Soap Operas Books

I like the light and fun part of this series, but this one dealt with evil -- an evil man who did an evil thing many years ago. Somehow, I didn't expect that from this series.

The "detective" in this series is likeable Morgan, a writer-producer for a long-running soap opera -- or should I say daytime drama. Morgan lives a great life in Manhattan, particularly since someone in an earlier book left her a whole lot of money (she was doing pretty well on her own before that). Morgan has a bunch of men in her life, but somehow never seems to be able to settle down to a particular boyfriend. Morgan's best friend forever offers some stability, so when the friend is arrested for murder, Morgan is driven to try to prove that the friend didn't do it -- although it looks very bad.

Intertwined with this story is another story of Morgan trying to discover who she is -- she was found at a young age, and her parents or name or even her age were never identified. Now that Morgan has some money, she hires a private investigator to see if he can discover more about her.

This is an enjoyable books (a great book to take on a long plane trip or to read on a rainy day). I hope future books don't continue with this serious material -- it's very real, but I read these books to escape quite so much reality.

Linda Palmer's writing just keeps getting better with each book in this terrific series. This time amatuer sleuth Morgan Tyler works to solve two mysteries, one deeply personal, and the other in defense of a dear friend accused of murder. There are some fabulous new characters. As always with Ms. Palmer's mysteries, you're in for a fun read and a wild ride.

KISS OF DEATH, the latest installment in this wonderful series, is probably the most moving of the four. The wonderful twists and dialogue are right up there, but (without giving anything away) I found Morgan's back story, and the way it was dealt with, extremely touching/heartbreaking. Can't wait for the next one!

I am an avid reader of mysteries. To my delight I discovered Linda Palmer about 3 years ago and have bought her books every year since. Her new one, "Kiss of Death" is just as much fun as her first three if not more so. I love her plot twists and her characters. I also enjoy the main character's self-deprecating sense of humour. Since I am also a fan of soaps, these books allow me into a world where I previously just been an outside observer.

Linda Palmer has written the fourth book in her a Daytime Mystery series. She has done an excellent job of adding to a series without making the reader feel left out if they have not read the first ones. But this one will make new fans want to run out for the other three.

The main character, Morgan, is the co-producer and writer for a day time soap opera. This setting contributes a bit of fun, insider feeling to the story. The setting does not control the plot, it just gives it a unique sense to the story and enables the author to create characters who have strong personalities. The tv setting does not make this mystery a fluffy, powder puff piece but an entertaining and solid entry into the field of cozies. It does add a bit of light hearted atmoshpere to this seriously well constructed work

In Kiss of Death the plot consists of two story lines. In one, Morgan's best friend is accused of killing her lover's ex-wife. She is found standing over the body of the woman she hates which makes her seem pretty suspicious to the police. In the other Morgan is trying to solve the mystery of her own past, a past of which no one knows about. She hires a PI to find clues to her past, and the police should be handling the murder but she is drawn personally into both investigations, one to clear her best friend and one to find out what really happened to her in her childhood. The plots do not intertwine but Palmer is able to handle both with grace, not lessening the impact of either story line. Each is written so thoroughly that it is like getting two books in one. Palmer's background in both screen writing and photography have give her the ability to create a broad, brisk moving narrative without omitting the small details that make the scenarios whole and solid.

This is a great book for either a blanket on the beach or fireside in a ski lodge. It can hold its own during any season, a notable entry among the numerous character driven mysteries of today's literary marketplace.

Great, fun read! Can't wait for the SECOND and THIRD books to be published!

Mallory's life is like a soap opera. She literally knows the set of Good as Gold better than her own home. Her mom has been the reigning queen of soaps for as long as Mallory can remember. Her mom has been married numerous times, engaged just as many, and they've lived in over ten different places in Mallory's sixteen years.

However, Mallory and her mother have a hard time relating. They barely talk in passing. Mallory has more of a relationship with her mom's make-up person, Gina. Mallory has always thought that the script for Good as Gold was a joke. The characters keep going through the same situations: being abducted, being killed off, falling in love with long-lost relatives, being locked in trunks, and other ridiculous themes. So one night, on her blog, she brashly notes that she could create a better soap opera.

