Official Synopsis:

Lacey Barnes has dreamt of being in a movie for as long as she can remember. However, while her dream did include working alongside the hottest actor in Hollywood, it didn’t involve having to finish up her senior year of high school at the same time she was getting her big break. Although that is nothing compared to Donavan, the straight-laced student her father hires to tutor her, who is a full-on nightmare.

As Lacey struggles to juggle her burgeoning career, some on-set sabotage, and an off-screen romance with the unlikeliest of leading men, she quickly learns that sometimes the best stories happen when you go off script.

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Review:

Fans of Alex Evansley’s “Love Scene, Take Two” will devour Kasie West’s newest novel, a captivating story about celebrities, fame, and falling in love.

I LOVE books that involve actors/actresses, so as soon as I saw the synopsis, I knew I had to get my hands on it somehow. And trust me, it did not disappoint.

“Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss” is a stunning novel that is so well written, you won’t even realize that you’re reading. Yes, you read that correctly. I found myself so immersed in Lacey’s world that I was seeing the story as if it were a movie in my head, and my brain wasn’t even registering that fact that I was reading words. I know that sounds absolutely crazy, but it’s true. If you read this book, you’ll know what I mean.

“Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss” is the second of three companion novels, with the first being “Love, Life, and the List” (which is my favorite Kasie book ever!). We first meet Lacey in “Love, Life, and the List,” and while you don’t need to have read that book to understand this one, I would highly recommend it. Abby and Cooper, the protagonist and love interest of the first book, pop up a few times in this one! I read “Love, Life, and the List” a little more than a year ago, so I didn’t remember all of the parts about Lacey, so to avoid that, you are lucky enough to have the opportunity to read the books back-to-back. I can’t wait to see who the third companion novel will revolve around.

Lacey is a spunky character, which is just how she is described by Remy, the director of the movie she’s co-starring in. Donovan, her love interest, has a completely opposite personality, which is one of the reasons that I felt they worked well together. Their relationship develops gradually, and it never felt forced. I loved that Lacey was in her zombie makeup for most of her time with Donovan, and that he fell into like with her when she still had it on. Granted, he knew what she actually looked like, but still. It’s cute. They had a great dynamic together, and I loved the little twists and turns that they had to navigate through in their relationship. Neither of them were perfect, but that just made them that much more interesting to read about.

I also liked that Amanda and Grant, Lacey’s costars, didn’t fall too far into the Hollywood trope of the veteran actors being jealous of or mean towards the newbie. Grant wasn’t always the most pleasant, but he was still bearable. Amanda and Lacey had a good, healthy, supportive relationship with each other, and I’m always here for solid female relationships.

There are parts of the script for the movie they’re filming, “Dancing Graves,” scattered throughout the book. Honestly, the lines seem sort of cringy, since they are super short snippets of scenes without a whole lot of context, but they helped to put the rest of the book in context since then we can gain more insight into the characters that the main cast are playing.

I know I touched on this at the beginning, but I absolutely adore Kasie’s writing style. I don’t know if everyone does this, (I’ve learned not to assume!) but I always visualize scenes in my head. Even when I’m writing my own stories, I see it in my head first as if it’s a movie, and then try to write down the dialogue and fill in the spaces between the dialogue with actions (I hope that made sense). The point is, when I read books, I see them as movies in my head. Still, I’m usually still aware that I’m reading words. With this book, I wasn’t even registering that I was reading words, which is so unbelievably awesome, and I love it.

If I’m not lucky enough to receive an ARC from a friend (HUGE thanks to Jess for this one!), then Kasie is an autobuy for me. (Since we all know how difficult it is to get one from the publisher, since her books are in such high demand!). I’ve read all of her contemporary romance novels except for “Lucky In Love” — I have it, I just haven’t gotten around to reading it yet! I absolutely adore them all, and I cannot wait to see what the plotline is for the third companion novel.

Overall, this book is absolutely amazing, and if you couldn’t tell, I highly recommend it! (Especially if you’ve read and loved Alex Evansley’s “Love Scene, Take Two,” as I said before!) It will be released by Harper Teen on February 5, 2019, but you can preorder it now! Kasie also has another book, “Maybe This Time,” that will be released on July 9th by Point.