I know, I know, it's been a long time since I posted, and I don't really have a good excuse - this summer I read a lot, but it was mostly not stuff I wanted to post about. But I just read the second of these two books, and I wanted to write about them and how they are similar, and different.
True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet is by Lola Douglas, and it is about Morgan Carter, a famous Hollywood actress (think maybe Hilary Duff or a younger Lindsay Lohan). Morgan ends up in rehab after a dangerous evening of drugs and alcohol, and her mom and her business manager decide it is best for her to disappear for awhile. She goes to live with an old friend of her mother's in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Morgan has always gotten everything she's wanted, and has lived a jet-set Hollywood lifestyle. Now she is forced to totally change so that she won't be discovered in Fort Wayne before her handlers think she's ready. Not to mention that Morgan is still trying to deal with her abuse of drugs and alcohol and live a different life in Indiana than she did in Los Angeles. This book is easy to read - it's a series of journal entries and letters from Morgan back to Hollywood. You may think Morgan is spoiled and a brat at the beginning of the book, but by the end, you are rooting for her to succeed. And a sequel comes out in November, so you can continue reading about her life.
Amazing Grace by Megan Shull is about Grace "Ace" Kincaid, a star tennis player who is also a model and celebrity by 15 (think the Williams sisters or Maria Sharapova). One day, just when she is getting ready for the US Open, she decides to take a break from the crazy life she's been leading, with a bodyguard, manager, stylist and more people around her every day than she can count. She calls her mom and her mom brings a friend to rescue Grace - she goes with Ava to Medicine Hat, Alaska to hide out for a while. Grace does some of the same things Morgan does - they both dye their hair and change their names in order to hide who they really are. However, Grace was never a spoiled brat, and quit the tennis world because she was tired, not because she had a drug problem. Grace learns to appreciate the world around her, and is welcomed back into "real life" by the people around her. This story, too, is written in short journal entries - some as quickly as three minutes later than the first.
So these books definitely have some similarities - the journal entries, the hiding out from the press, living with an old friend of the family. But they also have some differences - for instance, when the girls are eventually found out, their new friends react very differently. They have different experiences in their new towns - Morgan has more of a suburban life, with a typical high school, and a group of friends who are not the most popular, but have a lot of activities. Grace lives in rural Alaska, where the most there is to do is wander around the one-street town or go snowmobiling (and watch out for moose). And because Grace was less spoiled and into fame, it isn't as hard for her to accept her new life as it is for Morgan. In Morgan's first week in Indiana, she blows $500 (all she's been given for the first month) in one shopping spree at the mall.
While I think I like True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet the best, I recommend both of these books - they are quick and easy to read, and it's fun to read about what happens to both of these girls in their new lives. Check them out!
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