Little does she realize that even though only a handful of people read the blog, the right person does. The next morning, she receives a call from Donald, her mother's agent. He asks her the routine Hollywood questions, and Mallory lies, saying she's got everything written out. Of course she can send it over. She spends that night in a writing frenzy, creating a synopsis or "Bible" of her proposed idea. The hardest concept was coming up with a name for the show. After many ideas, Likely Story is what she comes up with. Her rationale is that the story would be about normal people and all the messes they get into. Not the far-fetched stuff that is on TV currently.

Everything moves quickly after she hands over the bible she's written for Donald. Executives are calling her, meetings are arranged, and casting is in full swing. She wrote the part of Sarah with her best friend, Amelia, in mind. The casting people may want to go in a different direction, but they keep Amelia in the running through the different audition rounds. An unknown from Julliard, Dallas Grant, is the exact image of Ryan and is easily agreed upon by all.

LIKELY STORY is the first novel in a new series by a trio of male authors making up the pen name David Van Etten. The three authors write a fun quirky novel of how one girl's big talk turns into a real TV show. This novel gives the background of the show's inception and brings everyone into play. Book two, ALL THAT GLITTERS, is due out in October 2008. I am already eager to see what will happen when the production gears up for the pilot episode.

Reviewed by: Jaglvr

LIKELY STORY
DAVID VAN ETTEN

Rating: 5 Enchantments

Mallory's life is about to hit the fast lane. When she rants on her blog about the lack of reality on soap operas (especially her mother's) and how she could create a better one of her own, it doesn't take long for her cell phone to ring. Her mother's agent has seen the blog, likes the idea and wants her to send over the bible in the morning. The only hitch? Mallory hasn't gotten that far with the idea, heck, it wasn't even an idea till she wrote the blog. So Mallory pulls a situation from her real life and begins an all-night writing session to get the story bible down. Then suddenly, the same network that does her mother's show is interested in Mallory's story and all of a sudden, things in Mallory's life go from calm to chaotic.

LIKELY STORY is a great, entertaining read. Mallory is a really likeable character. Dealing with her soap opera diva mother is one thing, but now she's dealing with the cutthroat world of producers, network exec's-including one of her mother's ex husbands-and trying to secure a starring role for her best friend, Amelia. Not to mention, her love life is something out of a soap opera - she's been seeing K, who's also dating another girl and Mallory might just be developing a small crush on Dallas, the Julliard student who's the perfect casting choice for Ryan.

I really enjoyed this story. LIKELY STORY makes a great beach read as it's a faced paced page turner. I look forward to reading the next in the series, due out this fall.

David Van Etten is the pen name of three authors - David Levithan, David Ozanich and Chris Van Etten. Chris Van Etten is currently a fulltime writer for ABC's One Life to Live; David Ozanich is a freelance writer and playwright; and David Levithan is the author of Boy Meets Boy, and many other young adult novels for Knopf.

Lisa
Enchanting Reviews
May 2008

I loved this book. It was fun, lighthearted but with some realistic mother/daughter conflict. It added enough realism to make this book really good. I enjoyed learning about the process of soap operas and the way in which they are created and the cast is chosen. I truly did enjoy it and would recommend it to anyone who wants something fun to read.

Mallory is fed up with her life. Her mother is a soap opera diva, and Mallory can't stand her fake lines and fake attitude. She can't understand why soap operas are so phony, just like her mother. So when she vents one day on her personal blog about this and how if she had her own show, it would be much more realistic, she never expects anyone except maybe her best friend Amelia to see it. But it turns out that her mother's agent Donald saw the blog entry. Soon, Mallory's ideas are being turned into reality, and Mallory gets caught up in making decisions for her show and in her own life.

I didn't really know what to expect when I started reading Likely Story, because I had never read anything quite like it before. The plot was unique, but I didn't really like how Mallory's life seemed to revolve around soap operas, although it was all she knew. I also found it kind of ironic that Mallory always thought that soap operas were so phony when her own life seemed played out like a soap opera. Besides this, I found Likely Story a refreshing break from other over-dramatized and -glamorized tales of Hollywood. The characters were easier to relate to than those in, for example, the A-List series.

Likely Story is not a particularly exciting novel all the time, but it was an enjoyable read. Readers looking for a milder version of the A-List will enjoy this novel too.

[...]

