Secrets of My Hollywood Life: Family Affairs by Jen Calonita

Synopsis

The filming for sure-to-be-blockbuster movie Pretty Young Assassins has wrapped, and teen movie star Kaitlin Burke returns to life on the set of primetime drama Family Affair. After ten seasons filming, she would have thought that she could see it all coming, but with a plotting new actress on set, all bets are off. The new diva, Alexis, makes even Sky seem like a puppy in comparison. Can Kaitlin keep her sane boyfriend, her insane job, and her composure in the face of this new star power?

Children's Literature

Calonita effectively captures the enthusiastic, humorous, and vulnerable voice of a popular teenage actress, Kaitlin Burke, in this sequel to Secrets of My Hollywood Life and Secrets of My Hollywood Life on Location. While desiring the life of a normal teenage girl and all that goes with it (driver's license tests, SATs, etc.), Kaitlin carefully balances her acting career with her relationships with people, while attempting to keep a positive public image. When a gorgeous and friendly newcomer, Alexis Holden, arrives on the set of Kaitlin's TV drama Family Affairs, Kaitlin faces issues of jealousy and suspicions of ulterior motives and manipulations, which cause her to unite with her long-time rival, actress Sky Mackenzie. As Alexis's true intentions are exposed, Kaitlin shares Hollywood secrets with the reader, begins to fall in love with her boyfriend Austin, bonds with Sky, and attempts to rescue her own career. Calonita handles the complexities of the teen years in an appropriate and fun manner that will have preteen and teenage girls engrossed. Reviewer: Jamaica Johnson Conner

Biography

Over the past eight years, as a Senior Editor at Teen People and a journalist for Entertainment Weekly, Glamour, and Marie Claire, Jen Calonita has interviewed everyone from Lindsay Lohan to Ashton Kutcher.

Jen's third novel, Secrets of My Hollywood Life: Family Affair, pubs in May 2008 and she is currently working on a new hardcover novel about teen girls at summer camp, Sleepaway Girls, coming in Spring 2009, as well as a fourth Secrets novel, Paparazzi Princess, coming March 2009.