Author: Jane Mendle
Publisher: St. Martins Griffin
Source: Public Library
231 pages
Fame is awesome, right? Partying every night at the hottest clubs. Hanging with the coolest stars. Having your picture in every magazine. Yeah, that's what Annie Hoffman thought too. Until she became a celebrity.
All Annie ever wanted for her sixteenth birthday was a driver’s license and a spot at Julliard’s prestigious high school violin program. Well, she got neither. But as luck would have it, a casting director for fall’s hottest new television show happens to be at the Julliard auditions, and Annie wows him. He thinks her look is exactly what his show, a teen soap set at a posh New York school, has been missing. And just like that, Annie gets cast as the naive “new girl,” and her life is turned upside down.
Sure, the perks are great, the wardrobe is awesome, and her tutor is a super hot genius… but being stalked day and night by paparazzi out to catch her in her worst light---not so fun! Can Annie learn to balance her life-- and her partying-- before the press, and the public, write her off for good?
The first chapter of this book was outright hilarious! I couldn't help but laugh! I think that was the funniest part of the whole book for me but the funniness does continue throughout the book for sure. Jane Mendle did an excellent job of conveying what stardom is really like, especially for a sixteen year old girl who just ended up there by fluke. I liked her writing in My Ultimate Sister disaster so I couldn't help myself to pick up this one too! And I am very glad I did! It doesn't take too long until the ball starts rolling and at some points I am like, Annie don't do it!!!! There are a few twists in the story that I wasn't expecting, none that I will note (for spoiling reasons). Plus there is an underlying message and Annie (the main character) does grow immensly (and I'm not talking height). Overall, I do recommend this book to anyone who likes teen conveyed books and fame! Plus the cover I thought was very cute! She looks so sleek and glamorous! I LOVED this book and gave it four stars! Way to go Jane Mendle!
Excerpt:
"The sweat began, as always, in my palms. It was 11:00 a.m. on Friday, June 13, and my drippy hands had now existed, ex utero, for precisely sixteen years and five hours. I wiped my palms on my tank top and smiled weakly at the driving evaluator.
Honestly? I wanted a driver’s license about as much as I wanted to join an ashram in Tibet and be forced to greet the dawn every morning in a state of spiritual enlightenment. That is to say, not at all. It’s not that I didn’t understand the need to drive. I had waited for enough rides and walked home from enough bus stops to understand the allure of climate-controlled motion. And I certainly didn’t mind being in a car with someone else driving. It’s really what happened when I held the steering wheel that was a problem. At this exact moment, I could feel the points of my fingers burning against the wheel, an epicenter for all the queasiness and sweat flooding my body.
Deep breaths were proving radically unhelpful.
The examiner’s squeaky voice interrupted my daymare."
