Member Reviews
Thank You to NetGalley and Mary Ann Marlowe for the opportunity to read this book in advance for my honest opinion. All opinions are mine!
Layla Beckett is the ultimate Theatre of the Absurd fan. She has anonymously run a fan site for the last ten years under the alias Pumpkin. When Layla is given the opportunity to work at a top music magazine in New York she finds herself rubbing elbows with people she only fantasized meeting. Working for the magazine is Jo, a famous photographer and girlfriend of the lead singer for Theatre of the Absurd. When Jo befriends Layla, all of her wildest dreams start coming to life. Suddenly she is not only casually hanging out with the band members in their home, she’s now crashing on their couch and catching the attention of the shy and mysterious drummer, Shane.
Shane has never been the center of fans attention. As the drummer he is used to sitting in the shadows at the back, keeping it all together. When Shane meets Layla he is instantly smitten, but is she just another groupie using him to get to the other guys in the band? Or worse, is she using the band to get to more famous musicians? Shane’s insecurities make Layla scared to open up to Shane about her fan site, afraid that he won’t believe her when she says her feelings for him are the real deal.
This was my first Mary Ann Marlowe book and I really liked her writing! I thought Layla was a very level headed and mature character which made her easy to relate to. I personally think that Shane had a lot of growing and maturing to do. Some of his actions were, in my book, major deal breakers. I loved that Layla called his abusive behavior for exactly what it was! I also really liked Jo and Eden. I’m glad their books are already out so I can go back and binge their stories. They were strong and supportive females, mature enough to separate their feelings for Layla from their feelings for Shane when things got a little messy. This was a very steamy book so if that’s not something you’re into, be warned!
I don’t think I was the intended audience for this book. While I like all genres of romantic fiction, I had a difficult time getting into this book. I could not relate to the h at all. I found her obsessive fan-girling too much. Maybe because I was never like that even in my youth. This one was not for me.
Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
4.5/5 stars. This book was sweet, steamy, adorkable and all-around a great read. I loved Layla’s characters, and I connected with her love of music and fangirl status although I wouldn’t say I’m anywhere close to her level of fangirl. I found the writing style to be super easy to get caught up in, and the story progressed at a really good pace (even if it only took place over a couple of weeks to start with – it never really seemed forced to me instead it felt natural). I thought the relationships (friendship and romantic) were well-written. The chemistry between Layla and Shane was super cute and steamy, and I was fully invested in their relationship. Overall, I adored this story, and I will definitely be picking up some of the author’s other works.
Kind of Famous is the first book I have read from this author.
I loved the premise of Kind of Famous and was very excited to read it. I’m a huge music fan and there was so much about Layla for me to relate to. Only strangely, I didn’t..
Ufortunately the story fell flat for me. Layla gets her dream job at a music magazine and tries to keep the band fan site she runs hidden. She struggles to find balance between the famous people she’s meeting and her secret pastime, especially with the drummer she’s falling for.
☆☆Book Review☆☆ Kind of Famous by Mary Ann Marlowe
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Description:
Layla Beckett has a secret. For the past ten years, she’s run the most trafficked fan site on the Internet for her favorite band—under an alias, naturally. When she lands a job at the prestigious New York City music magazine The Rock Paper, she’s suddenly thrust into the world she’s only observed from the cheap seats. Now that she’s brushing elbows with sexy guitarists and hot frontmen, she wants to play it cool and keep her superfan status on the down low. Although she’s dying to gush on her forum, posting her insider adventures online could expose her real-life identity and blow her cover.
And that’s all before one of those sexy musicians becomes a fan of her.
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I enjoyed the memories the concert and rehearsal scenes brought back for me. Layla was someone I could see being friends with despite some of her misguided choices. Shane was a little insecure for me, but ended up growing enough to provide a powerfully romantic ending to their story. Just a heads up there was a lot of steam in this one! I loved the support from the secondary characters. They were well-developed and I realized after I finished it that this was the third book in a series, so I want to go back and read their stories too. ...
If you'd like a glimpse of rock star life and what it means to date someone in a band this series just might be the perfect series for you. It's kind of fabulous.
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Available tomorrow 4/7/2020!
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Thank you to Mary Ann Marlowe and Net Galley for a gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.
This was a fun story. A relative nobody (though she has an online following,) finds herself smack dab in the midst some of her favorite rock stars. For the most part she is good at hiding her fangirl status, though that may end up being what ultimately costs her her relationship with not only her new friends, but also her new rock star boyfriend. It's a well told story, and the characters are all well written, but I did have some negative feelings toward the 'heroine' of the book and how she came across. I can't pinpoint what it was about her exactly, but it felt like she had a 'I'm better than you' vibe that was kind of a turn off. This was a lengthy read, and it took a while to get through. While I enjoyed the story/plot, it didn't quite have that 'I can't put this book down' thing going for it. There is a small amount of sexual content. There is a big break-up followed by the grand gesture (from both parties involved.) While this is book three of the series, it can be read as a stand alone without any issues, but if you have read the previous books, you'll see some of the same characters involved.
