A STAR IS BORED is one of those titles that I have seen floating around Instagram and was eager to check out. The book is a fictional telling based on real life experiences of Byron Lane’s time as an assistant for Carrie Fisher. However, this novel centers on Charlie Besson as he becomes an assistant for his childhood savior and idol, Kathi Kannon.

A STAR IS BORED is a wild mix of crazy celebrity shenanigans and healing deep childhood trauma. I was surprised by the serious moments in which Charlie reflects on his childhood and difficult relationship with his dad.

Throughout the book you see Charlie, most commonly referred to as Cock Ring by Kathi Kannon, pull himself back from the edge of suicide. Becoming an assistant for Kathi becomes his world, but slowly he begins to rediscover his own brilliance and worth.

There were parts of this book that I loved and some that felt a bit repetitive. I really enjoyed the sentimental moments and the development of Charlie along the way. Although Kathi was an amazing character I began to become bored of her antics.

I thought that Noah Gavin was the perfect choice to be the voice for the audiobook. However, I am not sure if it was the editing or the Net Galley Shelf app, but certain parts sounded noticeably different as if the volume or recording setting differed.

Overall, it was a both funny and deep novel that really takes you on a journey of self healing and growth.

DNF at 10%. I was intrigued by the premise of this - a fictional account of an assistant to a movie star who sounds a lot like Carrie Fisher written by an author who used to be Carrie Fisher’s assistant. From reviews I saw and the description I pictured a funny and sometimes touching read with laugh out loud scenes.

Maybe I didn’t read far enough to get there but I’m going to start here. So far - I just feel sad for Charlie. He talks a lot about his history with his dad which isn’t great. And there have been multiple instances of him thinking about (joking about?) suicide which isn’t funny to me. Maybe I’m not in the right mood or not the right audience but this is a pass for me.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading and listening copies.

I received an advanced digital copy of this audio book from the author, publisher and Netgalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review.
A Star Is Bored is an amazing, funny story that will blow you away. Loved the narration. The fact that it's loosely based on the author's experience working for Carrie Fisher makes it even richer!

5 out of 5 stars. Highly recommend.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved how the narrator expressed emotion and he really seemed to be learning how to respond to rejection and love in his personal life through learning how to do his job as an assistant. His experience with dating were too relatable—getting attached too quickly, going on a date with someone from an online dating profile just to go on a date, etc. overall, a very interesting read. I was cheering for him when he finally left the assistant position.

I received this as an audio book from net galley in exchange for an honest review. I learned after enjoying the fictional story of a star and her personal assistant that the author used to be Carrie Fischer's personal assistant! I don't know if that knowledge would have made me like the book more or not. It was an enjoyable listen. I liked that the area personal assistants helped each other with their bosses' requests. I hadn't gotten that they gave each other nicknames though right away and learned that along with Charlie. I don't want to spoil the story but if you like books about Hollywood and stars I think you'd enjoy this book!

Author Byron Lane is Carrie Fisher’s former assistant, and while this is not a memoir (as the two legal statements at the start make clear!), it is fun to speculate how much of this novel is based in fact.

Charlie lands the job as eccentric actress Kathi Kannon’s assistant by chance. He starts as a fan, and an employee desperate to keep his job. He soon becomes essential and Kathi becomes a friend. As she becomes more dependent on him, he starts to wonder where he starts and she ends–and whether he can save her from herself.

This was such a fun listen, filled with snark and Hollywood absurdities. It’s fiction, but a great choice if you love a good tell-all.

Wow. This book was amazing, and I don't pull out amazing very often. Protagonist Charlie, AKA Cockring, just wants to find happiness. However, as a personal assistant to Hollywood star Kathi Kannon, her happiness becomes the basis for his own joy, and he must decide is that enough? Too much?
Watching, or listening I should say, to Charlie grow as a human being, face and accept many tragedies of his childhood, forgive, and to love, not just his father, but himself was a fantastic experience.
This book is written beautifully, and read perfectly. Don't miss this book!!!

Charlie is hired as the personal assistant to Kathi Kannon, an aging Hollywood actress and his childhood idol. What he assumed would be a dream job turns out to be way more complicated as he attempts to manage Kathi’s eccentric lifestyle, erratic mood swings and mushrooming drug problem.
After a while, Charlie finds that he is having trouble separating managing Kathi’s life and living his own. What started as a job has become a lifestyle and not one he is sure he wants anymore.
While not terribly deep, this was a cute, entertaining story; a good choice if you’re looking for a quick mental escape.
Thanks to #netgalley #byronlane and #henryholtandcompany for this ARC of #astarisbored

This was a very well written story detailing the complex relationship between a star and her personal assistant. Their journey together is poignant, sad and at times hilarious. What a journey these two go on together. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy.

