Girl About Town ~ By Adam Shankman & Laura L. Sullivan – 3.5 Stars

Tags

Historical Fiction, Hollywood, Mystery, Romance, YA Fiction

Thank you NetGalley and Atheneum for providing an e-Arc in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: Now too long ago, Lucille O’Malley was living in a tenement in New York. Now she’s Lulu Kelly, Hollywood’s newest It Girl. She may be a star, but she worries that her past will catch up with her. Back in New York she witnessed a Mafia murder, and this glamorous New life in Tinseltown is payment for her silence. 

Dashing Freddie van Der Waals, the only son of a New York tycoon, was a playboy with the world at his feet. But when he discovered how his corrupt  father really made the family fortune, Freddie abandoned his billions and became a vagabond. He travels the country in search of redemption and a new identity, but his father will stop at nothing to bring him home.

When fate brings Lulu and Freddie together, sparks fly–and gunshots follow. Suddenly Lulu finds herself framed for attempted murder. Together, she and Freddie set out to clear her name. But can they escape their pasts and finally find the Hollywood ending they long for?

According to the blurb put out by Simon & Schuster the collaborative team of film producer/director and coauthor Laura Sullivan were inspired to write this novel, by Nick and Nora Charles and old-style Hollywood glamour. In some ways Girl About Town does a perfect job capturing that essence, by the two main characters, Lulu and Freddie are virtually nothing more than cardboard cutouts which takes some of the sparkle out of what at times is a witty romantic comedy and mystery. To put it kindly, they’re both sweet but a bit ditzy, particularly Lulu. Neither of them really think before they act, which accounts for at least half of the problems they encounter. The narrative is split between them and this doesn’t allow for much in the way of character development. What does save this novel is the setting which draws you right into 1930s Hollywood with a scheming gossip columnist, stars leading scandalous secret lives, and beautifully described parties at Pickfair. There was some delicious name-dropping but it never got so that it was over-the-top. This was the part of the story that captured my attention. The mystery is interesting and had me second-guessing more than once as to the identity of the villain.

Reading this was like watching an old Hollywood movie, so in that respect this novel is a success. I just wish the authors had spent a little more time fleshing out their hero and heroine. In the end I think Girl Around Town is a charming and fluffy tale that will especially appeal to teens and fans of historical fiction and the glamour of old Hollywood.

After She’s Gone ~ By Lisa Jackson – 3.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Family Relationships, Hollywood, Mental Illness, Mystery, Serial Killers, Suspense

I received this e-Arc from NetGalley and Kensington in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: December 29th, 2015

Synopsis: Cassie Kramer and her younger sister Allie, learned the hazards of fame long ago. Together, they’d survived the horror of a crazed fan who nearly killed their mother, former Hollywood actress Jenna Hughes. Still, Cassie moved to L.A. urging Allie to follow. As a team, they’d take the town by storm. But Allie, finally free of small-town Oregon, and just that little bit more beautiful, also proved to be more talented–and driven. Where Cassie got bit parts, Allie rose to stardom. But now her body double has been shot on the set of her latest movie–And Allie is missing. 

Police discover that the last call to Allie’s phone came from Cassie, though she has no recollection of making it. Instead of looking like a concerned relative, Cassie is starting to look like a suspect–the jealous sister who finally grew sick of playing a supporting role. As the tabloids go into a frenzy, Cassie ends up on a Portland psych ward. Is she just imagining the sinister figure who comes to her bedside, whispering about Allie–a visitor of whom there is no record? Is someone trying to help–or drive her mad?

Convinced she is the only one who can find Allie, Cassie checks herself out of the hospital. But a sudden slew of macabre murders–each victim masked with a likeness of a member of Cassie’s family–makes Cassie fear for her safety and her sanity. The only way to end the nightmare is to find out what really happened to Allie. And with each new discovery, Cassie realizes that no one can be trusted to keep her safe–least of all herself.

The good news is that although After She’s Gone is a sequel of sorts to Lisa Jackson’s Deep Freeze (2005), this can easily be read on it’s own. The bad news is that while the mystery is interesting enough, the characters are one-dimensional, unlikable, and to be perfectly frank, completely unbelievable.

The heroine of the story is Cassie, and while at the beginning of the story I had a modicum of sympathy for her, it fast disappeared. She scurries from Oregon, to L.A. and back to Oregon in increasingly desperate attempts to find her sister Allie who by all accounts is a despicable person who hates Cassie and has done everything in her power to break up Cassie’s marriage to the dishy cowboy Trent. As past fights between the two sisters are revealed through Cassie’s memories, it becomes clear that no matter how much she dislikes Allie, she keeps going back for more abuse, yet she treats Trent, who has done nothing but love and support her, like dirt. While I understand the bond between the sisters, especially having survived such a horrible childhood trauma, this just strained credibility. Cassie does become more empowered in the latter half of the book, but by that time I just didn’t care.

