Book Review: Absolutely True Lies

Book: Absolutely True Lies by Rachel Stuhler

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review.

Publication: Available now

Publisher: Touchstone

Description:

A fledgling entertainment writer stumbles into the gig of a lifetime writing a teenage pop star's memoir and soon realizes that the young celebrity's squeaky-clean image is purely a work of fiction.

Struggling writer Holly Gracin is on the verge of moving back home to upstate New York when she gets hired to write the memoirs of eighteen-year-old Daisy Mae Dixson, a former Nickelodeon child star who has moved seamlessly into both blockbuster movies and pop music.

Holly quickly realizes that Daisy's wholesome public image is purely a work of fiction, as Holly finds herself trailing the star as she travels around the world on yachts, gets stalked by paparazzi, and sneaks out of five-star hotels in the dead of night.

As Holly struggles to write a flattering portrait of a teenage millionaire who only eats "nightshades" and treats her employees like slaves, Daisy has a public meltdown - and suddenly, her book is the cornerstone of resurrecting her image. But working at all hours trailing a pop star has taken its toll, and Holly must decide if becoming the ultimate insider is worth losing a starring role in her own life.

Fun, juicy, and inspired by Rachel Stuhler's own stranger-than-fiction experiences as a celebrity ghost writer, Absolutely True Lies is an entertaining look at how the lifestyles of the rich and famous aren't always what they seem.



Rating: 5 stars

Review:

25 years old Holly Gracin is a struggling writer for an equally struggling Hollywood magazine but once the magazine goes under, Holly is out of a job. Her finances are dwindling fast and with no new job on the horizon what is she going to do? Help came from her uncle who gave her name to a friend of his, Jamie Lloyd who was looking for a writer for an upcoming project.

The project turned out to be a ghost writer needed for 18 year old teen star Daisy Mae Dixson who is known for being an actress and singer but also for being super wholesome. Holly wasn't sure if she should take the job but her nearly empty bank account was making her think other wise because she desperately needed the money. And anyway, how hard can it be to write an autobiography for America's Sweetheart? But as Holly got to see more of Daisy's life she was quickly coming to realize that it was no where near wholesome. Daisy was a terror and her family was truly dysfunctional but her agent and the studio executives have managed to keep all her dirt from being the top news of the day with all the entertainment news sites and magazines.

How is Holly supposed to write a "truthful" book without being able to tell what an awful person the teen star is? The job is turning out to be so much trouble than she expected from erratic schedules to the late payment of her writing check from Daisy's agent Jamie. Plus, the teen star constantly keeps throwing temper tantrums as well as everything seems entirely too unprofessional and so much more.

Holly had to take an impromptu trip to Miami when Daisy's agent wanted her out there at the last minute to get more information about the young star. The trip was disastrous and left Holly's finances even more dire since she found out while checking out of the hotel that she had to pay for not only her hotel room but a her ticket back to California.

There was one good thing that occurred in Miami, she met one of Daisy's TV show producers Vaughn Royce who was there to promote the show while Daisy preformed at some teen award show.

Back in Hollywood, Holly tried her best to craft a good book but she had a limited amount of information to work with. She found herself at the TV studio witnessing yet another tantrum the star threw but this also gave her another chance to get to know Vaughn. He seemed like a nice guy and the more she got to know him the more she liked him but is there more to there friendship? Or are they in some sort of dating limbo or just simply friends?

Following a sort of date with Vaughn, Holly soon found herself heading to Rome. Daisy's entourage and TV show were traveling to Rome so the TV show could film two episodes on location.

While in Rome, Holly met Ben the show's Production Designer, which had her wondering if there was more to him than his good looks. After spending a day traveling around Rome seeing all the sights, she was starting to see Ben in a whole new light.

But amidst all the beauty of Rome, Daisy had a huge meltdown then went missing and was later found sitting in jail. She was arrested for being found with drugs, so it's safe to say that the arrest clearly ended her wholesome image. With the world now knowing what happened there's no way Daisy unscrupulous agent can spin this. Daisy's career is sinking fast and with everyone jumping ship including her agent, is there a way to save her career?

In some strange way Holly soon found herself wondering what was really going on because nothing was making any sense.

I really like this, it turned out to be way better than I thought it would be. It's well written, giving the reader a look into the not so squeaky clean life of a celebrity as well the difficulties this ghostwriter was going through. The story is filled with drama and humor and has interesting twist near the end.

However, as much as I enjoyed this story, I did have a problem with the author using the word retarded in one scene in which Daisy was referring to something being dumb. Seriously when is that word not going to be used. That is a very hurtful word. Since this is an advance copy that I read, it may or may not be in the published copy. But I am still a little surprised that an editor didn't catch that.

There was a little bit of a love triangle between Holly, Vaughn and Ben in the story but not so much that it dragged the story down. I'm not really a fan of love triangles because it feels indecisive and a waste of time when the book could focus on other parts of the story. But as this story went along the reader got to see that the triangle became nonexistent because one of the guys turned out to be not such a great catch after all.

This was a fun and seedy little story that turned out to be a good read.