Book Review: Between You and Me

Author: Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

Read: 7/11-7/12/12

Snapshot (taken from the book cover): 

What happens when you are followed by millions . . . and loved by none?

Twenty-seven-year-old Logan Wade is trying to build a life for herself far from her unhappy childhood in Oklahoma. Until she gets the call that her famous cousin needs a new assistant— an offer she can’t refuse.

Logan hasn’t seen Kelsey in person since their parents separated them as kids; in the meantime, Kelsey Wade has grown into Fortune Magazine’s most powerful celebrity. But their reunion is quickly overshadowed by the toxic dynamic between Kelsey and her parents as Logan discovers that, beneath the glossy façade, the wounds that caused them to be wrenched apart so many years ago have insidiously warped into a show-stopping family business.

As Kelsey tries desperately to break away and grasp at a “real” life, beyond the influence of her parents and managers, she makes one catastrophic misstep after another, and Logan must question if their childhood has left them both too broken to succeed. Logan risks everything to hold on, but when Kelsey unravels in the most horribly public way, Logan finds that she will ultimately have to choose between rescuing the girl she has always protected . . . and saving herself.

Mandy Thinks:

This was a fun book to read. It was written by the same authors as the Nanny Diaries so I knew it would be an easy "beach" read as they call it.  The book had hints of celebrity tabloid with a reality show vibe - but in a good way. It was almost like taking a behind the scenes look at the entertainment industry and getting all the dirt - without actually doing that.  I liked that the book was fiction because I knew it wasn't biased or one person's made up version of what really happened while being the assistant to a huge pop star. You never really know how true any of those biographies or "tell-all" books really are…

When you start the book you find that Logan Wade, the main character, is already a little out of sorts and frustrated with her life in NYC.  That is easy to identify with for most people since we all think that we could be doing something different with our lives.  Unfortunately we don't all have a famous pop star cousin to call us up and ask us to be their assistant and go on tour with them.  As the story unfolds, you realize that maybe that's not something that you would want to do anyway as the close knit family that Logan used to be a part of actually is very broken and dysfunctional.  

This was fun to read and had that whole car accident-can't look away effect as the book progresses and the pop star takes a sharp turn for the worse. You just want to keep reading to see if she ever turns her life around or takes back the control she should have of her life. It turns out, Logan is the one that needs to take back the control of her life and that's the one you end up rooting for in the end. 

Top 5 things I learned from this book:

1. Having a famous cousin may not be the coolest thing in the world - especially if they are a train wreck.
2. A lot of people think being the personal assistant to a celebrity would be the coolest job in the world. This book shows you otherwise… 
3. Crazy family = crazy people. This seems to be a common theme on a lot of books I read.
4. If your parents practically wipe your butt your entire life, it may be hard to ditch them when you decide you want to actually be an adult. Start the separation early.
5. Apparently men don't like it when the woman makes more money than they do in a relationship.  Try to find a man secure with his manhood that if you make more.