Book Review - I Heart Hollywood by Lindsey Kelk

‘I Heart Hollywood’ is the second instalment of Lindsey Kelk’s series about Angela Clark. In the previous novel ‘I Heart New York’, Angela had fled her English life after finding her ex-boyfriend in a very compromising position at her best friend’s wedding. Her out-of-character decision found her jobless and friendless in New York.

Fast forward to this story and Angela can’t believe her luck – she has the dream job and a gorgeous boyfriend and all is looking rosy. Then, it seems, her luck is getting even better when her boss sends her to interview the hottest Brit actor around, James Jacobs, in Hollywood. Angela is all set for a fabulous fortnight of shopping, sunbathing and working with the rich and famous and takes her American best friend with her to enjoy the fun. What could possibly go wrong?

It seems ladykiller James Jacobs, whilst charming and charismatic, has a bit of a secret that must be upheld or he’ll face career devastation. He, along with his PR army, will do anything to keep his secret and they don’t care who they take down and Angela finds herself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Can she possibly save her job, her relationship and her friendship with her best friend all at the same time?

I absolutely love ‘I Heart New York’ and I couldn’t wait to read this next chapter in Angela’s story. Whilst I did enjoy it, I couldn’t help feel let down – perhaps due to my anticipation or perhaps due to the fact that the story just wasn’t as good, I’m not quite sure.

The main characters from the first novel are all back and they are just as good as they were in the first. The new characters are all equally well written and, for the most part, brought a lot to this new story. However, Angela’s American best friend has a history with Hollywood and it takes her away from the story a bit. Whilst the two were as thick as thieves together in the first book, they spent much more time living their own individual lives in this one and I think it was detrimental to the story a bit as it was one of the things I enjoyed most about ‘I Heart New York’.

The setting of course is Hollywood, but it is painted as a bit of a facade, rather much as I think the real Hollywood is. If you peel away the dazzling exterior, you are left with a much more seedy and unlikeable place. Whereas Kelk painted New York as a dream place full of romance and wonder, Hollywood is a little disappointing in comparison.

It is very hard, as you can probably tell, not to draw comparisons between the two books so far in the series. But I think that if you hadn’t read the first one, you wouldn’t enjoy the second as it just doesn’t have the same engaging style of the first. It is fun to find out what happens next in Angela’s life, but I don’t think it is a good starting place. The next book in the series is ‘I Heart Paris’ and I really do ‘heart’ Paris, so Ill definitely be reading that – I just hope that Kelk can get the story back on track and the characters back to their original best.

7 comments:

Chloe @ chicklitreviews said...

Really good review, well done! I've enjoyed your blog so far, and we're following you on Twitter as well so welcome to the world of book blogging :) Chicklitreviews.com x

Tales of Whimsy said...

This sounds adorable.

Thanks for visiting Tales of Whimsy...

Your blog is SO cute. I love that header :D

Milka said...

This one sounds like a good read. :)

Gina said...

Huh...I've never heard of this particular series, but it sounds like fun! Thanks for sharing! Happy reading!

(Oh and I love your site! The layout is so cute and the color scheme is easy on the eyes.)

Cassandra said...

It sounds like a cute book!

In response to the comment you left, if you just click on the progress bars, it will take you to the site which will allow you to make them. I know most people take the link away, but I had a hard time finding it myself, so I left the link on for exactly that purpose.

magicdarts said...

nice one - looks like you've got this blog thing well underway - I'll be hounding you for presentation tips very soon!

Carrie at In the Hammock Blog said...

Great review, this one looks really cute! I love the cover! Thanks for visiting my blog!!

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