Customer Reviews

Beautiful People

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I gobbled up Beautiful People, a fun story of the acting industry on both sides of the pond, Hollywood and the London stage. Darcy, a young British actress is the daughter of an acting family where the stage is the ultimate form of their craft and film is a lower form of the art. Belle is a young Hollywood actress desperate for a come-back after her recent meteoric rise and then sudden crash-and-burn. The lives of these two extremely different young actresses intersect in Southern Italy, along with former boyfriends and lovers, and potential new lovers and friends in a hysterical series of almost improbably coincidences and run-ins. The novel is peppered with secondary characters that are no less interesting than our heroine and antagonist. Emma, the conscientious Nanny who falls in love with her charges; Orlando, the extraordinarily beautiful, shy young man bullied by a social climbing mother, who is unsure of his future path, and Marco the amazing chef/owner of a wonderful local bistro are all people I would want to sit and have coffee with, or a glass of wine at Marco's restaurant. Not so much though for Christian, the opportunistic Hollywood heart-throb or Niall the pretentious wanna-be London stage actor, both of whom use women shamelessly, Christian at least admitting to everyone about his intentions.
Not only did Beautiful People have me laughing, I was entranced enough to not put the book down, hoping that certain characters would succeed and prosper and others would get a good comeuppance or smack in the face. Light-hearted women's fiction can sometimes be predictable, which is definitely not the case with Beautiful People.

Belle Murphy was supposed to be Hollywood's hottest young star, but it all fell apart when her latest movie flopped spectacularly. To try and get herself back into the media's good books, Belle heads off to London, via an African adoption agency, to star in Shakespeare. Can she claw her way back to the top of the Hollywood pile again? Darcy Prince is a beautiful English rose, who has her heart set on being a "proper" actress, when the call comes from Hollywood - LA's hottest director wants her in his new movie. A movie that will rival Star Wars. It's everything an actress should ever want, so why is Darcy so reluctant to go? Via a lot of mix-ups, the two girls eventually lock horns over men, dieting and just which one of them is the bigger star. Throw in a nanny, a chef, and a boy so beautiful he could be a model, and you have a fiery encounter just waiting to happen.

Although my synopsis above mentions Darcy and Belle, they don't even appear at the beginning of the book. Belle comes in around about 20 pages in, whilst Darcy doesn't arrive until maybe 100-ish pages. I found that peculiar, but not off-putting. The book actually starts by introducing us to Sam Wild, who runs Wild, a modelling agency. After scouring the streets for any talent, she bumps into a bollard and comes face-to-face with the beautiful Orlando. After asking him if he would like to be a model, he scarpers, leaving Sam feeling frustrated. We then meet Emma, who it turns out, is a nanny, who has just left her parents' home up North and is looking for a job in London. We then go on to meet a whole array of characters throughout the book, who all seem to lead separate lives to each other. And for near-on 500 pages, that's the way it stays. Sure, a few of their lives intertwine but to all intents and purposes they're all leading their own life with no connection to anyone else we read about. It took a long long time for Belle and Darcy to lock horns and even then, it wasn't as if they were clawing each others eyes' out.

Coming it at under 700 pages, you're in for a long slog of reading to really get anywhere in the book. For the first 500 pages, the book is all about the separate lives of all of these characters. There's little action yet I still found myself reading away, eager to know which stupid thing would happen next. All of the major action begins when all of the characters leave, en masse, for Italy. You could say it was convenient they all, near enough, ended up in the same place but it all made perfect sense when we learnt why they were all there. As I mentioned above, Darcy and Belle barely lock horns, and I think the synopsis on the back of the book wildly exaggerated that fact.

Beautiful People is well worth reading, and I found it hugely enjoyable, and I know I'll definitely be looking out for more books by Wendy Holden. Her take on the celebrity lifestyle is refreshing and it's hugely exaggerated but it's also hilarious and enjoyable. It's as if she's taken all of the recent celebrity headlines - ie. adopting a child from Africa - and has put them all together into one huge melting pot of a novel and let the chips fall where they may. Very clever and I truly recommend it.

This book was honestly one of the worst written books I've ever read. And I've read A LOT of books. I normally like chick lit, but this book was so inane I couldn't bring myself to finish it.

I really enjoyed this book. You follow a number of different characters, whose stories eventually come together, just like in Love Actually. This is a really fun and enjoyable book.

I've been a Wendy Holden fan for years now having read several of her earlier works. Ms. Holden's latest book, Beautiful People, is delightful and I'd dare to say her best book to date! Beautiful People intricately weaves the lives of several characters in the U.K. and L.A. together through a series of unexpected events. Holden lays the foundation of each character's mindset, relationships, and circumstances early in the novel and builds on them as they all somehow ebb, flow, and swap places with one another in certain circumstances. The writing is brilliant and keeps you guessing. The characters are fun and interesting to read about. This is a great book for anyone looking for a light, fun romp of a chick lit book.

Thoroughly enjoyed this novel. There were wonderful characters with artfully drawn plot lines. All the stories, you knew, would somehow come together in the end... but there were some nice surprises. Love her characters and stories, fun, light, and this one, full of Italian food nuances.

I have been a fan of Wendy Holden since I first read Farm Fatale. She writes British Chick Lit that is just wonderful. Beautiful People is another hit with me, in fact, I think it is her best work to date. You are immediately sucked in by the characters and the plot which covers a lot of ground quickly. This will be one of the summer's best beach reads. It is pure frothy fun! If you enjoy Sophie Kinsella or Helen Fielding, you will love this author.

This was a light, frothy, gossipy book--just what I needed after reading several heavier books. It was pure fun. I felt like I was reading a tabloid or a gossip magazine.

While I found some characters annoying like Belle and Christian (although I think we are supposed to dislike them) I liked several of the other characters such as Darcy, Marco, Emma, and Orlando. I liked how, at the beginning the stories all seemed to be separate and then at the end the lives of the characters were all intertwined.

If you're looking for a light, fun read then you will probably enjoy this book!

First if you're on a diet don't read this book, towards the end it only talks about food.
The story starts with a character that is forgotten by the end of the book, no closing for Sam.
Darcy and Marco story is cheesy, literally with a cheese dressing.
Orlando couldn't possible exist in reality. Body and personality don't match.
It also feels as a couple of chapters are missing at the end.

Read Beautiful People in one weekend. Laughed loads. Love when I have a chance to just sit back and discover someone else's crazy life.