Mary Kennedy Tales of a Hollywood Gossip Queen

Tales of a Hollywood Gossip Queen

Mary Kennedy

Berkley, Jun 2006, $9.99

ISBN: 0425209938

In Los Angeles Shane, the "sexiest teen alive" Rockett informs newly arrived from Bedford, Connecticut Jessie Philips that he is off until October and plans to show her the city as they dreamed of back east when they filmed Reckless Summer. Jessie thinks back to when she thought they were an entry on and off the screen until she saw him lip hugging with co-star Heidi Hopkins (see CONFESSIONS OF AN ALMOST MOVIE STAR). Still when it comes to the Rockett man, Jessie's brain turns to polenta.

When he is not around melting her brain, Jessie wonders if her best friend Tracy is right that he is using her for free publicity as she now writes a teen celebrity column for Juicy magazine. As Jessie hobnobs with Hollywood's famous, the fifteen minute one time wonders, and the wannabes parking cars; Shane escorts her around the town as if he really cares. She wants to believe that he does until d j vu occurs and she sees him with a sexy teen actress at the same time she learns a business lesson that backstabbing and stealing ones articles is the norm. Though New England is beginning to look warmer in winter than Hollywood in summer, Jessie refuses to quit.

The second Jessie Philips teen tale is a fun look at Hollywood from the perspective of a deer in the headlights until the lessons of betrayal begin the end of the innocence. This entertaining teenage chick lit tale enables the audience to observe how much Hollywood changes Jessie yet her essence of what makes her who she is remains the same. Readers will enjoy her exploits as a Hollywood gossip princess who stoically rolls with the punches.

Harriet Klausner