Author: Kenley Conrad
Release date: 09/23/14
Publisher: Swoon Romance
Book Description via Goodreads:
Seventeen-year-old Holly Hart wants to be a star. She moves to Los Angeles from the small town of Cedar Junction, only to hear she’s too fat and ugly to be a famous singer.
But when Shell Shocked Records looks past Holly’s plus-size and less-than-graceful-personality to offer her a recording contract, Holly cannot believe her good fortune. On closer inspection, however, the record execs want Holly to do all the singing, and a thinner and more beautiful girl, Lacey, would lip-sync and get all the credit. Holly goes for it because after all, she wanted to sing.
Contractually bound to secrecy, Holly is more than happy to sit backstage while Lacey shimmies in the limelight and basks in the fame. Before she knows it, Holly is friends with Serena, the pop-star daughter of a music-mogul, flirting with an intern, and developing a strange half-friendship with Lacey.
When Grayson Frost, the biggest country star in America, and coincidentally, a former school bully begins dating Lacey, Holly hopes that he won’t recognize or torment her.
Through a series of embarrassing and weird events, Holly gets to know Grayson and learns that he is much nicer and more mature than he was four years ago. Holly is horrified when she starts falling for him. When Grayson admits he fell for Lacey's voice, what is a girl to do when she can’t legally tell the truth at the moment when the truth matters the most?
Excerpt:
Later, 1:45pm—Study Hall
Just when I thought people couldn’t find any more reasons to tease me, my best friends became a lesbian couple. My new nickname in school is “third wheel.” The other day in Chemistry, Rachel Pritchard flipped her bottle-blond hair at me and asked if I get “freaky” with my “lesbo” friends. I wanted to slap her in the face, but my spinelessness responded, “Actually, the term ‘lesbo’ is really offensive,” instead.
Amanda and Meredith have been dating since the beginning of the school year! You think the shock of it would’ve worn off and people would’ve started to take it easy by now, but it’s getting even worse with the Valentine’s Day dance around the corner.
Meredith is on the school’s newspaper staff and hopes to be editor-in-chief next year, but she feels like her chances are slipping away because of our narrow-minded classmates. The current editor assigned Meredith to the lunch menu. The LUNCH MENU! As in she copies-and-pastes the menu the lunch ladies email her into the paper.
“If they don’t give you the editor’s position next year,” Amanda said, furiously shoving Greek yogurt into her mouth, “your parents should sue. It’s obviously discrimination; you’re the most qualified person.”
Meredith was looking down at her mashed potatoes sadly. Or, as she put it in this morning’s edition of the CJHS Crier, “creamy mashed potatoes with your choice of brown gravy or a pad of butter!” She’s obviously talented.
“I don’t know,” Meredith said glumly. “I don’t want to get in a fight with anyone about it.”
“I’d be more than happy to punch someone in the face for you,” Amanda said firmly.
“Hey look,” Rachel Pritchard shouted as she and her other cheerleader cohorts slunk by, “it’s the lesbos and friend. When are you going to make Holly your sister-wife?” The cheerleaders cackled in delight at Rachel’s joke before prancing off to eat their lunches.
Amanda may be petite—she’s only a couple inches over five feet—but I’m pretty sure she could knock Rachel’s teeth out if she wanted to. “I’m still praying for the day she physically touches me, so I can punch her and say it was self-defense,” she said through gritted teeth.
Meredith smiled at Amanda and kissed her quickly on the cheek. “So, Holly,” she said and pushed her dark, curly hair out of her face. “Are you excited to go to Los Angeles tomorrow?”
“No,” I moaned. “I’m so nervous. How am I supposed to think about meeting some Hollywood hotshot tomorrow when college acceptance letters are around the corner? How do teachers expect us to get anything done? Senior year feels seriously useless.”
Amanda smiled at me knowingly as she munched on a potato chip. “You must be nervous about your meeting if you’re talking about college. You wouldn’t think about college acceptance letters if your life depended on it.”
“And it does,” Meredith added jokingly.
“Don’t remind me,” I grumbled. I tried to change the subject to Meredith’s first detention of the school year, but I could tell they were going to want to talk about it later.
I don’t even want to write about this trip in my journal. I’m that uninterested in thinking about it. I’d rather think about my freshman year of college, and that gives me heartburn.
homework
Calc: Finish questions 1-10 at the end of page 34.
American History: Finish timeline of American Revolution.
Chemistry: Ask Amanda.
About the Author:
I'm the author of the upcoming YA series Holly Hearts Hollywood, coming September 2014 by Swoon Romance. I'm a twenty-something cat lady who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. When I'm not working my office day job or writing books, you can find me either singing and dancing or binge-watching TV shows on Netflix.
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This sounds like a great read, and the cover is adorable. I'm glad I've started broadening my reading horizons to include girly books, the covers alone are worth it!
ReplyDelete"Girly books" is not a genre ;) But I'm glad you're opening your mind to new books too!
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