Pop Tart

She was America's sweetheart until the love affair turned sour. Hmmm how many times have we come across this scenario? Young wide eyed bushy tailed singer is rocketed into stardom and becomes the media darling and then it all goes terribly wrong. Hence the tale of Brooke Parker, a 16 year old schoolgirl whose debut album catapults her into fame and becoming the world's most famous teenager. Her face is adorned on the cover of glossy magazines and on celeb blogs, she appears on numerous TV shows and is invited to every top event. A millionaire before her 18th birthday, Brooke resides in a luxury mansion in Hollywood and is decked out in designer clothes. Sounds like a dream come true right? Actually no - because behind Brooke's perfect life are a team of image makers; the people who create and define her. Her manipulative manager, bitchy stylist and no nonsense PR manager; all of which have a huge stake in Brand Brooke and will stop at nothing to see a return on their investment. Told from the view of Brooke's make-up artist, Jackie O'Reilly, Pop Tart shows how Brooke goes from being a bubbly and carefree teenager to a moody, needy one who has lost her zest for life. It demonstrates how fame and success contains a toxic element that makes those in the showbiz industry lose any sense of values and loyalty.

Interestingly enough Pop Tart is written by Kira Coplin and Julianne Kaye. Coplin is a writer, film maker and pop culture journalist who has penned for US Weekly, CosmoGirl, The New York Post and OK. Kaye has worked as a make up artist on celebrities such as Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johanesson and Britney Spears, so we can safely say that they both know what they are talking about. I thought this book was super, well written and thoroughly engaging. The characters were well developed and I really empathised with the protagonist, Jackie. I will be blunt here and state that this book is quite clearly based on Britney herself; there are too many attributes that relate to Ms Spears life for it to be a coincidence. Such as Brooke's broken relationship with boy band member, Jesse, her rivalry with fellow teen song bird, Jessica Rader and her fake friendship with socialite, Alexis 'Lexy' Young. Even the cover of the book which contains a blonde teen seductively sucking on a lollipop is very a la Britney. Remember the controversial Rolling Stone cover of Britney wearing a sexy school uniform?

I love the whole expose fiction book scene that the publishers seem to be embracing, think of the Babylon series, The Devil Wears Prada and of course The Nanny Diaries. Bring on the expose lit.

You can check out Julianne Kaye's blog here.

I also found a video on Youtube with the Julianne and Kira where they discuss the book and the concept behind it. Check it out below.