Customer Reviews

Keep It Real

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4 star:		(1)
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A quick and worthy read that keeps your interest and makes you laugh out loud. Bryan fleshes out the characters to a point where you can visualize them. Beneath the intrigue and semi-dark comedy lies a contemporary story that touches many bases - rap music, reality TV, divorce, single life and the kid caught in the middle. Byran's sharp and witty observations give voice to what many might think about these topics.

Now this is what I call a great read! While browsing in a book store last week I noticed that Dave Barry had this to say: "If you like to laugh, and you hate reality TV, you will love this wonderfully, viciously hilarious book." And after reading Keep It Real I can only say that you will literally laugh out loud as Bill Bryan skewers reality TV, rap culture and a guy who bears a striking resemblance to Donald Trump.

The only problem with this book is that it's difficult to put down, so make sure that you don't start reading Keep It Real if you have an early appointment.

This is a fast paced, witty, hysterically funny mystery. I was laughing out loud from page one. It's shockingly politically incorrect. I loved the insider view of reality TV and rap music. The subject matter feels very current and I recognized some of the characters from real life. I recommend this book for smart people who like to laugh. I don't think the writer meant to write this for a suburban mommy but I hope he writes another one soon!

Ted Collins was an award winning investigative reporter, but his divorce put him in a downward spiral that pretty much ended that career. He's currently working as a segment producer for a reality TV show, The Mogul. Yep, its similar to the Apprentice, though taken to much more of an extreme. I saw that having to state I have never watched the apprentice.

Ted's ex-wife is now married to a very wealthy and influential entertainment attorney, Richard Slatkin. His seven year old daughter Hallie is living an absurdly privileged life, and even uses her credit card to buy Ted some clothing when needed to fit in to a hotel he takes her to for a treat.

Ted has to have supervised visitation due to some incidents that occurred when he was binging to get over the divorce. He is about to leave his ex-wife's estate when he hears a woman in peril. It is a beautiful young woman being abused by a thug. Given Richard's clientele, Ted is pretty certain the man is a celebrity rapper. Ted is correct, and when the woman goes missing, Ted is sorry he didn't do more than just offer her help. He realizes you can't make someone save themselves, though, and wonders if Boney is involved when the woman, Patrice goes missing.

Ted is promoted on the reality show, much to his dismay. The one good benefit to the promotion is that his boss, Trevor Bane, is paying for LA's best divorce attorney to get him a better deal. That is worth everything to Ted.

Ted somehow manages to convince Trevor, in a job saving move, to utilize Boney the rapper in a Mogul segment, rather than Celine Dion. This allows Ted access to snoop around and perhaps tie Boney into Patrice's disappearance. Not wanting to get involved directly with the police, Ted uses pay phones and the voice of Foghorn Leghorn to communicate with the detective assigned to the case. Detective Susan DeRosa is a clever woman who finds Ted's true identity and allows him to give her tips on the case. Eventually, truth and justice prevail, though not before a lot of comic and manic action ensues.

This book is definitely not PC, but I found it hilarious. It's a real look at the trappings of celebrity and the abuses found therein, the way the media encourages the celebrity of people with no discernible skill - like Paris Hilton, and Reality TV. Keep It Real kept it entertaining for me, and my ribs are just now mending from the beating they took with all the laughing I did while reading it.

There's nothing like browsing the shelves, looking for something new, something different, something well written, something funny--and coming across a 'Keep It Real'. The sarcasm is relentless, the one-liners numerous and hilarious, the writing as crisp and polished as anything I read last year. If you like Dorsey, Hiaason, Jenkins, Leonard try this book.

This was by far the best book I read in 2007 (excluding medical textbooks of course).... You will laugh out loud and will read it in one day. Abso-f'ing-lutely hilarious book!

My lead-off vacation reading when I got on the plane was a library book titled Keep It Real by Bill Bryan. With Dave Barry's quote on the front "If you like to laugh, and you hate reality TV, you will love this wonderfully, viciously hilarious book", how could I not pick it up? Good choice too, as it delivered plenty of laughs to keep me distracted during a very long flight...

