True Hollywood Lies [Kindle Edition]

Josie Brown (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite promises to distinguish between "the Hollywood you know" and the Hollywood her leading lady knows, Brown's debut novel confirms just what you suspect about celebrity and unfolds with all the inevitability of a romantic comedy. Hannah Fairchild is the levelheaded daughter of Hollywood glitterati, more interested, we're told, in astronomy than any other kind of stargazing. But her hobby mostly serves as an abundant source of puns, as she's reduced to working as a personal assistant to British heartthrob Louis Trollope when her famous father dies and her stepmother freezes her trust fund. The wildly egotistical star keeps Hannah on her toes ordering Zone-kosher foods and arranging his trysts. Brown captures the humor of working for a megalomaniac: an offhand remark from Hannah, "Don't go believing your own press clippings," sends her boss into a panic. "Why? What have you read? What have you heard?" A love triangle between Hannah, her boss and his best friend Mick Bradshaw gives the book the tension that drives this well-paced, entertaining story forward. Unfortunately, Hannah is inconsistent as a character and a narrator, wavering between savvy and naïveté, between embracing the spotlight and hiding behind the scenes.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

PRAISE FOR TRUE HOLLYWOOD LIES

"...The tone is confessional, the writing laced with venomous humor..." -The Wall Street Journal

"A fine piece of literary work." --The New York Post, Page Six

"Brown captures the humor of working for a megalomanic . . .[A] well-paced, entertaining story." --Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 520 KB
• Publisher: Diversion Books (June 25, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003VPWZN6
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,786 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

I've written five novels:

- The Housewife Assassin's Handbook [2011, Signal Press]
- The Baby Planner[2011, Simon & Schuster]
- Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives [2010, Simon & Schuster]
- Impossibly Tongue-Tied [2006, HarperCollins]
- True Hollywood Lies [2005, HarperCollins; 2010 Diversion Books]

In fact my novel, Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives (Simon & Schuster), is being adapted by producer Jerry Bruckheimer as a dramatic series for ABC TV.

Like most authors I know, I'm a voracious reader. My favorite classic authors are Edith Wharton, John le Carre, Martin Cruz Smith, Jane Austen, Graham Greene, P.D. Wodehouse, Margaret Mitchell, Glen David Gold, and Raymond Chandler.

As for contemporary authors, I think that both Martin Cruz Smith and John Le Carre are two of the best writers alive, and I love the writing styles of Helen Fielding, Jackie Collins and Allison Pearson. I think John Lescroart and MJ Rose are amazing, both as authors and author advocates.

I'm a cinephile (I see everything--chick flicks, action films, art house movies, almost every kind of foreign film) and I'm a walker and hiker--anywhere from four to eleven miles a day.

Otherwise, I'M WRITING. Or researching for my next books....meeting the wonderful people who let me know that what I write resonates with them...or hanging out in my fave bookstores (which is any bookstore in any town I happen to be in, at the time).

I've got a sweet romantic husband (who both cooks AND walks the dog, come rain, sleet or flood), and two great funny kids, a boy and a girl. Yeah, I know, I'm lucky, and I should count my blessings. (Believe me, I do!)

I'm also the author of three non-fiction books: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Finding Mr. Right [Alpha/Pearson]; Marriage Confidential: 102 Honest Answers to the Questions Every Husband Wants to Ask, and Every Wife Needs to Know [Signal Press]; and Last Night I Dreamt of Cosmopolatans: A Modern Girl's Dream Dictionary [St. Martin's Press]

As a journalist, my celebrity interviews and relationships trends articles have been featured in Los Angeles Times Syndicate International, Redbook and Complete Woman magazines, as well as AOL, Yahoo, AskMen.com, Divorce360.com, and SingleMindedWomen.com

You can connect with me here, or on:

- Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/JosieBrownAuthor
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/JosieBrownCA

PRAISE FOR JOSIE'S BOOKS:

The Baby Planner

"Brown takes baby mania to its illogical, hysterical extreme in this bubbly romp....But what begins as a light foray into Bugaboo country turns into something bigger than a satire of status-obsessed Bay Area yummy mummies as Brown takes a dark look at the fears of parenthood and family, with Katie's heartbreaking longing for a child unveiling a disturbing reality about her marriage and family. Still, the message from the somber realities is one full of hope: love makes a family, commitment keeps it together." --Publishers Weekly

Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives

"Josie Brown writes with all the secrets, sex, money and scandal of an OK Magazine cover. Truly entertaining reading."--Jackie Collins, Hollywood Wives

"Josie Brown's writing is whip-smart as well as wickedly funny, and just as you are enjoying the ride she takes you on, she shatters your heart with her insight into modern lives." --Tatjana Soli, New York Times bestselling author and 2011 recipient of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction for The Lotus Eaters

