Jen Ryland Reviews

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Review of Fame, Fate and the First Kiss

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I loved this author’s paranormal duology but have not always been in love with her romantic contemporaries. What did I think of Fame, Fate and the First Kiss? Read my review of Fame Fate and the First Kiss below!

Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss by Katie West

To be published by Harper Teen on February 5, 2019. ARC for review from publisher.

Synopsis adapted from Goodreads: When Lacey Barnes gets the opportunity to star in a movie alongside one of Hollywood’s hottest actors, she doesn’t hesitate to accept the part.

But Lacey quickly learns that life in the spotlight isn’t as picture perfect as she imagined. She’s having trouble bonding with her costars. Her father has hired the definition of a choir boy, Donavan Lake, to tutor her. Somewhere along the way she’s lost her acting mojo.

And just when it seems like things couldn’t get any worse, it looks like someone on set is deliberately trying to sabotage her. As Lacey’s world spins out of control, it feels like the only person she can count on—whether it’s helping her try to unravel the mystery of who is out to get her or snap her out of her acting funk—is Donavan.

With her entire future riding on this movie, Lacey knows she can’t afford to get sidetracked by a crush. But for the first time in her life Lacey wonders if it’s true that the best stories really do happen when you go off script.

Review of Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss

I struggled a lot with the main characters and their romance in Kasie West’s last book and so went into this one with some trepidation. Bad news: I wasn’t bowled over by the romance here either. Good news: there were things about the book I did like. I usually start with the positive, but it will be easier to explain if I do the opposite.

Overall, I found this book a little too rambling and unstructured. Stuff happened, but none of it seemed that important. The main plotline centers around Lacey, a teen actress, and the fact that she thinks someone is trying to make her look bad on the set. Which is, honestly, kind of felt like #firstworldcelebrityproblems to me. Lacey’s not that relatable either – she’s kind of a wet noodle. Her love interest was better, but I couldn’t really accept the fact that a high school student would be hired to tutor actors on the set.

Despite that, I liked the overall vibe of the story. I think it’s because the book really reminded me of the Judd Apatow series Love. Like this book, a lot of the action in Love takes place on a movie set and features a teen actor named Arya (played by Apatow’s daughter Iris.) Like Arya, the main character in Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss in a teenage actor with a tutor. Both the show and this book feature mishaps on the set, a stage Dad, and the fact that Arya and Lacey are nervous about kissing a co-star.

So, if you like Love, definitely check this out. If you’re a diehard Kasie West fan, I’m sure you’ll like this. If, like me, you have felt “meh” about her recent books, this wasn’t as disappointing as Lucky in Love or Love, Life and the List. If you like books that are more plot-driven book or romance-heavy, Fame, Fate and the First Kiss might not be the book for you. (I really really wish Kasie West would go back to writing paranormal. They are her highest-rated books on Goodreads. Just saying…)

Have you read this? If so, let me know what you thought in comments!

Review of Stay Sweet

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I swear I saw this pitched somewhere as Mystic Ice Cream (well, as Mystic Pizza with ice cream – you know, a coming of age story about working at an ice cream shop over the summer.) In any case, what did I think about this book about life and love and ice cream? Check out my Review of Stay Sweet!

Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian

To be published on April 24, 2018 by Simon and Schuster

Source: thanks so much to the publisher for sending an ARC on my request 🙂

Synopsis from Goodreads: Summer in Sand Lake isn’t complete without a trip to Meade Creamery—the local ice cream stand founded in 1944 by Molly Meade who started making ice cream to cheer up her lovesick girlfriends while all the boys were away at war.

Since then, the stand has been owned and managed exclusively by local girls, who inevitably become the best of friends. Seventeen-year-old Amelia and her best friend Cate have worked at the stand every summer for the past three years, and Amelia is “Head Girl” at the stand this summer.

When Molly passes away before Amelia even has her first day in charge, Amelia isn’t sure that the stand can go on. That is, until Molly’s grandnephew Grady arrives and asks Amelia to stay on to help continue the business…but Grady’s got some changes in mind…

Review of Stay Sweet

After reading the blurb, I went into with finely honed rom-com expectations about exactly what would happen. I loved that Stay Sweet was able to deliver the sweet story I expected and also really surprise me.

What I loved:

The story within a story. I’ll be honest: this narrative technique isn’t always my favorite. It has risks – that the reader will prefer one story to another. But I really loved both Molly’s story about a fiancé who goes missing during WWII and Amelia’s story of becoming Head Girl, just to have the proverbial rug pulled out from under her.

The girl power. On the surface, this feels like a pretty conventional story. Molly grew up in a different era, a time when a soldier went to war with a photo of his sweetheart, whose job it was to wait patiently at home.

And even Amelia’s contemporary world feels a little retro, with a gaggle of girls scooping ice cream wearing pink polos. But by the end, I felt that the story showed women being strong and independent in more subtle ways.

The accurate portrayal of a certain type of female friendship. Of course I love reading about true-blue BFFs, but realistically, those are few and far between. Amelia and Cate have one of those tricky friendships. They have very different personalities – Amelia is dutiful and organized, while Cate is more breezy and reckless.

They were both up for Head Girl at the ice cream stand, and while Cate seems supportive of Amelia, the story shows all the ways she subtly undermines her. I recently had a long conversation with someone about a friendship like this – whether it’s better to accept someone’s strengths and weaknesses, or confront them, or just drop them. I don’t want to spoil what happens here, but I really thought this was an interesting – and realistic – relationship.

A romance that wasn’t what I expected. I liked that Grady was a fully-developed character with his own issues. And I appreciated that romance wasn’t the main focus of this story. This is a slowly developing relationship, and one that felt nuanced and realistic.

The ice cream. I’m a huge Food Network nerd, so I really loved the scenes about ice cream making. I could have read about ice cream churning and tasting and testing all day long. If there is a Home Sweet Home ice cream out there, I need to try it ASAP!

If you’re a fan of Mystic Pizza, or of ice cream, or of rom-com type stories that surprise you, I definitely recommend that you check out Stay Sweet! 

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