Customer Reviews

True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Alcohol, drugs, contracts, and Stephen Soderbergh are just an everyday part of teen movie star Morgan Carter's life. She has grown up among the rich and famous and can party with the best of them. Or the worst, as the case may be. When too much partying leads her to six months in rehab and endangers her career, Morgan's manager comes up with a plan that she likes to refer to as the "Witless Protection Program."

For a year, Morgan will call herself Claudia Miller, dress herself in Gap jeans and Target t-shirts, and live as a painfully average high school student in Fort Wayne, Indiana. No more Marc Jacobs clothing. No cell phone. NA meetings instead of parties. She'll attend classes with teachers who give her D's. She'll suffer through gym class volleyball. She'll have to make new friends, which definitely is not as easy as Hollywood makes it look.

Oddly enough, she kind of likes it.

Amid high-fat food and snow in October is a boy Morgan can trust, if she'll let herself. He is a class leader with a secret addiction to Dance Dance Revolution, the pride of doing charity work, and a lot of Midwestern charm. In abandoning Caesar salads for Scooby snacks, Morgan is able to think about who she really is and what she wants to do for the first time in her life. But what is she going to do when the year is over?

Ignore what the media says about her. Morgan is charming (even when she's obnoxious), witty, fun, and most importantly, a multifaceted person who has to overcome a lot of garbage in her life. Meg Cabot fans, this is the book to pick up while you're waiting for the next Princess Diaries installment.

A sequel to TRUE CONFESSIONS OF A HOLLYWOOD STARLET is planned for Fall 2006, and will be much anticipated.

--- Reviewed by Carlie Webber

This book is probably one of my favorites. It doesn't lie and pretend that childhood is all great for movie stars (or anyone) and shows that no matter how bad you're situation is, you can ALWAYS survive and come out even better than before. I'd recommend this book to anyone but especially teenage girls who always wish that they can be a 'starlet' because it will make their ideas more realistic and make them appreciate what they have. Besides being an amazingly inspirational book, it was funny, true, interesting and basically anything else that means GREAT!

I am an adult who loves good teen fiction. Unfortunately, they did not have these wonderful choices when I was a teen. Making it up for it now though...

The story of a 17 year old Hollywood star who gets pulled out of the limelight and sent into middle america in order to help with her drug and alcohol recovery is absolutely excellent.

The writing is smart, quick and funny when it needs to be. I enjoyed all of the characters who are portrayed as regular people with their faults and qualities.

This book was an absolute treat and I am looking forward to the next in this series.

Buy it.

Morgan is a teenage star, an actress who loves spending money and living it up. After overdosing at the Viper Room and nearly dying, then spending time in rehab, she is sent to live with her mother's best friend in Indiana. She must attend a public high school for a year as Claudia Miller and let no one know who she really is, requiring a "makeunder" to disguise her famous face.

This book was written as a journal, so it's easy to stop and start. Though a tad predictable, as any 'secret identity' books are to me, it was surprisingly decent. Morgan has issues - big ones, beyond her materialistic ways - that come out as the story progresses. Make sure to check out the other titles in the series. The second book, More Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet, picks up right where this book left off.

After Hollywood It Girl Morgan Carter overdoses on narcotics, her mom decides that she needs to recover, and she thinks that won't be possible in L.A, so she sends Morgan to live with a friend in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Suddenly Morgan has newly dyed brown hair, a new name (Claudia Miller), and a new attendance of Narcotics Anonymous meetings. At first she is completely underwhelmed. Her friends at school are just slightly different from Marissa, her best friend in Hollywood. None of their clothes have labels, and the clothes they do wear don't exactly emphasize their assets and hid their faults the way they should. Their idea of partying involves soda (which they call pop) and pizza, and they fill their days with school, extracurriculars, and homework. Between guidance counselor sessions at school, NA meetings, school clubs, and a series of journal entries, Morgan is able to make some new friends and confidantes, and really get into her "role" as Claudia Miller. However, there's still that tiny something holding her back: her "real life," knowing she's going to have to return to it, and the fear of being discovered. At first Morgan seems vapid and flat, but as she spends more time in Ft. Wayne, she really mellows and becomes a likeable character. Lola Douglas' writing style is both entertaining and genuine, much like the story itself. By the end, you'll be seeing that Morgan Carter isn't so different from Claudia Miller, if only she'd give herself a chance.

The School Library Journal review says, "At times, Morgan's mind and voice seem too adult-even considering a Hollywood upbringing." I disagree.

True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet deserves five stars because it is exactly what it's supposed to be - and slightly more. I'm sixteen, but I don't often find something so readable in the YA section that is supposedly for people my age. I'm tired of books by authors impersonating ditzy teens without a mature thought in their heads, and it's great to find something that focuses on stuff a girl my age will enjoy without writing at me instead of for me. Georgia Nicolson is funny - hilarious - but if she materialized in my group of friends, none of us would give her rude, pity-partying self the time of day. Morgan is the correct mix of teen and adult. It was so, so nice to read the words of such a smart character - someone I would be able to have an intelligent conversation with if she existed.

Another adult who enjoys curling up with YA lit. I studied children/YA lit in college and always trying to keep on the cutting edge of this literary field. I recently picked up Confessions, expecting it to be "fluff" fiction, glamourizing the life of hollywood starlets. I was quite surprised to find out that the narrator is a recovering drug addict, serious about sobriety. This was a fabulously important story. Smart, chic, and entirely enjoyable. I am waiting anxiously for the sequel.

After a drug overdose, teen actress Morgan Carter was shipped of to live with "aunt" Trudy at Fort Wayner (which I thought was a military base...but it's not). With a new hair color and new name, Claudia Miller, she must live like a normal teenage girl for a year.
This book is nothing like the shallow gossip girls/a-list series. Its about a real girl with real emotions who is finding who she is without all the fancy lights and cameras and away from drugs and alcohol.
There's also a little romance but I think there will be a lot more of that in the second book. (I CANT WAIT!)
I recommend this book to any teen girl

I loved this book! It was about a girl, Morgan Carter, who almost died from too much drug stuff. She spent a long time in rehab, and then is sent away to be a "normal teen" for a year. Her agent wants her to write in a journal, then write a book about her experiences away from Hollywood. She hates living in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Everything is new to her, especially the shopping at target for cheap stuff. No Louis Vuitton bag? No $200 Stuart Weitzman mules?
Eventually she begins to settle in. She makes some friends, goes to some meetings for her drug problems, and becomes a normal teenager (mostly). I wish I could say more, but I can't give away the most interesting part of the book!
Read it!

I am not a young adult but still...i LOVED this book! It was suspenful and it gave you an idea of what it would be like if you just got out of the hostipal and was an achoholic at age 17.
this is a great book and i recommend it to anyone who likes suspenful girly books.