Beneath a Starlet Sky [Hardcover]

Amanda Goldberg (Author), Ruthanna Khalighi Hopper (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 26, 2011

The New York Times bestselling authors of Celebutantes return with a dazzling new novel set among the star-studded crowds of the Cannes Film Festival, where everyone’s hoping to discover, sign, screw or become the Next Big Thing.  And a three-picture deal would be nice.   

Lola Santisi—CEO of a struggling fashion line, reformed Actorholic and daughter of Hollywood Royalty—is now not only bicoastal, she’s Bi-Lolar: That is the condition which causes her to swing like a pendulum between the opposing poles of the fashion world in New York and the real world with her Doctor Boyfriend in Los Angeles. She hardly knows which shoe fits her anymore: the Louboutin stiletto or the Croc. As Lola tries to launch Julian Tennant’s new dress line, it looks like they’re about to get their next big break: his wedding dresses have been chosen to feature in the top film at the Cannes Film Festival. And suddenly Lola is staging a full-blown couture show on a yacht – in the middle of the Med.  Think those super models had trouble walking down the catwalks at Fashion Week?  With an unexpected finale twist, this time it’s Lola who’s tumbling off the runway.  

Having recently endured a disastrous break-up with Lola’s brother Christopher, Kate Woods, Lola’s BFF and CAA’s rising star agent, is newly single, and focused 24-7 on her clients. The only thing worse than thinking it was a good idea for Kate to date Lola’s brother, is thinking it was a good idea for Kate to put one of her most loose-cannon clients, Nic Knight, in Lola’s father’s movie. Among Kate’s other mega star clients is Saffron Sykes whose appearance on the cover of Vain magazine in Julian Tennant could be the difference between Julian Tennant, Inc. weathering the economy or going bust.

As Lola fights to survive the Cannes Film Festival, will she get swept into the French Riviera’s riptide of glamour and superficiality? Are real love and couture mutually exclusive?  Or can Lola have it all – the good doctor and her Louboutins. With her father and brother vying for the same prize, her mother starring in her new reality show, and one heartbroken girlfriend about to declare motherhood, it’s all on Lola to come up with the answers.  And it’s going to take more than one of her mother’s prosperity chants to save the day.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Tinseltown princesses Goldberg and Hopper (Celebutantes) are back with another softball skewering of the unbridled egos of fashion, film, and TV reality stars. It's a sweet-natured muddle for much of the hijinks, with enough celebrity name-dropping to make a paparazzo swoon as Lola—a Hollywood blueblood much like her creators—kicks into overdrive as she juggles her latest career as CEO of best-friend Julian Tenant's fashion line, her engagement to dashing doc Lev, her would-be auteur brother's ambitions, her mom's reality TV dreams, her film director dad's conflicted loyalties, and her best friend's breakup. Playing deliciously mean minor roles are magazine cutthroat Coz and rising 16-year-old fashion wunderkind Chili. The noise and celebrity wattage is seductive and silly fun, but the message tucked inside all the gab and glitz is simplicity itself: less acting and more being. (May)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Review

Praise for Beneath a Starlet Sky:

"Absolutely mandatory reading for red-carpet junkies. Goldberg and Hopper are masterful storytellers." – Cara Lockwood, USA Today bestselling author of I Do (But I Don't)

“Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Khalighi Hopper have that rare gift...a sense of humor. Their two main characters are bright and confident, full of wisecracks.” – Janet Maslin, New York Times

“You’d be hard-pressed to find a celebrity satire that out-name-drops Beneath a Starlet Sky and does it with such perceptive humor… Beneath a Starlet Sky celebrates Hollywood culture and makes authoritative fun of it.” – Washington Post

“The noise and celebrity wattage is seductive and silly fun, but the message tucked inside all the gab and glitz is simplicity itself: less acting and more being.” – Publishers Weekly

"A star-studded treat--glam, witty and deliciously fun." – Sarah Mlynowski, author of Milkrun and Fishbowl

“The authors write with a sweet honesty and grounding that reinforces their message about what’s really important in life.” – USA Today

“Hollywood junkies and Vogue fanatics will drool at the descriptions of clothing and designer products, travel, the Cannes Film Festival, and much more.” – Examiner.com

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (April 26, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312544421
• ISBN-13: 978-0312544423
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #944,590 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Starlet Sky, indeed March 21, 2011

By Danielle VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Lola Santisi is back. Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Khalighi Hopper are returning to the world of Hollywood and fashion that they created in the book "Celebutantes". I read "Celebutantes" a couple years ago and enjoyed the book. Although it may be helpful to read the first book, it really isn't necessary to do so in order to read this book.