This book will probably not get as large an audience as it would otherwise because it's aimed at intellectuals. However, those who venture to read it will enjoy an amusing look at what many Chinese intellectuals are thinking these days.

Written more than 12 years ago, Ms Zha, at 34, wrote one of the first books on the effects of popular media in the New New China. Written by a native who later emigrated to the US in her mid-20s for graduate school in Lit, the reader should look at is what is said and just as important what is not said. She emigrated right after Tiananmen incident, which had a great impact on her while attending Beijing U. Her arguments with her father, a researcher at one of the China Academies in BJ, caused a great dichotomy in the family. She believes that "...culture will save China, I (father) believe the economy will (p14)."

As most American readers, we have to filter the official mouthpieces of China Daily, Xinhua, and People's Daily, which are approved newsources of the China Gov't. And there are different editions, for Chinese and English consumption. We have to evaluate their points of view for any hidden agenda. And so it goes in the US too, such as the Epoch Times newspaper published in Chinese in NYC publishes a slant critical of the China Gov't, pro Falun Gong.

Now 46, with a 2003 Guggenheim fellowship under her belt, she has returned to BJ to write more fiction, perhaps break into the movie / TV biz and write a sequel to this book. Her husband, Benjamin Lee, a PhD who has been recently been appointed Graduate Dean of Social Research at The New University, NYC, a 1st gen Chinese anthropologist is also joining her as a mentor and confidant in BJ. His topic of social research is in the field of speculative finance.

Her book, which reads like a novel and easy-to-read multi-layered one like a Tom Clancy novel. Enticingly it gives pomp and circumstance, before delivering a B-school reader in disguise. This book is less about modern Chinese culture as it is about the business of culture. It belies the fact that this serious book is used as required readings at her alma maters, USC, Rice, Chicago, Columbia Chinese culture courses. Unfortunately, it doesn't have an index to locate people, books, films, and SOEs and there is no bibliography or pixs.

The great thing is that her perspective is part BJ native and part BJ expat that is proper for writing books and giving a more dispassionate view on the evolution of the national media. Shunning the myopic view that changes at first glance at warp speed, she gives an insiders view as case studies, to the three major mass-media venues, TV soaps (Chap 2), movies (Chap 4), pulp fiction (Chap 6), and lastly the media impact from Hong Kong (Chap 7) before its 97 repatriation. Lots of research into the insider interviews by the movers and shakers themselves.

In Chap 2, she profiles the creation of a new TV media, soap operas, and how the National TV propaganda machine changed its tune after seeing the popularity of foreign movies on TV. They needed to popularize the social realities of the New China and give a feminist's twist to make sure it appeals to the older generation of retired women too. As in all new and risky endeavors, Zha writes about the key five people involve in bringing out a weekly evening soap, Yearning. The sweatshop mentality, impossible deadlines, dedication at low pay, and eventual burnout. And the series viewership exceeded their wildest dreams. Definitely a close-up of a saga that portends the future of Central Chinese TV.

In Chap 3, she profiles the changes in Beijing's skyline from an architectural viewpoint. She writes about four architects and their futile efforts in instilling cultural preservation and retaining a dignified city. In over 24 pages, she discusses how walls and courtyards previously defined the Chinese family culture and neighborhoods, came down during the Soviet-inspired model city era and the wanton reconstruction of the 80s. And that modern Chinese architecture is now defined in the new Olympic village in northern outskirts of BJ, with the few remaining relics of history left abandoned by modern BJers.

In Chap 4, she profiles two movie-making directors by contrasting their styles and techniques, Chen Kaige (Yellow Earth, Farewell My Concubine) and Zhang Yimou (Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern). Over 25 pages, she mainly talks about the insider's stories on ego involvement where together they are greater than in competition with each other. She also shows that these expensive cultural epics also drained the State Film industry coffers, such that the succeeding 6th generation of filmmakers had little if any State support for their craft. Fairly shallow discussion on the emerging domestic film industry.

In Chap 6, Ms Zha writes about the insatiable demand for Jia Pingwa's "The Abandoned Capital," pulp-fiction for the masses. In 35 pgs, she shows that after Mao there was such a dirth of sex education, that this type of literature was needed in the city by the politburo, scholars, as well as factory workers. She interviews the author, sex pathology MDs, and Chinese feminists.