Ted Collins has gone from the heights of journalistic fame to the bottom of the TV barrel... from a Pulitzer for investigative journalism to being a producer for a reality TV show called "The Mogul". And yes, you can assume it's a rip-off of The Apprentice, right down to the Donald Trump catch-phrase. The only reason Ted keeps going is that his ex-wife has custody of their daughter, and he desperately wants to get more than court-supervised visits with his child. But legal issues and mental breakdowns will do that to you. During a visit with his daughter (at his ex-wife's mansion), he overhears an argument between a rap star and his latest "date". When the "date" goes missing, it becomes front-page news, with Ted holding a few cards as to what may have happened to her. This chance to get back into real reporting coincides with his promotion to executive producer of The Mogul. He decides to blend the two situations by having the rap star appear in an episode of the show so that he can spend some time snooping around to find physical evidence of the suspected murder. Unfortunately, "control" is an illusion, and network egos keep changing the plans faster than Ted can devise them. And with each change in direction, the likely suspect(s) keep shifting in and out of focus...

This was truly a fun read. Ted has an incredibly active imagination, and his dialogue is acid-sharp. His job is made up of completely dysfunctional coworkers and executives, and the daily "eat or be eaten" mentality is sort of what you'd expect in the pressure-filled world of network ratings. But underneath all the laughs and sarcasm, there's a real caring person who will literally kill for his daughter, and who wants to save her from the uncaring materialistic world in which she's being raised. The twists towards the end of the book kept me guessing on how it would all turn out, and I had more fun reading this than many other recreational reads of late.

If you're a fan of Dave Barry or Carl Hiaasen, Bill Bryan's Keep It Real should make you feel right at home.

Ted Collins hit rock-bottom after his wife left him, taking with her the movie rights to his Pulitzer-prize-winning article. From the peaks of investigative journalism, he's now a low-level producer for a truly horrible reality TV show. He's also still filled with anger at his wife and her new husband. That anger has resulted in his being denied any unsupervised visitation with his daughter.

When he oversees a conflict between a hip-hop star and the star's beautiful girlfriend--a model who vanishes shortly afterwards, Ted sees a possible road back to investigative journalism. In a celebrity-obsessed society, this is the kind of article any newspaper would sell its soul for. The problem of how to investigate when he doesn't even know the hip-hop star is solved by using his reality TV show--and making the hip-hop artist an integral part of the show. With a host of cameras on the scene, Ted is certain he'll be able to get to the truth. Maybe he'll even get lucky with the pretty detective assigned to look for the missing model.

Author Bill Bryan is at his best as he skewers the American media, with its concentration of self-proclaimed geniuses, its anything for a buck mindset, and its concentration on humiliation as the ultimate in entertainment. Bryan also manages some pithy observations on relationships between men and women, and on racial relationships in America. I found myself laughing out loud a number of times as I read through this entertaining and well-written story. Bryan is definitely an author to watch.

I would have liked to see a bit more concentration on the mystery, at least some additional investigation to bring up evidence to point at hip-hop star, Boney. Without that, the twist at the end of the novel didn't have quite the impact it could have. Still, I'm happy to recommend KEEP IT REAL as a fast-moving and compelling mystery--as well as an insightful look into the world of glitz, Hollywood, and reality TV.

It took all of one sentence to convince me to buy Mr. Bryan's book. He opens Keep It Real with one of the funniest first lines I've ever read and he kept me laughing until the last page.

A fresh look at Hollywood and the world of reality TV, Keep It Real follows Ted Collins as he tries to hold his careening life together and solve a murder at the same time. Not only did I root for Ted every step of the way, I also wished I had the cajones to say some of the hilariously brazen things he does.

Keep It Real is one of those books that once you start you can't wait to get back to it and I'm already hoping for a sequel.

I got this as a gift and didn't know what to expect as I hadn't heard anything about it. What a great read! A hilarious look at "reality" TV. We all know it's anything but, but it's nice to get an insider's take on it. And the story is terrific. Engaged me more and more as I read. It can't be easy to write a funny crime novel and have it work on both levels, but the author has not only done it, he's done it superbly.