Review: STAR STRUCK by Anne-Marie O'Connor ****

All Catherine wants to do is sing, but a TV show is about to make her a star . . .
Catherine Reilly is 24, single and still lives at home with her dad and two of her sisters. The only thing Catherine’s ever been any good at is singing, but she has no connections, low confidence and isn’t exactly glamorous.
However, when she sees a TV ad for the latest series of Star Maker, the biggest talent show on national television, she decides to enter . . .
Catherine now has the best voice coach in the business, a team of sadistic trainers and stylists and the world’s number one music mogul on her side . . . Can an ordinary girl's dreams really come true?

I've been wanting to read this book ever since it came out nearly two years ago - whoa, time flies ... I'm a fan of rags-to-riches type of stories and this one certainly didn't disappoint!

The star of this book is Catherine, a completely unremarkable girl who has sacrified everything to care for her dad, who is a bit of a hypochondriac and is having a hard time coping with the fact that his wife left him, so Catherine can't help staying at home and looking after him. The only thing she's ever been good at is singing and one day she decided to enter the hit TV show Star Making: Transatlantic ... She attends the auditions, where things go horribly wrong thanks to her kooky dad and her two sisters. She gets through to the next round, but once the audition part is broadcast, her whole family becomes famous - and things can only go downhill from there! Catherine is quite a success on the show, but her life is a mess - her family is involved in a public scandal, she doesn't know who she can trust and she seems to be falling in love for the first time ...

This was such a cute read! I really enjoyed getting a glimpse behind the scenes of a type of shows that are really popular today and how things are run. I can't say that that these descriptions of really shows are accurate as I obviously haven't a clue, but I certainly found those scenes believable and I'm sure reality shows really aren't as 'real' as they're meant to be, but that's no secret anyway.

The characters were great too! Catherine was a great heroine and I liked how she remained grounded despite the so-called transformation (although the sadistic trainers and stylists made an appearance much later than I expected them to) and all the madness that went on around her. She was a fab character, as was her hi-larious family, her love interest and Star herself, of course!

I can't say I was blown away by this book, but it was enjoyable and entertaining enough. Maybe it was a bit slow at times, but overall it was a good read - and a very topical too, with all the madness of reality talent shows! I believe this was the author's debut, but I do hope she writes more books in the future as I'd certainly like to read more by her!

overall rating:
plot: 4/5 | writing: 4/5 | characters: 4/5 | cover: 4/5