Book Review Tuesday

One thing I've had the pleasure of doing since cutting back my working hours is reading. I was a book worm growing up, still considerably am. It just has gone to the wayside since not only college, but then when I went back to school, my reading time dropped to zilch. Since February, I've gotten to enjoy reading again and have read some great books. I always love swapping book ideas with friends, cousins, co-workers, family, etc and figured this was the perfect place to do so again.

What I did for love

Someone [me] has a serious obsession with tabloids. What does that have to do with this review? Well, it basically takes a love story, and throws it into the crazy world of celebrity - complete with paparazzi, or jackles, as they are referred to in the story. Former child/co-stars Georgie York and Bramwell Shepard have a love/hate relationship. And by that, it means more hate then love. Georgie and Bramwell grew up together on a popular, yet cheesy tv show. Bramwell has fallen into the "fame trap" we all see celebrities go through; getting involved with drugs and alcohol, losing money, imagine gone down hill. And sweet, innocent Georgie was just dumped by her A-lister hubby, for a fellow A-lister actress who happens to be all about charity. If the words, "JENNIFER ANISTON" are flashing in your head, that was my initial reaction as well. Georgie is also a stereotype cast actress, who hasn't had a good film in quite some time. Her overbearing father keeps pushing roles on her that are nothing she wants to commit to. 

A weekend in Vegas, [bet you can tell what's coming] leads to Georgie and Bram ending up married after a wild night of drinking. Georgie is so terrified of going through the media wringer after her breakup with her previous husband, that her and Bram come to a business deal. Stay married for a year and she pays him. Since Bram is broke [or so it seems..] he immediately agrees to this deal. While they are content with it, everyone else in the world doesn't believe it, including the media jackles. 

As their marriage sham continues over the months, Georgie and Bram discover new sides to each other. She isn't the America's sweetheart stereotype, and he isn't as broke, or into drugs, as he's lead America to think. When these other sides to each other start to unfold, the hate slowly fades to respect, which turns into a love story -- and a real marriage.

I personally, loved this book. I loved it enough to pass it on to my mom, who spent the whole weekend reading it and falling in love with it at all. It had the perfect amount of humor and celebrity world thrown into the dialogue, but Phillips also did a wonderful job not pushing or throwing the love story at the reader. The relationship transitioned with just the right timelines that it made the storyline seemed believable. I haven't read any of Phillips books before, but after reading this one, I can't wait to read more of her work.