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Hollywood Royalty: The A-List    by Zoey Dean Amazon.com order for
Hollywood Royalty
by Zoey Dean
Order:  USA  Can
Little, Brown & Co., 2009 (2009)
Paperback
* *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

If you're looking for a light and fluffy modern fairytale of a read - with teen characters whose normal angst is amplified by the A-List environment in which they exist and (mostly) thrive - then you'll take in The A-List: Hollywood Royalty in one sitting.

First the characters. Redheaded sixteen-year-old Amelie Adams is famous for playing the Kidz Network character Fairy Princess, and her mother/manager has always coached her to avoid the mistakes of other young stars. But Amelie is getting ready to stretch her wings and 'move up from the kids' table', especially if she can do it in the company of Hunter Sparks, a hot costar in her new series, Class Angel, whom she's long admired.

Myla Everhart is the 'first daughter of America's hottest on- and off-screen couple', Barkley Everhart and Lailah Barton (called Barbar by the press - and clearly modeled on Brangelina). They adopted Myla in Thailand and continued to adopt five other children around the world. Myla's boyfriend is laid-back Ash Gilmour, son of a busy record producer, but they've been separated all summer by Barbar's charities, and fight after they meet again.

Josephine 'Jojo' Milford has two dads, who adopted her as a baby. They're heading to Greenland and planned to take her along. But now her biological parents have contacted her dads and want her to spend time with them. Guess what? BarBar are her birth parents. So Jojo heads for Hollywood and arouses Barbar's first daughter's instant jealousy. After Myla does her best to make Jojo's stay miserable, Jojo helps Ash make her new sister jealous in another way.

Then there's nerd-turned-hottie Jacob 'Jake' Porter-Goldsmith. His dad is a rabbi and his mom a Hollywood publicist. Jake is hired as a math tutor for the Fairy Princess, and falls hard for Amelie, who uses him to see Hunter without her mother's knowledge. Both on the sidelines at school, Jake and Jojo also become friends.

Zoey Dean stirs up this whirl of relationships into a delightful brew. At the end of Hollywood Royalty (which finishes rather abruptly) most of it stays simmering, leaving readers wanting more.

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