by Janette Rallison
ages: 13+
First sentence: “I didn’t want to write this.”
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Review copy provided by the publisher.

Alexia Garcia has lived a quiet life with her mother and grandmother in Morgantown, West Virginia. It’s not been easy with her mother working all the time, but it’s been okay. The only weird thing is how much Alexia looks like mega superstar Kari Kingsley. And so when a picture of Alexia goes viral on the Internet, and Kari’s manager comes calling, offering Alexia a job as Kari’s double, what is Alexia supposed to say? Especially when she realizes that it’d be a chance to meet her father. What she doesn’t expect, though, is how complicated it’ll be being Kari and staying true to herself.

Yes, this is fluff. Complete with a swooning romance with a hot guy. But, contrary to the impression that the cover gives, it’s well-written, enjoyable, fun fluff. Sure, it’s got the whole princess-and-the-pauper thing going, but it managed not to be cloying. It was neither “oh look Alexia is so poor, isn’t that horrible” or “rich people are SO incredibly spoiled.” Yes, there were elements of both; Alexia does deserve more, and Kari is quite spoiled. But I felt that Rallison walked a nice balance between the two extremes. It also helped that Alexia is a winning main character: struggling with wanting to connect with her father, star-struck with being out in California, and just plain unsure of herself. She’s smart and caring, and it’s thoroughly entertaining watching her figure out the ropes of Hollywood. And when the ethical stuff comes knocking, as it most surely will, she handles it with grace and dignity. It’s fast-paced — if there’s one thing that Rallison has down it’s pacing; there’s no real lag time — and funny. I’m not sure how “accurate” the Hollywood insider stuff is, but it really doesn’t matter; it’s a good portrait of what us normal everyday mass types think being a megastar would be like. And sure, the ending’s too perfect, as well. But you know? It didn’t matter. Everything turned out happily-ever-after, and we had a perfectly fun, fluffy ride along the way. You can’t get better than that.

Since I’m feeling like passing my ARC along, I’m going to do a quickie giveaway on this one. One entry for commenting here. One more for Tweeting this (let me know, either on Twitter — I’m @book_nut — or commenting here). You have until tomorrow — Friday, May 7th — at noon CDT. I’m willing to ship worldwide. Good luck.