A book about a Katie AND a boy band? How could I resist? 

Katie Cox is an up and coming pop star.  But her friends just want to use her to get tickets to see the hot new boyband, Karamel, when they come to town.  Katie obliges and gets them 4 front row tickets from the record label, but passes on going to the show herself, even though it is her birthday (something that none of her friends seem to remember.)  While they are all at the showing missing her birthday, she writes a song about how she can't stand the boyband and sends it to a friend.  It ends up going viral and this is how Katie Cox vs. The Boy Band is born.  Both release their singles on the same day and it is a "competition" to see who will do better on the charts!  Hmmmm... who could it be? The boy band selling out arenas or Katie who is up and coming and playing small gigs? I wonder.

A lot of teen drama and far fetched-ness. (Yes, this is now a word) But a cute read, just the same.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

This book really was pretty ok and I definitely enjoyed some parts of it. What I especially loved were the parts of the book that revolved around Katie's music career and her passion for songwriting. You can really tell that the author put a lot of effort into coming up with witty and funny lyrics that make up Katie's songs (all of which are featured in this book!).

Katie was also a pretty relatable character (well, as much as any 22-year old woman can relate to a 14 year old teenager). Unfortunately, this also meant that Katie was extremely frustrating from time to time. I think that her decision to act on the feud with Karamel was pretty silly and (at least in my opinion) a tad unrealistic. I can't imagine why any 14 year old person would stir the pot that much and act so disrespectfully towards the members of a world-famous boy band (even if they don't really like them or their music!) However, I think that she really grew as a character throughout the book and going through those phases where she was acting silly and unreasonable were necessary in order for her to learn and grow as a teenaged girl.

What also made me want to shake my head in frustration was the way Lacie acted towards Katie. I do think that Katie acted unreasonable when she lied to Lacie about Lacie missing her birthday party and then secretely acting really passive aggressive about it, but Lacie's attitude was really immature in my opinion. The way that she could move on to Savannah and her gang so fast and completely drop Katie and basically stop caring about her (and then telling Katie to get over her not being at her party!) had me thinking that maybe their friendship wasn't as rock-solid as their BFF charms promised.

What really impressed me about this book though was how it handled the topic of divorce and having a relationship with a difficult parent. I am a big family person and love seeing tight knit families presented in novels, however I also believe that it is important to bring to light the sad truth that sometimes a parent will not be honest or reliable or worthy of respect, but that one can love them anyway, while also keeping them at arms' length.

Overall, the book was alright, but not world-moving. I think a young teenager might really enjoy this book (especially the musical and pop-star theme it revolves around) but sadly there are better children's/middle grade books out there that I would recommend before this one.

Katie never expected to be thrust into the spotlight, or to have sold out concerts, or to...start a flame war with the most popular boy back on the planet? What?

Poor Katie. She acts impulsively and sometimes selfishly, but she is a young girl in a situation she wasn't prepared for, so it's only to be expected. Her intentions are good and she comes through in the end. A great, fun read about wish fulfillment.


Receiving an ARC did not alter my review in any way.

Katie became an accidental star but now she needs to write a song desperately for the record label she's signed to.

Katie's parents are separated and her dad flies in to support her despite living abroad and not bothering to much before in the past.



Meanwhile, Katie gets Savannah and Lacey her best friend tickets to Karamels concert, a boy band Katie doesn't care for at all.



As Katie gets into an online war against Karamel, including with her single in the charts, fans swoop to get in on the action and begin to take sides with very bad comments staring against Katie.



Chris from NTV news interviews her about her battle against them meets Kurt from the band meanwhile someone close to her sells a story about her to the papers! There's also a ruined friendship and a new friendship with Jaz whilst she faces her feelings of how she just might now actually like the boy band after all!



Kurt performs at the teen time awards and as kati e is there, the two meet and perform, will they clear the negative air between them though and who choses to leave their record label?



As you can see, there's a full action packed book here as young Katie tries to cope with her changing world of minor game and also keeping up with school. The book holds a message about online bullying as comments online are made against her and they're negative but she retaliates instead of telling or blocking them. However, there's friendship troubles and crushes like any teen can relate to. We see how the music world is hard to cope with let alone break into but Katie proves she stronger that she seems by the end of the book.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!