Scripted Unscripted Review

Title: Scripted Unscripted

Author: Kristina Miranda

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Trigger Warning: Previous Character Death

Rating: 4 stars

Release Date: May 14, 2019

Synopsis

Ellie Quinn has spent most of her sixteen years behind the scenes, helping her father manage a crew of four-legged movie stars. Although she longs to be acknowledged as an animal trainer in her own right, she often gets stuck babysitting actors’ personal pets and is known around the studio as “the dog sitter for the stars.”

When teen megastar Kate Montgomery’s sidekick gets fired while filming a pilot, Ellie is forced to temporarily fill-in. The producers seem to be enamored with Ellie—and so do Kate’s two love interests on the show, “it boy” Logan Canfield and brand-new actor Cam Alvarez—causing trouble on and off the set.

Now Ellie must decide between living the drama in front of the camera or behind it. If she quits and the pilot fails, she and her father will have to close their failing business and move to her grandfather's lettuce farm. But if she stays on the road to stardom, it could mean losing the boy she's fallen for—and herself—in the process. Can she save the TV show and her father's business without losing everything else?

Review

A special thank you to Edelweiss and Turner/Ingram Publisher Services for a free advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

I've read a few stories about teenage stars in Hollywood but this one takes a unique perspective from a teenage animal trainer who stands in and ends up filling a bigger role. Her interactions with the other stars are honestly just so amazing, especially how these things are even able to begin. There is just so much that changes and even the friendships that begin to form are just honestly so cute and I honestly loved them so much, especially how the circumstances change and so do these relationships.

As someone who doesn't have a whole lot of background knowledge, it really seemed like the author knew what she was talking about and I was really able to enjoy the world that was created, even without having any of this base knowledge. The relationships between the actors and the other people that make up Hollywood were absolutely fascinating and I loved to be able to read about all of these things. It's an interesting perspective that from seemed realistic from my point of view.

The pacing was the only major issue for me. The beginning was just so slow but once it actually got into things, it was just so much better. Based on the first bit of the book, I was kind of expecting a three or four star read, but it got so much better and I really appreciated everything that ended up happening after this point. The ending also seemed off, like I wanted more and less at the same time. I'm not sure what exactly I wanted out of it, but the pacing at the beginning and the end was just off, but the vast majority of the middle was great to read and immersed me in the world of Ellie. A few of the minor characters also were just never pinned down in who they were and ended up detracting from the main plot for me.

Overall, this was an enjoyable story that got better as it went along, but some parts were just plain and I wanted more from this story that had great potential. It attempts to tackle some major issues in modern society. I definitely would recommend it for a light summer read about dogs, Hollywood, and discovering friends.


Books about teenagers in an adult world are always fascinating. Any recommendations?

Thanks for reading!
Alyssa