Title: Family Affairs
Author: Jen Calonita
Pages: 320
Little, Brown 2008
Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Chick-Lit
Recommended to: Girls, 12 and up
Rating: B+
Kaitlin Burke, sixteen-year-old Hollywood honey, is finally back to the TV show that made her famous, Family Affair, after a hectic summer of shooting her latest upcoming blockbuster, Pretty Young Assassins. But just when Kaitlin thinks that everything is (finally) normal in her life again, she soon finds out that she is very, very wrong. Because that's when newcomer Alexis Holden is cast as Kaitlin and her enemy Skye Mackenzie's new costar, stirring up lots of trouble for the cast of Family Affair... Can Kaitlin keep her boyfriend, Austin, her job, her cool, and maybe even--gasp?--bond with Skye as they discover the real Alexis that lies underneath her sweet exterior? Get ready, because there are red-carpet flubs, dramarama, disastrous driving lessons, and catfights galore ahead!
Another fab Secrets book by Jen Calonita-yippee! I love getting a peek into Kaitlin's glamorous life of a young starlet: it's fun and exciting, but when I want to go back to the real world, I can. Kaitlin herself is a down-to-earth, realistic character with her own faults. I love the little Hollywood tips Calonita has inserted throughout the story, and how the dialogue is clear, clean, and sometimes funny.
Meanwhile, I just didn't think this book had the sparkle of the previous two--it lacked something, but I'm not quite sure what. For brief stretches of the plot, it just seemed a little limp and dry, but quickly picked up again and finished with a flourish.
It was certainly not my favorite in the series, but I still can't wait for the fourth Secrets novel, Papparazzi Princess, coming out March 2009--Jen Calonita has a talent for telling fresh, fast-paced, and fun teen novels!
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