As a person who remembers TV before reality TV or cult like TV shows, it is really cool to see how people struggle with stardom and the relationships they seek out.

This was a fun book. If you love contemporaries and stories about the Hollywood life, this is a book for you. It's a fun, quick read that provides an escape from the every day.

Quick easy to read novel about two TV stars that don't realize how much they actually love each other until a series of crazy things happens to keep them apart. Entertaining, but nothing to write home about. Nor is it a book I'll be rushing around recommending to all my friends.

this was fun and cute! I enjoyed this! The characters were great and I liked the plot a lot. it was a pretty quick read which was nice

I had a hard time connecting with the characters in this book. I thought it would be pretty light hearted, and it wasn't. It was decent but nothing special.

I am sorry for the inconvenience, but I don't have the time to read this book anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

I thought this was going to be a lot more lighthearted than it was. The cover is so light and fun, I guess I expected the story to be, too. But not so much. This book is not bad, but I just never really felt connected to the characters. I had trouble understanding them and their motivations, so I never felt invested. Just a meh read for me.

A cute, lighthearted tale ..... nothing that’ll keep you up all night with, but definitely worth the read! Thanks to netgalley for the opportunity.

The best thing about this book is the cover art. It just didn't work for me. I couldn't connect with any of the characters.

Unfortunately, this one just did not work for me. I never felt that I connected with the characters but I keep reading on in the hopes that would change. Eventually I finished and did not feel any more for them than I did when I opened the book.

I tried to like this book, but I just couldn’t get into it. The central characters were not engaging. Did not finish.

A unique and intriguing read. I enjoyed this peek inside the life of an actor and how surreal that life must be. I found the use of the omniscient narrator very effective for a book whose main characters are actors, and I enjoyed being let in on things the characters didn’t even know yet. The characters were well-written and interesting, but some of the scenes were a bit longer than they needed to be. Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my review copy. This is my honest opinion.

I really enjoyed half this book - Josie's half - but found Charlie's part to be pretty boring. In a way, I wish Stewart had stayed with Josie the whole time, exploring her life as an aging actress pretty much known only for her role as a teen hero in a cult TV show. That part was compelling to read; Charlie's adventures as a hostage? Not so much.

4.25 stars rounded down to 4.

I really enjoyed this book-the premise was unusual, the characters endearing and the story was terrific.

What You Don't Know About Charlie Outlaw is the story of Hollywood TV star Charlie Outlaw, who has taken a break from his life in Hollywood by escaping to a tropical island to retreat from the firestorm that erupted following an interview where he inadvertently disparaged his long-time, live-in Hollywood girlfriend.

It is also the story of his (now ex-)girlfriend, Josie, who was an enormous star 20 years ago but has struggled for relevancy in Hollywood recently.

Charlie's escape sours when he is captured while hiking and held for ransom by a group of disorganized kidnappers.

The book proceeds to tell Charlie & Josie's realities during the time that he is held captive.

I appreciated that I couldn't predict what would happen and I really liked the lighthearted glimpse into the mind of an actor.

I'll be looking for more of Leah Stewart!

*ARC received from #netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

So I got this from netgalley for review purposes. Disclosure, et.al.

And I liked it. Or, rather, I liked the story. I liked most of the characters, even most of the "bad guys". I even liked the ending, since I'm kind of partial to nicely wrapped-up things tied with a bow.

For some reason, though, the parts didn't seem to all fit together for me. It took me weeks to read, because my mind kept wandering off in some other -- any other -- direction. The parts where things actually happened were good; unfortunately, the parts where things actually happen could fill a book half this size. The rest of it was a treatise on how hard famous people have it in life.

Yeah. I know. I'm ever so sympathetic.

(And actually, I AM sympathetic. There's a weird fishbowlness to fame, even on a micro level, which I've actually seen first hand. I can imagine what it would be like on a larger stage and *no, thank you*. I'm happy over here in obscurityville, thank you.)

It's so *hard* to see your friends succeed. It's so *hard* to be a woman over forty in Hollywood. It's so *hard* to have had a show that fans liked, and still like. The whole time, I kind of wanted to smack Josie. (Who, by the way, I'm 99% sure is modelled after Sarah Michelle Gellar from Buffy. Whom I like, from what I know of her.) The author just went on and on and on about how difficult it was to be famous, but just as difficult not to be, and just as difficult to have once-been. It just got tedious. We get it. It's hard. Move on.

That said, if you kinda skim those parts after the first three hundred or so, like I said, the story itself isn't bad at all. Stewart really nailed how it must be to be in Charlie's situation and writes it in a way that *feels* like a verging panic attack at times. Those parts make up for the droning tedium on Josie's side of things.

All in all, it won't make my list of favorite books ever, but if you're looking for a beach read where skipping bits won't be a problem, this'd definitely fit the bill, and will keep you fairly entertained.

I have read several of Leah Stewart's books and was super excited for this one. Unfortunately for me, it fell short of her other novels. Both Josie and Charlie are shallow and self-absorbed, which means that they are hard to like and identify with. I don't always have to like the characters but I do have to find something redeeming and I just didn't.

What You Don't Know About Charlie Outlaw is a delightful surprise - an adventurous departure from Leah Stewart's prior books. It is sneakily touching, featuring endearing characters and a strong message about empowerment. Actor Charlie Outlaw nearly derails his successful career as the star of a successful television series. He seeks solace in a remote location far from the paparazzi so that he can be anonymous and recover from the recent demise of his relationship with actress Josie Lamar. Josie was once a hot, sought-after series star herself, but in recent years she has had trouble landing roles. But Charlie's desire for a quiet vacation turns deadly. Unable to reach Charlie to inform him of recent developments in her life, Josie is preparing to attend a much-hyped reunion with her castmates from her hit tv show. As she becomes increasingly concerned about Charlie's failure to answer her texts or calls, Charlie is desperately trying to devise a way to save himself. A fast-paced, tension-filled resolution highlights Stewart's unique romp about two characters who, in less able handles, could have been insufferably neurotic but are refreshingly empathetic and likable.

Some aspects of this book were interesting, but overall it seemed rather a mishmash of styles. Was it a mystery? Romantic comedy? What? I didn't especially care for the characters so didn't really care '"what I didn't know about Charlie"'. It was just ok for me

While this is a fun and funny premise and it has some redeeming qualities, there was just so much thrown in that it was hard to find the thread...

I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Ever wondered what it was like to be an actor? It's not something I ever really thought much about, but still while reading this book I found myself interested in a lot of the thought process that goes behind the acting gig. I'm an accountant myself and have never really been much of an actor (I really am an awful liar and am somewhat terrible at secret-keeping) but after reading this book I can say that I identify with some pieces of the job. I also tend to be overly sensitive and emphatic, which gets me into trouble sometimes just like it did Charlie. And while I could resonate with his character on this specific idea, there were a lot of other parts of this book that got lost in translation for me. It felt to me like there was a limited amount of action thrown in between inner monologues and flash backs and character changes, all of which didn't have much transition and multiple times I had to go back and figure out where the switch happened. While I really did enjoy the plot and I loved the ending, I found the book to be overly wordy and I had to struggle a little to make my way through it. This book has gotten some great reviews though and I did like the characters and the plot a lot so I would definitely still recommend checking it out!