ARC Review: Madly Truly Famously by Rebecca Serle

Title: Madly Truly Famously (Famous in Love, #2)
Author: Rebecca Serle
Publisher: Poppy
Rating: 3/5 
Publication Date: October 13th, 2015
Hardcover, 352 Pages
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Summary: After being plucked from obscurity, Hollywood's newest starlet, Paige Townsen, has a hit film to her name and Rainer Devon on her arm. But being half of the world's most famous couple comes with a price, and soon Paige finds herself dodging photographers; hiding her feelings for her other costar, Jordan Wilder; and navigating tabloid scandals that threaten to tear her and Rainer apart-and end her career as quickly as it began.

I received an ARC copy of Madly Truly Famously from Poppy in exchange for an honest review. I read the first book in this series, Famous in Love, last year as part of The Bloggerhood of the Traveling ARC and I really enjoyed it - and you can read my review of that book by clicking here. I have to say, I definitely enjoyed the first book better than this one, but that doesn't mean that this one was terrible.

The book continues the life of Paige, an eighteen year old girl who tried her luck at acting and got cast for one of the biggest YA-book-to-movie-adaptation roles of the time. Instantly she goes from being a small town girl working in a trinket shop to one of the biggest celebrities of the year. But of course, along with screaming fans and tons of fame comes the unavoidable love triangle. Paige is supposedly in love with her costar and boyfriend, Rainer - but she soon realizes that she has a lot of love in her heart for her other co-star, Jordan, as well.

There are some major spoilers in this paragraph so please skip onto the next one if you haven't read this book yet! Okay so I'm going to rant for a second so bear with me - I know that this book was going to have a love triangle. It carried on from the previous book and I knew that was what this entire book was going to be about. I just didn't expect to be so frustrated with it! First of all, I wanted Paige to end up with Rainer. He was nothing but good to her and didn't shut her out and make her so confused like Jordan did all of the time. I didn't like Jordan from the start. Rainer of course carried some baggage that didn't make the relationship perfect but to me it seemed far more perfect with him than it did at any point with Jordan.

Skip onto the next paragraph - some more spoilers here! And like I said, I know that there was supposed to be internal conflict with Paige over who to choose. But she just kept bouncing back and forth and it was so horribly frustrating that that's why I felt I had to take stars off of this review. One minute she wanted to be with Rainer. Then with Jordan. Then with both of them. Then with neither of them. Then with Jordan. Then she'd be reminded how good she was with Rainer. Then both of them again. Then she would swear off both of them. I wanted to throw the book at times because I was just so confused and my brain was throbbing.

This book felt a lot more Hollywood-ish to me, and maybe that's why I wasn't as satisfied as I was the first time. Don't get me wrong, I liked the book and it was an enjoyable read that I was able to tackle in about only two days - but something just felt different to me. This book focused more on the glitzy part of Hollywood - press conferences, Malibu mansions, lunch and shopping with famous friends. At times I felt like several long chapters in the book were only written to show off the glam of Hollywood - but nothing about Paige's situations were even really being addressed. It wasn't bad, per say - I know that you're supposed to have Hollywood-esque scenes in a book about Hollywood. I just reached several points where I said to myself, Okay, a lunch more expensive than a mortgage is great and all, but what's the purpose of this drawn-out scene in this book? Some things felt like they didn't have a purpose.

However, there were still plenty of parts about this book that I enjoyed. The whole reason I was drawn into this series from the start is Paige's unique situation: becoming a multi-million-dollar actress after being plucked from the middle of nowhere. It's something that only happens in some peoples' wildest dreams and it was a good story to follow, all love-triangle problems aside. Watching Paige grow into her celebrity and get used to her new life and career was great, because there was definitely a lot of character development from book one to book two.

All in all, Madly Truly Famously was an enjoyable read that continues on with the struggles - love and otherwise - that Paige has to face as she grows into one of the brightest stars in Hollywood. Watching her go from a normal high school teen selling things in a trinket store to the most talked about young celebrity of the year (and the immense lifestyle and character change that comes with it) held my attention from the first page to the last. I really enjoy Rebecca Serle's writing and will definitely be reading more of her work in the future!

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