In Chap 7, she profiles the CIM (Zhicai) Corp Div of Ming Bao, a HK media mogul, which plans and executes a strategy in expansion into mainland China. In over 30 pages, this is a classical B-school analysis of the triumphs, pitfalls, and personnel intrigue of an OEChinese penetrating into the entrenched Chinese apparatchik. Any new American media mogul contemplating the Chinese market should read this chapter carefully.

Throughout this book, Ms Zha emphasizes that the people who can get things done have to do it with Chinese characteristics, one has to know lots of influential people, be crafty and wily as a fox, and know where the trapdoors and loopholes within the system. Outsiders and individualists are clueless.

a really good read, short, but it gets a lot of information accross. really covers everything from soap operas to movies to mtv, it puts forth some very interesting views on subjects that most books on china do not even cover.

Face it. When it comes to China, most Westerners -- especially those of us in the United States -- are clueless. That is why ''China Pop'' is such an important book, even if it seems, at first glance, to be about a frivolous subject.

Even as many in the US are, for political reasons, demonizing ''Red'' China, China is opening up to a greater extent than it has in centuries. (Yes, it still has a long way to go, but it has come a long way from the dark days of the Cultural Revolution.)

''China Pop'' is a helpful study of one result of China's slow opening: the rise of an increasingly Westernized and increasingly commercial popular culture.

The Chinese are already embracing economic freedom. After reading ''China Pop'' I have little doubt that freedom of expression is only a generation away.

Zha Jianying. 1996. _China Pop: How Soap Operas, Tabloids, and Bestsellers Are Transforming a Culture_. New York: The New Press. Pp. 210. ISBN 1565842502 (pbk).

Zha Jianying captures in this book the ferment - intellectual, artistic and commercial - of China's post-Tiananmen urban culture industry. She presents a lively mix of reportage, personal revelation, personality profile and ethnographic insight centered on pop culture events and trends in the People's Republic. Through her focus on creators and consumers, _China Pop_ illustrates people who have "...shed their old skins and picked up new lives." (p. 7).

China's developing pop culture industry is media-driven; like its Western counterparts, the industry spans TV, movies, literature, journalism, music, art and more. Zha looks at a hugely successful TV melodrama, Yearnings, and traces how the show was conceived, written and produced (chapter 2). She lays out repercussions the show had on its writers' and producers' lives and careers and its effect on China's TV industry. In "The Whopper" (chapter 5), she shows how money and business combine to corrupt journalists; corruption is so severe, she thinks, that "...most of what the Chinese read in the paper or see on television as 'news' these days is little more than paid advertising." (p. 117). She tackles developments in the movies by contrasting the career trajectories, personalities and works of Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, China's leading directors in the 1990s (chapter 7). Chen directed the 1993 Cannes winner Farewell My Concubine; Zhang is perhaps known best in the west for his Red Sorghum (1987). Zha explores the sensation over author Jia Pingwa's ribald novel The Abandoned Capital (1993), and describes how readers, critics and state censors responded to it (chapter 6). (Beijing banned the book in 1994 only after sales cooled, pp. 127-8). Her account of the CIM Company, an investment outfit that "...is the first major Hong Kong company that has stepped into the tricky waters of joint venture media and cultural productions with China." (p. 165), is a tutorial on doing business in China as well as a close look at marketing hot pop performers. Chan Koon-Chung, a former avant-garde Hong Kong publisher who for a time was the CIM point man in Beijing, makes a telling comment: "Both economically and culturally, China looks similar to the Hong Kong of the seventies_so I can see clearly where the market is heading, where China is going to end up. We know exactly what to do and what will work. It's a huge market and this is an exciting time to be here" (p. 171).

Zha's book succeeds on several fronts. It is an artfully written commentary on changes sweeping China's media. The nation is developing a culture of mass consumerism, and the media market and propagate this culture. _China Pop_ documents this. Second, Zha ties her observations and interviews together using a keen sense of what being an urban, hip Chinese in post-Tiananmen China means. Her viewpoint moves adroitly between insider (native Chinese) and outsider (overseas Chinese or huaqiao); the book can be read as an ethnography minus overt theorizing. _China Pop_ is well worth reading as an accessible, intelligent commentary on urban cultural change in the People's Republic.

I was really looking for something new since I have sooo many of the modern make-up books out, but this wasn't it. If you're a beginner or you're really into soap operas this might be the book for you, but it's not for me.