In "Beneath a Starlet Sky", Lola Santisi, who is the daughter of famous director Paulie Santisi (think Francis Ford Coppola or Martin Scorsese), is trying to get the bridal fashion line of her friend and designer Julian Tennant of the ground. This involves successfully getting his designs into the latest Baz Lurhmann film, trying to get his designs on the cover of Vain magazine, while at the same time trying to dodge the sabotage efforts of Coz, Vain's senior editor, who is trying to promote new "designer" Chili (whose designer involve putting real time Twitter & Facebook feeds on dresses). The book also deals with Lola's budding relationship with her non-actor boyfriend, Cricket who is a budding starlet, Kate Woods who is Lola's best friend and who is also a successful CAA agent, Christopher who is Lola's brother and an upcoming writer and director, Lola's mother who is starring in a "Real Housewives" type of reality show, and Nic Knight, a movie star represented by Kate and who Lola's father is taking a chance by putting him in a movie because Nic is an actor who loves his alcohol. The action builds up as the stage of the Cannes Film Festival is set as the place where the careers of the characters in the novel can be made or broken.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. Lola is a likeable main character. I wanted to root for her and was hoping that it work out well for her career and personal life. The action moved fairly fast, I don't really remember any parts dragging on or boring me. Probably my one and only problem with the book was the constant name dropping. I'm not sure that there is anyone left in Hollywood that isn't named in this book. Even one of my favorite singers, Kylie Minogue, who isn't very famous in the US is mentioned in this book. It just got a bit tiring and a little annoying to read this famous person was seen talking to that famous person at a party. But I would still recommend this book to any chick lit readers or to people who like to read novels about people in Hollywood.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Could have been so much better June 4, 2011

By Romancing the Book

Format:Hardcover

What Stephanie Thought: I expected to enjoy Beneath a Starlet Sky a lot more than I actually did, since it looked so glamorous and pretty and all that. Even the blurb (though pretty much summarizing the entire book) wasn't that bad. And it wasn't a bad read at all. But I couldn't find myself to quite love it either.

The book is the ideal example of style over substance; while the book contains juicy and brutally accurate details of Hollywood society (not that I would know, since I'm not an LA insider), the plot falls flat and leaves the reader (in this case, unfortunately, me) restless. Written by Amanda Goldberg (a movie producer) and Ruthanna Khalighi Hopper (a famous actor's daughter), it is evident the content that goes into the novel are real-life points of view. However, not all (or many) movie producers are fit to write novels; the cinema industry and book industry are completely different realms. Goldberg may have a successful film career, thanks to her bright imagination and vision statement, but her words penned down on paper fall undeniably flat. And as for Hopper, the only achievement she's made outside of being a celebrity herself, is co-write a previous book with Goldberg titled Celebutantes, which, I have not read, but can imagine is about.

Lola's journey as a rising A-lister in the captivating but deceptive Hollywood world is interesting, at best. Not even entertaining, because half the book describes in great detail, an outfit, or an interior design, or a power couple relationship. Maybe good for tabloids, but not a novel. I myself, am a fan of People and Cosmopolitan, which is why I found a lot of the celebrity observations interesting. But with each sentence filling up about a sixth of the page, the book itself was in no way, fun to read, or amusing, or really anything a good book should be.

If Beneath a Starlet Sky had been published as a magazine, I would have gobbled it up. But sadly, I just couldn't put admiration into it, due to weak writing, lack of intrigue, dull characters, or maybe a combination of the three.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Painful to keep reading August 19, 2011

By Smokey58

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Wherever I learned of Beneath a Starlet Sky, be it Vogue, Bazaar or VF, some PR agent sure did a good selling job. I too had high expectations for an entertaining laugh / look into Hollywood scene. Instead I find it painful to continue reading, often having distracting dialogue in my head about how trite the scenarios and reference to current Hollywood stories really is. Anyone can string along pop culture stories mixing famous names with the fictitious story line characters. I have a rule about finishing a book no matter what, but Beneath a Starlet Sky is really challenging this lifelong rule.