"Already touted as the perfect summer beach read, this character driven (sometimes steamy) book can best be described as the offspring of an affair between Desperate Housewives and a Jennifer Weiner novel....A quick look into the sometimes catty world of wealth where priorities get shifted, friendships get broken and marriages, like their mansions, get rearranged. It was light and fluffy (with some excellent dialogue.)..." -- GoodHousekeeping.com

"I loved it! Josie Brown captures the highs and lows of love, lust and marriage with heartwrenching pathos. I'm recommending it to all my friends as the perfect beach read!" -- Lisa Rinna, acatress, and author of the novel Starlit



True Hollywood Lies

The tone is confessional, the writing laced with venomous humor..."
--Wall Street Journal

"Brown captures the humor of working for a megalomaniac...[A] well-paced, entertaining story..." --Publishers Weekly

"A fine piece of literary work." --New York Post


Impossibly Tongue-Tied

"Brad, Angelina, Britney and Kevin may want to check out Josie Brown's new novel, Impossibly Tongue-Tied, for its ripped-from-the-headlines plot that mixes their scandals together..." - PAGE SIX, New York Post

Josie lives in Marin County, California, with Martin and our two children.

Martin, my husband: THE COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO FINDING MR. RIGHT, and MARRIAGE CONFIDENTIAL: 102 HONEST Answers to the Questions Every Husband Wants to Ask, and Every Wife Needs to Know.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great, Glamourous Debut Novel, October 31, 2005

By 

Rian Montgomery "Rian Montgomery" (Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: True Hollywood Lies (Paperback)

If anyone has ever had a bad few days, it's Hannah Fairchild. Not only has her famous movie-star father kicked the bucket and left his trust fund to his latest conniving wife, but her boyfriend has dumped her for another woman. Hannah's only option at this point is to take a job as a personal assistant to Louis Trollope, who also happens to be one of the most eligible and sought-after actors.

Known for going through beautiful women like water, Louis immediately tries to make a play for Hannah. Hannah knows better though and forces him to remain at a distance. Meanwhile, she hooks up with Mick Bradshaw, screenwriter and who also happens to be Louis's best friend. But Louis isn't happy unless he gets what he wants, and he wants Hannah...

Hannah has to juggle her job (which is never-ending), her love life, and her life in general- including her passion for Astronomy). But where does one end and one begin? All the while she tries to find time for her passion for star-gazing (the kind in the sky, not the Hollywood variety!).

Filled with backstabbing, fun and glamous, True Hollywood Lies is quite the glamour chick lit read. I enjoyed it until the end. Hannah was a great main character- down to earth, strong and intelligent. Author Josie Brown keeps the romantic side plots both sizzling and uncertain- one really never knows who will end up with whom until it happens. The actual story line is also filled with twists and turns.

I cannot say that this book is extremely realistic- after all, what woman has a couple of famous gorgeous men pining for them? - but it's a delightful and suspenseful read.

Overall I definitely recommend this book for a glamourous, sun-soaked yet somehow down-to-earth good read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, July 30, 2011

By 

Gabby - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: True Hollywood Lies (Kindle Edition)

This book started off great and quickly lost momentum. The main character was weak and I do not like novels that portray woman as weak and so in love that they find their boyfriends bad behavior acceptable. This was one of those novels. I kept hoping that Hannah would wake up, realize Louis was a cad and dump him. Unfortunately she seemed desperate to save the relationship...and for what? So that he could dump her!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it! Great Hollywood Farce., April 24, 2006

By 

HeatherZ "HeatherZ" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: True Hollywood Lies (Paperback)

Loved it, loved it, loved it.

I picked up TRUE HOLLYWOOD LIES because I overheard a person who works at my local bookstore raving about it. She said that everyone she's ever recommended it to also loved it. I thought that, at the very least, it would be a fun read. And having once lived in LaLa Land, I might find some fun in reliving all the things I liked and disliked about it...

I'm happy to report that the bookseller was right. I could easily relate to the way the heroine, Hannah, had this love/hate relationship with Hollywood (having one myself). Also, she's got the personalities down pat. I could actually imagine that some of those lines as said. The author's bio says that she has interviewed stars and knows the patter, as well as what comes out of the mouths of their handlers.

Also, all the hot spots mentioned in the book are those that the stars really do hit. So for me, it was a great read, almost like visiting again....

As for the plot, Hannah is wonderfully vulnerable, not at all a clueless shoes-and-shopping type, but smart and savvy and filled with some honest pain (it's explained in the book). You can see how she is easily in love with both the men in her life, who are different types but both lovable in their own way. In fact, is surpirsed me to read one of the reviews below which indicate that the ending was "predictable", but I have to say that I disagree. The plot had me wondering until almost the last few pages what choice Hannah would make. I guess that other reviewer is smarter than the average bear (or reader, in this case).

Then again, as with most fun books about women, you know that the heroine will do okay...but I felt that "True Hollywood Lies" was the kind of book you don't ever want to end, which is probably why the other reviewer felt that way.