Diana Peterfreund, Morning Glory

Morning Glory

Diana Peterfreund

Ballantine, Oct 19 2010, $14.00

ISBN: 9780345523938

Becky Fuller left Fairleigh Dickinson University to accept a job as a TV morning show producer at Channel 9 in New Jersey. Her goal is to one day be the senior producer of Good Morning, New Jersey. However, her climb to the top is caught in traffic when her boss Oscar fires her though he insists she is terrific.

However, Oscar sent her r sum to his friend Jerry at IBS in Manhattan, who hires Becky as producer of the lowest rated news show on the planet, Daybreak. She accepts and soon finds herself working with equipment from the prehistoric age and reporters who belong in a celebrity failure reality show. She learns there is a betting pool as to when she flees for the other side of the Hudson. Becky hires renowned newscaster Mike Pomeroy as a co-anchor with Colleen Peck, in what is a clash of the superegos. Mike rejects the fluff as not news as he refuses to interview pet psychics and is nasty towards Becky. She finds the producer of the only hard news show Adam Bonnet supportive although attracted to him she wonders about his motive. As the clock ticks on Daybreak and her dying career and even deader love life, Beck panics while trying to salvage her show.

Although journalistic romances have been done a zillion time (see the original movie this tale is based on and His Girl Friday), fans will enjoy the zany life of a producer struggling to survive today. Fans will roots for Becky to make it, but the odds are so poor Jerry has not even signed her to a contract. With a strong support cast starting with the battle of the network anchors, Morning Glory is a fun lighthearted Manhattan romp.

Harriet Klausner