I really liked it because it had alot of ideas in regard to makeup for the various soap opera vixens. The pics were beautiful and the artist and his work are excellent. Definitely something to check out.

I loved this book. It was beautiful and informative. The photos were some of the best I've seen of some of the most beautiful soap actresses out there. Plus there were descriptive color photos detailing how to achieve the looks presented. The interviews were fun and the helpful tips were actually helpful.

Timothy Alan's Two-Faced: Confessions of a Soap Opera Make-Up Artist, was fun and informative, detailed and dishy, and overall a most enjoyable read. As a soap fan, I loved the brief interviews with the actresses - their outlook on life and beauty was down to earth and enlightening. It revealed that they're real people, with a lot of the same concerns we all have; some of which can be assuaged with the right make-up.

Timothy's approach invites the reader to sit in on a make-up session where he engages the actresses in a conversation about their lives and priorities and how they view themselves. As for the make-up, he provides detailed diagrams of how he achieved the looks, two for each model. He talks about the proper tools, techniques and products, all of which are well within the reach of any woman. Timothy's love of his work and the actresses featured in the book are obvious.

I'd highly recommend this title even if you don't know the actresses - there's just that much good information in it.

Definitely a must-read book for any soap opera fan out there! You're bound to read about one of your favorite daytime diva's, because Tim seems to have worked with them all!!

Fantastic tips and tricks are found all over this great book, and you'll also find fun and entertaining interviews with some of daytime's most popular ladies. The photos and mock-ups that accompany the interviews are fantastic! If you ever wanted to look like a soap opera star, this book will help get you there!

Both educational AND entertaining, this book is one I wasn't able to put down until the very last page. I would recommend this book to every woman out there, even if you may not be a fan of the daytime scene, because there is so much to learn from this Master of Makeup. You are guaranteed to find something to make you smile, make you think and make you realize that you too can look just like "a star."

Vivien no sooner arrives in L.A. when she questions her decision to spend yet another summer with her actress mother. Her decision to take classes at acting school results in a role on a TV show, but Leigh finds her new summer home challenging not because of her mother, but because of Hollywood's pressures. Here's a novel billed as a teen novel but which should reach into adult circles with its swift action, mature themes, and zany atmosphere.

After visiting, Annika Anderson, on the set of her movie Danny Boy, Leigh doesn't think she'll ever be like her overdramatic diva mother. As she enters Hollywood for the first time, she doesn't know what to expect. Her first acting class turns out to be a disaster and she makes friends with Karis, the strange girl in the class. But Leigh wants more than that, and soon she's offered a role on a popular soap, Diamond Heights. Acing isn't as easy as it looks, and as Leigh gets into the rythm of things on set, she also begins to develop diva like tendencies. Her behavior tends to be the downfall of her relationship with her boyfriend, her friendship with Karis, and her newfound acting career. And Leigh has to do something to fix everything before leaving Hollywood.

This book was a great continuation to Introducing Vivien Leigh Reid. It's not often that a sequel is as good or even better than the original. Vivien again offered enough laughs and adventures throughout the book. I love the way the story is written and it's really fun to read. It goes by so fast, and once you start it, you can't put it down. I know that I'm looking forward to reading the third book about Leigh when it comes out.

Reviewed by a student for Flamingnet Book Reviews
www.flamingnet.com
Preteen, teen, and young adult book reviews and recommendations.

I had been looking forward to the second book in this series and it has lived up to my expectations.

While this is a "teen" book, I am an adult and find this book to be well written from both the perspective of the daugther and the mother.

I admit that the Annicka character could be a little better fleshed out. We only ever see her through the eyes of her daughter, but you can still get a good feel for the relationship between the two.

Of course, Leigh is still completely self-absorbed and sure that the whole world revolves around her (to be a teenager again!).

The basic storyline remains the same wherein Leigh is trying to figure out if acting is what she really wants to do - as her mother tries to incorporate herself into her daughter's life - while still maintaining that she is too "young" to have a daughter.

While I have mentioned in my review of the first book that really, this story is sad (mother and child trying to figure where they fit into each other's life), the authors manage to write it with a funny slant and although you "get" the point, it does not have to be slammed into you.

