Spoiled by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

Spoiled by Heather Cocks

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

From Goodreads: 16-year-old Molly Dix loves her ordinary life in suburban Indiana, so when her single mother passes away, she is shocked to discover that her biological father is Brick Berlin, world famous movie star and red carpet regular.

Equally intrigued and terrified by her Hollywood lineage, Molly moves to Southern California and plunges head-first into the deep end of Beverly Hills celebrity life. Just as Molly thinks her new life and family couldn't get any stranger, she meets Brooke Berlin, her gorgeous and spoiled half-sister whom welcomes Molly to la-la land with a healthy dose of passive-aggressive "sisterly love."

Set against the backdrop of a sparkling and fashion-filled Los Angeles, this deliciously dysfunctional family soap opera will satisfy every reader looking for their next lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous beach read.

Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan are fashion writers in Los Angeles California. Their blog www.gofugyourself.com draws an average of four million readers a month, and their dispatches from the front rows of Fashion Week are routinely the most-read stories on New York magazine's web site. Heather and Jessica have been called "fashion assassins" by Joan Rivers and "a viciously funny duo" by the Hollywood Reporter.  Spoiled is their first novel for young adults.

My take: This is a fun read with a few nuggets of wisdom included via Laurel, Molly's mom. It's a peek into the world we can't look away from - Hollywood. Brick is a nice, self-centered actor turned producer/director who deposited his sperm into two women at nearly the same time. Both women found they had buns in the oven. One married Brick then went off to "find herself" and has been MIA for the past 4 years while the other returned to Indiana to raise the child in her own humble roots. Then she died.

So Molly arrives at Brick's house and Brooke is none too happy. Brooke is the instigator of this war but is, by no means, one dimensional. Brooke is struggling with her own issues of abandonment, rejection, and perfection. Until she figures it all out, she's just going to play the high school games of running her half sister out of town.

Meanwhile, Molly learns a few tricks, herself. She aligns herself with Shelby, the one you don't want to befriend because her daddy owns the gossip magazine and she's always looking to get the goods. What you tell her is not necessarily what will be published. She's practicing her craft very young.

Brick is far too self-absorbed to do much but show up on occasion and drive a wedge deeper between the girls by playing up the Daddy-Dearest card to Molly while Brooke is fuming and hurt by her continual quest for approval.

It's a cute story with humor and exaggerated Hollywood style. The authors are well versed in the fashion world along with Hollywood lifestyle. Personally, the only shoes I understood were Converse. Nothing else computed. I'm worse than Indiana.

There were a few loose threads that I either need to be wrapped up by my own imagination or another book will follow to continue the story. The ending is enough to stand on its own.