This audiobook was so beautifully done. The story itself was heartwarming but tragic all at once. I found myself laughing and then immediately crying over Kathy's struggle with addiction, the love her mother had for her, or even the relationship between her and Cockring. It was so easy to picture Carrie Fisher as the unofficial example for this wild character. I know this is an act of fiction, but it made me miss her terribly.

I will be doing a feature on IG and my blog for this book in the upcoming week.

Such a cool look into the world of the assistants to the rich and famous of Hollywood, even if it is fictional. It is so interesting to hear a Catcher in the Rye-esque look into the breakdown of mental status of people who have access to everything they could ever want and use and dispose of people in their quest to have it all. I thought is was so cute also to hear the message from the author and how he was Carrie Fisher's assistant in the past. You could hear the love and respect he has for her which was heart-warming and also explains why the author was able to write from the point of view of the assistant so well and so believably. I just loved this audiobook being narrated by Noah Galvin too, as a huge fan of Dear Evan Hansen, this was such a treat. Loved this book so much! Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for a copy of this book for an honest review.

A Star is Bored is the fictional story of Charlie Besson & his job as personal assistant to Kathie Kannon. Kathi Kannon plays Priestess Talara in iconic sci-fi films.
Based off Byron Lane's time as Carrie Fisher's personal assistant, this one was completely unexpected. Lane did an exceptional job describing the settings and characters throughout the book. Kathi Kannon was hilarious, but at times she also broke my heart. There were times I laughed so hard I cried and others where I just cried. The narrator did a phenomenal job and I highly recommend the audiobook! 4.5 stars for this one!

To read this book and not think of Carrie Fisher is absolutely impossible. Going into this I knew the author worked as Carries' personal assistant for a few years, and the book just SCREAMS Carrie. I don't care what the author says in the beginning about this being a work of fiction and none of this is true, blah, blah, blah...THIS IS CARRIE FISHER.

I'm a huge Star Wars fan. Like, my entire car is Star Wars, most of my clothes, and I have the Rebel Alliance symbol tattooed on my arm, huge fan. I could hear Carrie's voice as clearly as if she were narrating. Speaking of which, the narrator (I listened to the audio version) was absolutely perfect for this. He nailed Carrie's dry wit and her constant air of boredom flawlessly.

Being a fan of Carries and having read all her books, this second-hand look into a few years of her life was both funny and heartbreaking. Charlies life is much the same, but his life leans a little more heavily to the 'heartbreaking' side.

There were a couple of small nuances in the story that I found tiresome. The constant use of 'Hey Siri'...references to Theripista and the overuse of 'I'm thinking....", 'I'm thinking...', 'I'm thinking...', started to become stale, but the story as a whole was really well done.

I think Carrie would have loved this book, and I hope that in writing it the author found a little bit of closure on his time spent in the presence of one of his idols. Addiction is a terrible thing, and I can't imagine what it's like to see someone you love so much, someone millions of people love so much, constantly flirting with overdoses and death. I think Charlie made the right decision in the end, and I hope he found a little bit of peace and comfort in sharing his story.

A Star is Bored has a good narrator, but I couldn't get into this story. I tried, but ended up having to put it down unfortunately. I think there was too much going on with the main character all at once - flipping between his nemesis he clearly was attracted to, his deceased mother, his unhealthy relationship with his father, and his general mental health. The book throws a lot at you in snippets and feels as though it dashes around a lot between subjects. Throw in an actress with her own problems, and it was just too much for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ALC in return for an honest review.

I requested this book through NetGalley because Byron Lane was Carrie Fisher's assistant, and if he was good enough for her, I thought he would be good enough for me. And he was, for the most part.

This book will both make you laugh so hard you get a stomach cramp and weep like Sally Field in the Steel Magnolias funeral scene. Of course you will find yourself wondering where Carrie Fisher ends and the fictional Kathi Kannon begins. Byron Lane tells you straight off that this is fiction and you shouldn't think Carrie is Kathi, yet similarities abound: Kathi starred in a popular science fiction trilogy that is resurrected two decades later, she struggles with addiction, and her famous actress mother lives next door to her. It makes you wonder how much Byron Lane has in common with Charlie, the book's narrator.