I really enjoy this series. One note, I HATE trying to read the cell phone messages that Leigh keeps sending her friends. Please stop abbreviating every word - I know its probably very "cell phone" acceptable etiquette, but it is impossible to decipher the texts.

BUY THIS SERIES....

Authors Yvonne Collins and Sandy Rideout have followed up their teen novel Introducing Vivien Leigh Reid: Daughter of the Diva with Now Starring Vivien Leigh Reid Diva in Training. In this sequel, Vivian is now living in Los Angeles with her C list actress mother Annika. It seems that her small role in the film Danny Boy has sparked the acting bug in our young heroine as she has enrolled in a Los Angeles based acting class, thus the reason she is now living with her mother. Vivien isn't too much feeling the acting class at first. The exercises seem inane to her and she feels like she learned much more during her time in Ireland than in the class. Vivien makes a few new friends and she still pines for her boyfriend Rory.

You can't tell Annika that she isn't A list because she truly believes that she is. Her diva like behavior is a bit over the top at times. Vivien Leigh Reid expresses a form of cynicism far beyond her sixteen years when it comes to her day to day relationship with her mother. It's really not cute at times. Their relationship seems storybook forced and lacks an authentic tone. It just doesn't seem real, for instance in one chapter after griping about her mother's habits Vivien says to her mother, "Did you change your lipstick? Your teeth look yellow." It's clear that Annika is trying to be a better mother after years of absence. What isn't quite so clear is if Vivien is still mad at her mother for being gone from her life for so long, or is this just the way she relates to her mother. Things become especially interesting when Vivien lands a sweet acting job while her mother is still looking for the perfect work opportunity.

Overall, Now Starring Vivien Leigh Reid Diva In Training is a really hip books that teens interested in the entertainment world may enjoy. It paints a vivid picture of the L.A. scene and the writing is so on point when it comes to the acting world that you will feel like you are in new actor boot camp when reading the book. The book ends on such an amazing high you almost smell another sequel. Teens who are into magazines like Teen People and tabloids will probably especially dig this book.

Teen Editor Bellaonline

A classic plot of love, money, and treachery. Full of clever humor and memorable one-liners. "Can you get me a drink?" "I think I have a bottle of red wine." "I love red wine! it matches my hair." Nicely suited for a small production company, well worth it all around.

Soap opera indeed! Bob's efforts to keep his two women from knowing about each other, while we all know how futile are his attempts, makes us, the readers, know that we're being set up. Sure enough, comes along hints of his well deserved comeuppance. The plot is so obviously soap opera-like that the reader knows there's some complicated turn of events in store in Volume 2. The dry humour titillates and delights. This young writer is surely going somewhere! (And it's not to Hell!)

Chris Lindsay writes with energy, wit and honesty. A wonderful and enjoyable read.

This was an awsome read. One of those books you don't want to put down, and can't wait to read again. I had my husband read it while I drove so that I wouldn't have to wait till I was home to continue reading it. If you like gossip, you will love this...it has everything. Don't miss the train on this one and I hear there is a 2nd as well...I can't wait!!!

I liked how this book was divided into about 6 chapters. The book explanins about how the show was first started, how the fans have always supported it, and the whole storyline. I have only been watching Days for about 2 years, so when I read the storyline, it was really confusing, but I am trying to follow it. It doesn't have any color pictures, and the pictures it does have are mostly of the older families on Days. This book does, however, give you a good background, and it doesn't really leave anything out dealing with information. It also has family trees in the back so you can be sure about the Days generations. You can learn some real trivia from this book. If you want history, and trivia, get this book. It will soon become one of your most treasured posesions.

This book should be well worth your money when you begin reading it.

This book is a must have for all you newer Days fans who want to know what happened up to 1995. Also it has family trees and history of the making of the show. It helps explain Patch"s history in the story line and so much more on dozens of other people. Makes you feel like an expert on the whole show.It starts at the very beginning and had to end at 1995, but maybe some one will write part 2 for the years 1996 to 2007, I hope.

A must for any fan who longs for a return to the enticing storytelling that was once the hallmark of daytime drama. Amazing photos, unbelievable detail... well worth every penny.