*I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley.
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*Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book for review, all opinions are my own*
I decided to review this book on topics so let’s go:
• Fanfic-This book is fanfic, the whole plot of it I have read several times in fanfics, this is not a bad thing because then knowing that I believe it made me take the book less seriously and I liked it for what it is.
• Writing-Because it is a fanfic kind of book, the writing was not always wonderful and some moments seemed just bad fanfic and other times that writing seemed like a good romance book.
• InstaLove-This is a book with istalove that I already expected so it didn't bother me much.
• Plot-The plot as already said is completely from fanfic, is about a fan who has a relationship with a member of a band, and the member of the set band gets mad when it discovered that the girl is a fan.
•Too Fast-Everything in this book happens too fast, friendships, romances, everything, too fast.
•Not real-There is a lot in this book that is very hard to believe would happen in real life (so again it relates to fanfic), many of the events made me roll my eyes.
•Characters-I even liked all the characters in the book, our main character grows a lot during the story which made me very happy, and our main guy has some pretty stupid attitudes but in the end, he redeems himself so I ended up not hating anyone.
•The end-The end of the book like the whole book happens too fast but I liked it.
I highly recommend this book if you like fanfic esk stories or quick books with and about bands!
I loved this book. It took me a minute to get into it but once I did, I had a great time reading! Very light and exactly what I needed. I enjoyed the storyline and found myself rooting for the characters!
I really enjoyed Kind of Famous. It’s the first book from Mary Ann Marlowe I’ve read and it won’t be my last. I loved the energy and style of writing, I loved the unique and (mostly) likeable characters, I loved that it held my interest from the very first to the very last page. It was fun and flirty, and a total feel good read. There’s just so much to love about Layla. She’s strong, independent, determined and goes after what she wants.
Layla Beckett is a redhead from Indiana who has managed to turn her obsession with music into a career. She’s now got a job at a famous music magazine in NYC. This means she’s had to step away from running an uber successful fan site of her favourite band, Walking Disaster. Immediately she is drawn into the world of music and musicians, and meets fellow ginger and drummer for Theater of the Absurd, Shane Morgan. Their relationship starts out at a breakneck pace. Shane is sweet but also quite insecure about his position in the band - who know the name of the drummers? Drummers are always in the shadows, never the one who gets the girl... The more their relationship progresses the more unsure Layla is of how to bring up the fact she’s run a fan website for the last decade of a band Shane knows, tours and is friends with. She doesn’t want to be accused of trying to sleep her way into the bands inner circle. She’s kept this secret from him and the more serious they get the harder it gets to tell him. But like all secrets it’s bound to come out sooner rather than later. For a relationship that starts out so fast with both of them flying on instinct and emotion, will it be able to survive when the truth comes out?
Are you a music lover? Do you believe in love at first sight? Are you into happy ever after?
Then look no further than this book. This is a book for every one who fell in love with their favorite band and wished they could live in their world. This is a great read that you can easily get lost in the pages.
Thank You NetGalley and Mary Ann Marlowe for allowing me to read the advance copy of this book.
I think I have learned that I am not a huge fan of rockstar romances. It just all seems so unrealistic. However, I did appreciate how Layla became friends with Jo and Eden, and that led to meeting the guys. I really liked their friendship and how authentic it was. While Jo was maybe a little too trusting of Layla in the first place to invite her to her house, I did like how approachable and down to earth she was. Shane feeling like he was just a stepping stone for most girls was sad at first, but as the book went on it just became annoying. I thought the fan site aspect of this book was fun, and something a little different than I have read in other rockstar romances.
Overall, the storyline was cute, but felt like it was missing something for me.
3.5 stars
I received this book for free in return for an honest review.
This is the type of book I needed to read right now. It's light, it's fun, it's the type of book you wish you could BE the main character. It's full of fun things like moving from the Midwest to NYC, meeting your favorite musicians, getting an awesome new job, and an insta-love story.
I really liked the main character, Layla. I'm all about seeing a woman in a romance novel that has a STEM career. Also, she stands up for herself and takes no shit. And other than the color of her hair and her clothes, there isn't much physical description of her, which I liked. I felt that with most of the characters, you were left to use your own imagination on what they looked like.
Shane was a solid MC, too. He's a famous musician, but struggles with his own insecurities he has to overcome. He's also a redhead, which makes for a cute coupling with Layla. I love a man who is unafraid to express his feelings. And his grand gesture more or less turned me into the heart eyes emoji. Love, love, love.
The supporting characters were great, too. I love a solid friend group! This is my first book by Mary Ann Marlowe, and so I just now saw that Eden and Jo already have their own stories that I can't wait to read! I would definitely recommend this to my friends!