I loved the throwaway lines (Tom Cruise has a restraining order out against Kathi, who sends him a sex toy for his birthday), and I loved watching Kathi and Charlie's friendship evolve. As nutty (and tragic) as Kathi is, though, you want to be her friend. I can't say I would like to have Charlie's job, but I'd sure like to be invited to some of Kathi's parties.

Charlie belongs to a group of Hollywood personal assistants, and I enjoyed those scenes, too. You also go with him on his romantic journey as he tries to find Mr. Right. (In one relationship, Charlie was surprisingly unable to read the very clear writing on the wall.) And you travel around the world with him and Kathi, which exhausts you as much as it does Charlie.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. Did I picture Carrie Fisher as I read it? Yes. Did my heart break, thinking about what happened to her? Yes. But did Byron Lane make me appreciate the time we had with her? Oh, yes.

This book is at times hysterical and at times made me want to cry. A great book by the former personal assistant to Carrie Fisher. He writes a fictional account of being a personal assistant to a star with substance abuse problems. The assistant, Charlie is gong through some things in his own life as well as trying to find a reason for living. When he lands the job as a personal assistant to his childhood idol, she becomes it. As they grow closer, he develops more as a person. It is interesting to see the character development as this story progresses. You cheer for both of the main characters.

This is a story based loosely on the author's time as a personal assistant to Carrie Fisher. Yes, THAT Carrie Fisher. And honestly, I don't care how much fiction or nonfiction this story is, because it's truly gold either way. From "Cathy"'s name-calling, to her absurd demands, to her substance addiction, the book is phenomenal.


I was lucky enough to get an audio version from NetGalley (even though I preordered the book like 3 months ago). I'm so glad I got to listen instead of read, because it made the whole experience that more surreal. I loved Carrie Fisher, and even if this was a liberal take on her behavior, her books always gave me such joy. To see another side, no matter how fictitious, was straight up beautiful.


I freaking loved this book.


5/5 Stars

A Star is Bored by Byron Lane was a zany and kooky look into celebrity life. This story is a parody on Lane’s time handling Carrie Fisher.

There were parts of this story I laughed out loud, others I was a little repulsed by, and lastly a category of not knowing what I felt. I preferred the second half of the book because it moved faster. The first 40% I found pretty dry, slow, and boring. I’m glad I continued on with it. I also enjoyed the friendship that came from Kathi and Charlie’s relationship.

Noah Galvin stayed consistent with his tone the whole time. His voices were clear when it came to Kathi and Charlie. Other voices sounded just like Charlie’s.

I received an advanced audiobook copy from Macmillan Audio through NetGalley. All opinions are 100% my own.

Story: A Star is Bored is a book that grips you from the start with the craziest interview that has ever taken place. Desperate for the chance as an assistant to Kathi Kannon a major screen star and author, Charlie Besson has met the most unique and formidable person on the planet. Kathi is bigger than life and definitely plays by her own rules. Much to his amazement, Charlie gets the job and then begins the wildest roller coaster ride of his life.
Funny, touching and downright zany this book was not only hysterical but at times quite heart breaking. It is clear the author once was a personal assistant for the late, great Carrie Fisher as he draws from his own personal experience to create a very believable and amazing story. Well written and full of life I couldn't get enough of their adventures. I highly recommend this tale of life at it's zaniest and ached at the harsh reality that some celebrities face. I hope to read more from this brilliant author.
Audio: Narrator: Noah Galvin. I was very impressed with Mr. Galvin's versatility and the way he portrayed the wild Ms. Kannon. He displayed such a fine range of emotion and I was totally lost in the novel. I highly recommend this audio version and know you will enjoy it immensely.
Special thanks to NetGalley and the published for a copy of the audio-book for my reading pleasure.

Hilarious and heartfelt, Byron Lane's "A Star Is Bored" was partly influenced by Lane's time as Carrie Fisher's personal assistant. I had the pleasure of listening to the audiobook narrated by Noah Galvin. I highly recommend this route as it really elevated the story and brought it to life for me. The relationship between assistant and star is fascinating, funny and warm. I loved how fictional superstar Kathi Kannon brought assistant Charlie out of his shell and into her tribe. A truly lovely, multi-faceted story.