This book is about snobby Taffy Sinclair getting a part in a national soap opera. Of course, Jana is jealous, (anyone would be), and Taffy rubs it in every chance she gets, so the Fabulous Five decide to get even by writing an 'expose' on everything snotty Taffy has ever done. Maybe those things were true, but I don't think Jana should have written it. Just because Taffy is a jerk doesn't mean Jana should lower herself to her level. This is a good book to show what happens when jealousy gets the best of us.

I know I'd die of jealousy if I saw my worst enemy on a TVshow, and then having her rub it in the next day at school. This is agreat book that shows the feelings REAL kids feel.

So...Taffy's won a part on a soap opera and Jana's all jealous. Taffy, who loves to be the center of attention, brags about her part. The rivalry between Jana and Taffy takes an ugly turn in this book when Jana, egged on by her friends, writes an "expose" on Taffy for the school newspaper and it gets published. I felt kind of sorry for poor Taffy and was glad when Jana got it GOOD from the vice-principal. One cute, but meaningful scene was the day after that "expose" incident, Mona sticks her tongue out at Jana in the lunch line. Mona should have blasted Jana.

Bravo! Soapsuds was such a delight. It is so much fun to read a book about soap operas. It has so many cliches about soap operas. Everything from the hunks that are required to take their shirts off to the constant recastings!
My favorite parts are when the diva of the show, Meredith Contini, is around. She represents many of the divas that have been on their shows form many years, for example, Susan Lucci or Deidre Hall. The scenes in which she is hysterical about her character being aged is a laugh riot. It reminded me of rumors about Susan Lucci and Sarah Michelle Gellar not getting along because AMC (All My Children) gave Erica a teenage daughter.

This book is so funny! I loved the book so much that I bought it on Audio CD also which is narrated by Finola Hughes. If you watch soaps you will love this book. Even if you do not watch soaps you'll love it because this book is well written, light, engaging and funny!

Oh my how I really wanted to like this book. I am a person that with a good storyline and great writing I could read a book in a day's time; it took me over a month to get through this book and I was on vacation for a week!!

I found it very difficult to follow and to keep track of the players when we are constantly waffling back and forth between real names and stage names. And I feel there were too many characters to keep track of but I guess that's just the way with a soap opera.

I also found the story to be quite depressing. I felt bad for the lead character but then she's going to turn around and do the exact same thing to her best friend?

Maybe I was not taking the book in the light it was intended, maybe I missed the boat but this one sank as far as I'm concerned.

Soapsuds is an entertaining book which is basically about life on a soap opera. The main character; Kate, is on Live For Tomorrow dealing with all sorts of interesting people. She moved to LA after finding her boyfriend and best friend together. She's desperately trying to get over that and move on with her life. The book reminded me a lot of the movie Soapdish because it dealt with one main person and the main characters interactions with the other people on the show. I felt that at some times there were too many people in the story which made it hard to follow. Also, I wasn't crazy about the ending because I felt that it wasn't really thought out. Even though, it was an entertaining escape from reality.

I picked up the audiobook of Soapsuds expection to be amused, but nothing more. I was really pleasantly surprised, this book is surprisingly funny and well-written. The story centers on Kate McPhee, a Bristish stage dancer and actress who takes a job on an American soap opera, Live For Tomorrow (just like the author, Finnoula Hughes). The result is part fish-out-of-water story, part coming of age tale. It truly doesn't have much of a plot, but following Kate's experience is still vastly entertaining. Sometimes the Alice in Wonderland references get tiresome, but that is the basic theme of the book.

The first day at work, Kat's impressive acting skills earn her attention of the show's over-the-top alpha female producer, Daphne, but also the show's resident diva, Merideth Contini. The resemblance between Meredith and Hughes' real-life former co-star Susan Lucci is uncanny, and even the characters have similar names- Regina Abel and Erica Kane. (Get it- Cain and Abel?) The detestable Merideth's jealousy and divalike tantrums get Kate's character, Detective Devon Marrick, switching sexual preference straight away. But the change makes newcomer Kate more popular than ever, and leads to a big level of fame for her that she has a tough time getting used to.

Throughout the book, we go through Kate's friendships with other cast members, as well as her relatioonships with men- or rather, the barely-there relationships that can exist when she works 12+ hours a day. She had her heart broken by her ex in London, and he eventually shakes her up further by showing up in LA. There is also a magician, a writer with 4 dogs, and finally, a married co-star who Kate falls for, who happens to be married to her best friend. The rest of the book is just a dishy behind-the scenes look at the soap opera world, but it is fascinating, and comes from someone who knows her stuff. The characters have surprising warmth and depth, and Kate is a very likeable and actually relatable. The narrator of the audiobook is fantastic, and is wonderful at doing vioces. Overall, a great listen.

