A slightly guilty admission: I love these girls' books. The Nanny Diaries, although it made me cringe in places, was awesome. Dedication was really, really good, as was Citizen Girl. So, when I started reading Between You & Me, I had high hopes for this book. These girls always manage to weave together a story about an ordinary person, who somehow manages to undertake extraordinary things.I described this book to a friend on Twitter as "a fictionalized Britney meltdown." Her response back was that it sounded like fun. And it was, but it was almost like the real Britney meltdown. You know, when you really couldn't care less that she shaved her head, attacked someone with an umbrella and flashed the world her underwear-less parts? But, yet, at the same time you grabbed that US Weekly magazine off the rack in the grocery store line-up in order to find out what the latest event had been in her very public downward spiral? Yes, you know you did it -- we all did. And this book will fulfill all of those celebrity-drama obsessed tendencies that we all have.Yet, at the same time, I also have some criticism of the book. I found the main character, Logan, to be totally spineless. At the beginning of the book, Logan is waiting for her loser of a boyfriend to show up or even call her on her birthday. He sounds like such an idiot, and completing uncaring, yet when he finally does arrive, extremely late, to her birthday get-together, she forgives him for all of his transgressions, and then is devastated when he puts her in a cab at the end of the evening, and doesn't even accompany her home. On her BIRTHDAY. Then, Logan is asked to come and work for her estranged cousin, Kelsey, the Britney-esque heroine of the story. Logan immediately leaves her life behind, and steps into the glitz and glamour of the work of show business. Yet, underneath that sparkly exterior lies a number of deep, dark family secrets that surround why Logan and Kelsey became estranged in the first place. And, no matter how tough it gets, and even when Logan's work with Kelsey is threatening her own right to happiness, she soldiers on, determined to do the right thing to make up for all of those years that the two girls spent apart. Those were the moments that I wanted to reach into the book, slap Logan and tell her to wake up and realize that she has her own life, and her own future, to fight for.So, in conclusion, it was a good book because of the celebrity train wreck aspect, but the story was poorly delivered in terms of character development.Review also posted at: http://writergrrlreads.blogspot.ca/2012/06/between-you-me-emma-mclaughlin-nicola.html
