Dahlia Adler

Ally Duncan gets a job as an on-set assistant on her best friend Vanessa's hit show, but when Ally falls for Vanessa's co-star Liam and his publicist arranges a fake romance between Vanessa and Liam, Ally may lose her best friend.

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I bought this book several months ago after it hit my radar for the first time, but I took forever to get around to reading it. It sounded great and I was interested, but it got lost in the stack of review books. Once I got an ARC for the second book in the series, Under the Lights, I knew I needed to finally dive into this one. While I'm kicking myself for taking this long to read it, I'm also kinda glad I waited so I could binge read the series.

It's been a long time since I read a famous person/regular person book and I have to say, this one really hit the spot. I really liked both Ally and Liam. The supporting characters were interesting. Even with all the "teenager drama" and conflict, I enjoyed the story. It was believable and real, as were the characters. More than anything though, I loved Dahlia's writing. She has a fresh voice, even when writing a trope I've read a number of times. 

The romance between Ally and Liam was great. I loved how they just got each other. Of course, this made it a little difficult at times to watch as he paraded Ally's best friend Vanessa around as his (fake) girlfriend as a PR stunt. I was so much in Ally's head that I felt every emotion she felt. And believe me, between her father's illness and this relationship drama, she was feeling a lot. I was in this 1000% as they navigated the bumpy waters of having a real relationship in secret while letting the world think Liam was in a VERY public relationship with someone else. It was messy. It was dramatic in that way that young adult books can be. But it's all of that which made it realistic and engrossing. 

One thing I've learned with Dahlia's books is that you should expect the unexpected. You might think you know what direction a story point is heading, but more often than not, you'll be completely wrong. This is just one of many reasons I love her books. It would've been so easy for her to turn Ally and Vanessa's friendship into frenemies or to draw out her dad's storyline. Instead, she made it her own and I loved what it was.

Behind the Scenes

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