Actress Julia Summers is being vaguely threatened by a sometime stalker. She's ending her starring role on a prime time soap, "River Run", to be the next Bond girl. (She was raised by hippie parents, Freedom and Peace. It didn't connect with me how she became such a Fleming fan while living a vagabond and unconventional lifestyle with her free-spirited parents. Anyway.)

"River Road" is going to film the season cliffhanger in Blue Bayou, Louisiana. The Blue Bayou mayor asks his FBI agent brother, Finn Callahan, to bodyguard for Julia and protect her from the stalker.

Finn is at loose ends, enduring a four week unpaid leave of absence from the agency. Seems he tracked a serial killer for three years, caught him and, when the killer tried to escape from the hospital, Finn beat him up. Finn doesn't understand why his FBI boss had a problem with that. (Yeah, I'm rolling my eyes here.)

I liked some of the secondary characters and wish there had been more about them. The conversations between Julia and Finn were boring and I felt no chemistry between them. The stalker and serial killer and James Bond fixation were blech. On page eleven "her green eyes limpid pools of desire" was particularly blech. And it's really too bad Ms. Ross made the Louisiana bayou so ho-hum, about as interesting as a local city park . . . in fact, local parks are more interesting.

This is the second book in a trilogy. It's possible reading the first book (which I didn't) would make this one more enjoyable, possible, not probable.

I read all three books in the Callahan Brothers Trilogy, and River Road (#2) was my favorite. All the books are fun and romantuc stories, but the brother Finn is the most interesting and best developed character of the three. The story line is different, with River Road being the name of a TV show--and the main female character being an actress. Also, I did not read the books in order, and it is not necessary to the enjoymnt of any of them.

This 2nd episode of the Callahan Brothers was MUCH better than Blue Bayou! First of all, altho this plot has been done before, the characters were developed enough so that the tension and repartee was the most enjoyable thing.

River Road is a soap opera and Julia one of its sexiest stars. When she is stalked, they hire a bodyguard (Finn Callahan) and things excalate from there. I hope this story was meant to be funny because I laughed and groaned at the oh so corny soap opera. I liked Julia a lot and of course, Ms Ross wrote Finn to die for!

The ending is very well written, very romantic but the road getting there was satisfying. On to Nate's story.

Actress Julia Summers is about to leap from the small screen to the big screen as the next Bond chick. But first, she has to film her final season of nighttime soap "River Road" in the small town of Blue Bayou. Julia has a stalker sending her hate mail, so the producers decide to bring in a local bodyguard.

Finn Callahan just got suspended from the FBI for beating up a suspect that was trying to escape custody. Back home in Blue Bayou, his brother Nate asks him to do the small favor of play babysitter to what he assumes is a bubble headed and over-indulged actress. Julia could not be further from that. And with his own Bond-fixation, his hormones are in overdrive. Ever the resourceful agent, he manages to delve into her background and find out that she is the daughter of two hippies and has even been jailed for subversive activities herself.

As the two fight their attraction and fall deeper into lust (then act on what we all know would happen), they must also find the baddie that is making threats against Julia, as well as make a good impression on her parents who don't trust cops, especially feds.

Ross adds all the steam you come to expect from one of her novels. Though this is the second in a trilogy, the book stands on its own (though it is nice to get the family background), but pales overall in comparison to its predecessor "Blue Bayou".

Yes, the plot is cliched. Yes, the characters are stereotypical to an extent. I'm not denying that. HOWEVER, all of that is forgiven when I found myself reading this in two days because the sexual tension between the two main characters kept me riveted. I'm a big fan of romance novels, and it's difficult to find novels that can slip by my picky reading preferences.

This is the first book I've read by JoAnn Ross. I was disappointed to find that my local library doesn't carry many of her books, so I'm on the hunt to find others. At this point, I don't know if I can say that JoAnn Ross is one of my favorite authors, but I did like this book. I know I have a winner when I want to scream to the two main characters, "GET TOGETHER, ALREADY!"