I needed a fun and fluffy palate cleanser so I decided to pick up these young adult novels by the women behind the Go Fug Yourself blog. They were just what I needed—a few hours of enjoyable escapism.
In Spoiled, sixteen-year-old Molly Dix finds out right before her mother dies that she’s the daughter of famous actor Brick Berlin. In an attempt to connect with her movie star dad and spoiled half-sister, Brooke Berlin, she leaves Indiana for Beverly Hills. Things don’t go as smoothly as she’d hoped they would. Brooke, queen bee at her school, is not thrilled to have a sister and compete for Brick’s already inadequate time and attention.
The narrative focus in Messy switches to Brooke and Max, Molly’s best friend. Brooke wants to raise her Hollywood profile in the hopes of getting more acting gigs and decides starting a controversial blog is the way to do it. She puts out an ad for a ghostwriter and Max bites at the opportunity to fund her summer writing program. The blog goes viral and suddenly Max and Brooke have to deal with the fallout.
I read these in quick succession so it’s hard to separate my thoughts about them. With all the designer clothes, movie stars, personal chefs, and expensive shoes, these books could have easily turned into empty wish-fulfillment, but instead were light reads containing some deeper substance. Nothing earth shattering, but there’s some really enjoyable character development and twisty plot turns. A great couple of books if you just want to turn your brain off and read some well-written fluff.