Review: Close Up by Kate Forster

Title: Close Up

Published: Penguin AU January 2014

Status: Read from January 21 to 22, 2014 — I own a copy {Courtesy the publisher}

My Thoughts:

Kate Forster’s latest novel is an entertaining story about ambition, desire, friendship and love set in LA’s Tinseltown, featuring three women looking to make their dreams come true.

The screenplay of ‘The Art of Love’ is Hollywood’s latest ‘it’ project, one that talent manager Zoe Greene is intent on using to take her career to the next level. Actress Maggie Hall would do anything for the starring role, determined to deny that after twenty years as America’s sweetheart, she is at least a decade too old for the part. Dylan Mercer came to Hollywood searching for her birth mother, not a film career, but who can resist the lure of fame and fortune?

I was expecting a shallow Hollywood novel, dripping in glamour and celebrity name-dropping, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover Close Up offers a warm and engaging story. Moving between the present and the past it reveals how the lives of Zoe, Maggie and Dylan intertwine as they each reach a crossroads in their life, and discover that success is not all their hearts desire. Romance is a feature of the plot for all three women, troubled briefly by miscommunication and personal issues.

Close Up proved to be an enjoyable, well written escapist read and since this is Hollywood, you can expect a fairytale ending for all.

Learn more about Kate Forster and Close up in the Q&A I posted earlier