Veena’s review of Scared Scriptless by Alison Sweeney
Women’s Fiction published by Hyperion 03 Jun 14
I didn’t know until I went to look for the author’s website that Ms. Sweeney has more claim to fame than her writing. I totally get how she gives us such an insightful in-depth view into TV land behind the camera and talks tongue in cheek about an actor’s rating on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). She’s in the top 5000, by the way, if I Googled it correctly.
Maddy Carson is a great character for whom black is black and white is white with her fears of coloring outside the lines. A modern girl, even with all those fears, has got to know that a man who gives her pecks on the cheek or busses her lips is not the long-term answer to romance, especially not in today’s world where a couple gets to third base after a couple of dates at the most. She actually holds out hope. even after she takes him home and her mom thinks he’s “slick.”
Craig seems to be a very single-dimensional character. For the most part he seems to skate on the surface of Maddy’s life in an almost impersonal way for someone she considers she’s dating, even with some of the dinners at his home and light hugs and kisses. I kept thinking that he’s gay and looking to Maddy as a beard, until the truth comes out. Even when he’s exposed, there doesn’t seem to be too much depth in him.
We get to see a fair amount of the show that Maddy is working on with the actors of whom, one is a great friend and the other wants to be more than a friend but is shut out because of her relationship with Craig and her “no dating actors” rule. When she has to deal with the groupies and young teens who lust after Adam’s character, Maddy promptly dismisses all the nice things she knows about him, as well as her years in the industry to fall back on the rules that sustain her life.
This book is a bit novel in today’s romantic genre when the protagonists often have a sexual encounter within the first chapter in that our heroine actually doesn’t get any at all, even though she purportedly has two relationships through the story. I enjoyed parts of the story, especially when Maddy angrily pitches her concept to a guy in the bar only to find out that he’s a billionaire tycoon who can and does actually purchase her concept and funds the development or when Maddy goes to Billy Fox, the leading guy in her current TV show, to help her with tips on how to pitch and he and Adam cancel their evening and call in his publicist to help her ready for the big day.
All in all this book is not my cup of tea. Sorry!
Grade: C
Summary:
Maddy Carson is a mass of contradictions. She loves her job as Script Supervisor on a hit TV show, but hates “Hollywood.” Super-organized and down-to-earth, Maddy is clearly one of the best at her job, and her strict dating rule – “No Actors!” – helps her keep focused on her career. However, a budding relationship with Craig, one of the executives at her company, may even propel her into the big leagues. Could Wolf County, her beloved hometown in the mountains, be saved from a financial crisis by creating a reality show featuring the eccentrics in the small ski village? Maddy is determined to try, even when she learns that Craig’s agenda doesn’t exactly line up with her altruistic goal.
Meanwhile, Maddy still has a full-time job to manage, her family to deal with, and a gorgeous new actor, Adam Devin, determined to wear down her resistance. Eventually Maddy must learn to break all her self-imposed rules and simply follow her heart.
No excerpt available.
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