The mystery surrounding the missing Allie, and an increasing body count made up of people associated with the sisters’ last film Dead Heat, will keep you guessing, although by the time I had reached the midway point I had guessed the why if not the who. While the main mystery is solved, there’s a little surprise at the end that leaves the possibility for a third book about the Kramer family.

I vascillated between giving this 2.5 – 3.0 stars, before finally settling on the higher rating.  While it’s received mixed reviews on Goodreads, there’s quite a few readers who enjoyed this. I think if you’re already a Lisa Jackson fan, you should try it. If you’re new, I recommend you go back and read some of her earlier books before tackling this one.

 

Hollywood Witch Hunter ~ Valerie Tejeda – 2.5 Stars

Tags

Hollywood, Witches, YA Fiction

 I received this ebook from NetGalley and Bloomsbury Spark in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: “From the moment she first learned the truth about witches…she knew she was born to fight them.”

Now, at sixteen, Iris is the lone girl on the Witch Hunters Special Ops Team. But when Iris meets a boy named Arlo, he might just be the key to prevent an evil uprising in Southern California. Together they’re ready to protect the human race at all costs. Because that’s what witch hunters do.

Welcome to Hollywood.

When I first saw this I thought “Cool! It looks like a combination of Charmed and Supernatural with a little bit of Buffy mixed in.” Well, have you ever read a book or watched a movie that has everyone raving about it, yet leaves you scratching your head and wondering what you’re missing? Hollywood Witch Hunter was that kind of read for me.

The book sets things up with a prologue that gives you a short backstory of a witch named Belinda who lives in Hollywood. She not only takes the lives of young self-absorbed girls to keep herself beautiful, but she then places a curse on all the witches living in Hollywood so they are all forced to do the same. Huh.

Enter the Witch Hunters. They’re the only ones standing between witches and innocent, unsuspecting humans. They’re also for the most part a bunch of male chauvinist pigs. I’m sorry, but there’s just no other way to put it. The men are the only ones who inherit this so-called hunter gene, which allows them to successfully battle their enemies. Because they don’t possess these special abilities, women are kept in the background and basically clueless. Iris is the first female with the Hunter gene and is begrudgingly allowed to become part of the elite special ops team. Her brother Knox and a couple of other hunters are the only ones who treat her as an equal. Personality deficits aside, Hollywood has remained fairly safe thanks to the Witch Hunters, until now. Strange things are happening, and Belinda is suddenly acquiring new powers. Yet she doesn’t seem to be the villain she once was. The only thing that’s clear is that Iris is somehow involved.

You’d think that Iris would be a sympathetic character with that kind of set-up, but no matter how much I tried, I just couldn’t connect with her. I understand she’s trying to prove herself to not only her father, who’s in charge of the Witch Hunters, but also the rest of the group. She shows promise in that she’s strong and capable, and trusts her own judgment instead of simply being a follower. However, many times throughout the book these qualities present themselves more like self-centeredness and arrogance.

I’m not generally a fan of love triangles and the one in this book was truly horrendous. On one hand you have earnest boy band material Arlo, who has been recruited by the Witch Hunters and has selected Iris to train him. He’s one of the dullest characters I’ve read in a long time. On the other, there’s the mysterious and attractive Silos, who is Scottish and has magical powers including sharing visions with Iris. He’s also quite interested in her. Throughout the entire book I found myself wondering how Iris could be torn between Arlo who has all the personality of a pet rock, and the more mature and mesmerizing Silos. I wanted to reach in, grab her by her shoulders, and shake some sense into her! 

The plot moves along quickly and has plenty of action. Without giving away any spoilers Iris discovers that things aren’t quite as black and white as she’s been taught. As she discovers some pretty dark secrets about her father and the Witch Hunters, she starts getting more involved with some of the witches, including Belinda. I’m all for throwing off the shackles of indocrination and seeing both sides, but I had a major problem with this as her new buddies are still killers. Just because they love to party and have their fun moments doesn’t makes them any less the remorseless murderers that they are. 

This is Valerie Tejeda’s first novel, so hopefully she’ll get better with writing more likeable and three-dimensional characters. The plot itself is interesting and full of dry humor which helps keep things moving along. I also like that Iris is Columbian and uses her ability to speak fluent Spanish to obtain information which otherwise would be difficult to gather. Unfortunately for me, the negatives outweigh the positives and I don’t think I’ll be trying the sequel when it comes out.