactly, it would happen.

Much as one can surmise by the cover and the title of the book, there's a heavy influence by The Wizard of Oz. Following a car crash, Kaitlin is thrust into an alternate dimensional version of her life - one where she's not famous and hasn't had the sort of Hollywood upbringing she's always known. Her friends, co-workers, and family are also all vastly different from their real world selves. It takes a realization of self and personal values to help Kaitlin find her way back home.

I have to admit, this isn't how I expected the series to end, but I liked it! (Well, that's to be expected, as I'm a huge Judy Garland fan.) I think it was much-needed to help bring a sense of closure to things, and I can't think of a better way it could have been handle. Major kudos to Jen Calonita for writing such a fabulously entertaining and intriguing series! As always, another huge 5 star review for this book. :)