I really enjoyed this book
Layla Beckett is from a small town outside of Indianapolis. For years she has been an admin on a fan site for her favourite music band. Never in her wildest dreams did she never think she would land such an amazing job in New York working for a music magazine "The Rock Paper". Not only does she get to write about what she loves, she also gets to work and become friends with people she has loved and idolized her entire life. Problem is will her secret life on her fan site get in the way, or will her new friends think she is using them to get ahead in her career. Things get even more difficult when she meets Shane, the sexy drummer.
I loved the storyline of self discovery. Layla is not the same character we meet at the start of the book, her self discovery and self worth is developed massively throughout the book. When Layla first arrives in New York she has no friends and nowhere to live. Low and behold, Jo, a famous photographer literally adopts her and takes her into her home and ultimately into her famous life. At the start I though, that's not very believable however Mary Ann Marlowe has a way of dragging you into her world and all the characters seem to be like your old friends. I have only read one other book by Mary Ann "dating by the book" so I didn't know the backgrounds of the main characters within this book, however I don't think that hindered my reading experience.
Shane is amazing, he is sweet and absolutely the best. His relationship with Layla is quiet intense and is very fast paced, so leave a few hours to yourself when reading this book as you will not want to put it down.
Overall I recommend this book!!
If you are a music lover or love fan boards, this book will be a home run for you. If, like me, that is not your scene, it's still an interesting, if somewhat slow read. I felt I could read a chapter, put it down, and there was no hurry to pick it back up to find out what would happen next.
Layla finds out that being famous in her little corner isn’t easy!
Layla Beckett had finally gotten her foot in the door getting a job with a music magazine doing social media. Layla has a small secret that she runs a large fan site for some of her favorite bands because she has been to some concerts that she likes. She gets to chance to actually meet some of the members at a cookout but she connects with the drummer. Drummer Shane Morgan has always been the band member that most people don’t remember since he’s behind his drum kit but when he met Layla at a cookout, he became interested after talking to her and finding out she liked him more than his bandmate.
Layla is kind of famous in her small area of the internet but when she tries to keep her job, the fan site and her dating separate everything starts to fall apart.
Kind of Famous is a fun look at working at the music magazine and dating someone you know a lot about without letting them know that you are one of their biggest fans.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This hits the spot for rockstar romance! This is the first book I’ve read of Marlowe’s and even though it’s not part of a series, I need to read about Adam and Eden’s story as well as Jo and Micah’s!
Kind of Famous reminds me of my teenage years. When I used to feel overwhelmingly infatuated with boy bands. Come on, who didn’t dream of marrying one of the Backstreet Boys? I could totally relate to you Layla!
Layla runs a popular fan site for a band name “Walking Disaster”, has a kickass job and after moving to NYC made some famous connections. I like Layla, she had a firm belief in what she deserved in a relationship and wouldn’t settle for anything less.
Shane is the slightly insecure drummer for the band “Theater of the Absurd.” A band Layla knows and follows. Layla and Shane instantly have a connection! (One that, back in the day, I totally would have killed to have with Aaron Carter 😉).
I must say though, some things I found a bit unrealistic or lacking:
#1 Layla did not bring up her website once she started seeing Shane. If she didn’t want this to bite her in the butt later, it should have been one of the first things discussed or at least agonized over.
#2 They fell into the relationship too quickly. I get insta love but I didn’t even get that vibe from them. It just didn’t feel as organic as I would have liked. Their love lacked depth.
#3 It was focused on the main characters so much, the friendships formed seemed, again, lacking of any depth and not plausible for how quickly they formed.
Overall a great, light romance read I would highly recommend!
Thanks to Netgalley for the chance to read this ARC!
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, this was another book that I was really looking forward to until I discovered it was written in first person.
I find it really hard to connect with characters written in first person and there are very few books in this narrative that I enjoy.
I did try with this book but it's another on the DNF pile, I gave up at around 40%
This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I really enjoyed it. I’m definitely going to check out her other ones.
It was a fun, fast paced read that had me laughing at some of the things that happened. I was pulled back to my teen years and my fascination/stalker habits I had with my favorite group. This has a bunch of steamy 🔥 scenes that are descriptive so I wouldn’t classify it as YA but definitely geared toward a younger audience. But with me being in my 40’s I still enjoyed it!.
If you are looking for a book to take your mind off everything crazy going on in the world I highly suggest this one!
The premise seemed promising, but the actual story fell a little flat. Everything falls into place a little bit too neatly for the main character, Layla from the start. She meets famous people, finds a great place to live, and gets herself an insta-love boyfriend (Shane) in a matter of days after arriving in NYC. After you get over the speed of which everything takes place, the actual book is an overall a quick read. There are some cute scenes between Laya and Shane, A decent read for the beach.
I loved this book! It was funny, with characters that you can't help but root for. From the first page I was hooked. I laughed, and cheered while the story unfolded. I learned a little about a world I have never really explored and found it fascinating. If you have looking for a fun and witty book give this one a chance.