Likely Story by David Van Etten

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.

Rating: 3.0

Review copy from personal collection