I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Truly Madly Famously by Rebecca SerleSeries: Famous In Love #2
Also in this series: Famous in Love
Also by this author: Famous in Love
on October 13th 2015
Genres: Young Adult, Girls & Women, Love & Romance, Performing Arts, Film
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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"A must-read for anyone curious about life and love behind the scenes." -Bella Thorne, actor and author of Autumn Falls,on Famous in Love Lights, camera, love! After being plucked from obscurity, Hollywood's newest It Girl, Paige Townsen, has a blockbuster film to her name and Rainer Devon on her arm. But being half of the world's most famous couple comes with a price. No matter where Paige goes, someone is always watching. Soon she finds herself dodging photographers; hiding her feelings for her other costar, Jordan Wilder; and weathering tabloid scandals that threaten to tear her and Rainer apart-and end her career as quickly as it began. As she navigates her new L.A. life in this exciting sequel to Famous in Love, Paige finds that she doesn't know who to trust: Old friends could be betraying her secrets, and new friends are keeping secrets of their own.
You know how in my last review of a book by Rebecca Serle – of Famous In Love– I said that binge reading series is the best? I forgot a caveat to that — make sure all of the books are out when you do your binge read. Friends, I read Truly, Madly, Famously the second in Serle’s Famous In Love series while in the midst of some busy and trying times – namely New York Comic Con 2015 and the prep time leading up to that. Yet, it kept me completely sucked in. And now that I see there is a book three, as yet untitled, I must have it! That is how completely into this series I am.
Truly, Madly, Famously picks up where Famous In Love leaves off. SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS ahead so click away if you do not want to be spoiled for Famous In Love. Okay, so Paige has picked Rainer because she knows it will fix Rainer’s relationship with Jordan, but will also take the heat off Rainer for the scandal with his dad, Greg, and his ex Britney, that has suddenly leaked to the press. So, anyways, the book opens up with Paige going to her first awards show with Rainer and Jordan. She’s up for a few awards. Then there’s some tension. This book circles back to the whole triangle of the first book. However, we see more of Paige dealing with the negative side of being a celebrity – including living her life under a microscope and being scared to trust people because they might leak her life to the press. I have to admit that I found this all very compelling.
It’s interesting to see the character development of Paige. That’s one thing that this series really has going for it. I will admit that I do not know any famous people personally so I can’t accurately attest to if what Paige goes through and feels is true. However, I think that it does seem realistic. The paparazzi want so much from her, they need scandal and juicy stories. Paige gives up her privacy for this. She has to think constantly about her image. She’s so naive in the beginning of the book and does not really seem to have the media training that she needs. Further, she does not always have the best image. Press is a fickle thing as is fame and this book really echoes that. I loved seeing Paige’s character grow and mature in Truly, Madly, Famously. I loved seeing her deal with the negative side of fame. I also loved seeing her gain some girl friends, even though I mistrusted them in the beginning of the book. It’s nice to see when female friendships are real and true blue instead of being false and filled with possible back stabbing to come.
Of course, Paige’s romance hearkens back to Famous In Love and she’s got to make a choice again between Rainer and Jordan. Like, yeah she picked Rainer in the first book and she’s living with him now which lol she hasn’t even done anything adult with him, so as a grown up, I found that kind of strange. They sleep in the same bed but do not do grown up things? But I suppose that keeps this book in the YA market and not the NA market. I’ll also state that Paige is 18 in this book. I digress. Anyways, tabloids catch Paige and Jordan in what looks like a neck kiss, but isn’t. However, Rainer refuses to listen to Paige, so they break up and again she has to choose. While I did not completely love this because it felt like a re-hashing of the first book, I did like that this time Paige decides on what she truly wants and not what her fans may want. It’s a much more interesting outcome. She also takes the time to get to know herself and to live selfishly and to make female friends and I’m certainly in favor of that.
Readers who cannot get enough of Perez Hilton, TMZ, People, and young Hollywood will love Serle’s Famous In Love series. Anyone who has a soft spot for celebrities should give these books a shot. They provide an intriguing fiction with compelling characters. I ate these books up in a quick amount of time if you factor in how busy I’ve been.
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I really didn’t care for Famous in Love. At all. I mean, I know that it is well written, but ugh love triangles just piss me off. But I’m so glad you enjoyed this.
Also, how funny that she is living with Rainer but not actually having sex. Why doesn’t she have her own place?
Yeah — the love triangle thing seems to either win people over or turn them off. I do think that the main character is a little bit immature, but I don’t know, I just gelled with Paige.
Also — lol the whole living with Rainer thing, she does have her own apartment, but she does not like to be alone so she lives with him and they do not do the dirty which, lol, comes across as totally unrealistic to me. Then again, if they did, this book could probably be reclassed as NA.