Chick Lit Plus Blog Tour: Starring in the Movie of My Life

I'd like to start off by thanking Samantha at Chick Lit Plus Blog Tours and author Laurel Osterkamp for allowing me to be part of this blog tour!

And also...my apologies for being AWOL for awhile! I've been trying to get into a routine that has to include the occasional late work meeting, going to the gym, keeping up with reading, and, you know, having a life! I plan to do better. You can hold me to it!

Now, back to the point of this post! Here is the synopsis of Starring in the Movie of My Life from Goodreads:


I've been trying to nail down exactly what I thought and felt about this book. I'll be honest - I didn't love it and I'm not entirely sure why. Perhaps this post will help me figure it out!

If you like a lot of drama, you'll like this novel. While I enjoy some drama every once and awhile, this was a little too much for me. Marriage problems? Check. Ex still in the picture? Check. Troubled high school student? Check. Car accident? Check. Pregnancy? Check. Attempted rape? Check. Bullying mother? Check. Absent mother? Check. See what I mean? I do have to say though, that even with all of these issues (and then some!) happening at essentially the same time, the storyline doesn't really get confusing or off track.

I found myself rooting for Nate for pretty much the entire novel. Even though he is the one the two women are fighting over (and I use the term "woman" loosely when it comes to Melody as she's still very much a high school student), we never really hear his side of the story. We get Sam's and Melody's perspectives and really find out the reason and rationale behind their actions. Speaking of which, I really liked that each chapter switched between characters. It allowed for me to really understand why they were acting the way they were and because every chapter switched I didn't feel like I was stuck on one character for too long. I thought this element of the novel was well done.

Samantha and Melody are essentially fighting over Nate for the majority of the novel. Why? Because they both think that he can "save" them. Both women are quite flawed at the beginning of the novel but by the end they are able to find themselves. While doing so, I think they realize that they never really needed Nate in the first place. Both Sam and Melody are strong females and I would think they would appreciate that they could save themselves on their own without any help.

As I said, I didn't really know why I didn't like the book. I gave a very in-depth synopsis of the book to a coworker this week. When I finished she said, "And you didn't like the book?" That got me thinking...it was a lot of drama and I couldn't easily find something to connect with in Samantha or Melody. When it's difficult to really identify with the characters, it is hard to get completely engrossed in the story.

Overall...I didn't love this book. I think it was just too drama filled for my taste. I am looking forward to seeing what others have to say about it because I think it would be a great read for lots of others. Check out the list of all the reviews here!

Stay tuned to Books Etc. because on Tuesday I have an amazing guest post from Laurel! I love it and I hope you all will too :)

Thirty-five-year-old Samantha acts without thinking. Her heart is huge while her sense of purpose is small; she's willing to fight for those she loves, but she's never learned to fight for herself. Eighteen-year-old Melody is cold and calculating, and she's driven by the desire to better herself. As these compelling yet deeply flawed women battle for the affections of twenty-five-year-old Nathan, he becomes increasingly confused and torn between them.
Nathan is Melody's English teacher, and after he saves her from being raped, she becomes attached. Melody longs for the affection she's never felt, so she involves people in her self-invented drama, making sure she is at once the star and the director. Meanwhile, Samantha is newly married to Nathan. But Samantha has hang-ups about motherhood and lingering feelings for her ex. To make sense of the world, Sam relates her life to the themes of her favorite movies, while she independently makes a documentary to jump-start her non-existent film career.
Stylistically influenced by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner, Starring in the Movie of my Life is told alternately from both Samantha's and Melody's points-of-view and relates two complete yet combined stories about love, acceptance, and redemption. It speaks to our universal desire to be saved by the ones we love, and the monumental effort required tosave ourselves.