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bananatricky's review
4.0
Ellie Cohen has a loving, if unorthodox (not in the religious sense), Jewish family and a good group of friends and she loves her job working for a Mayfair art gallery. Unfortunately, she also has a reputation for lame duck boyfriends, when her latest boyfriend turns out to have a scary Class A drug habit she dumps him at Glastonbury.
However, Ellie has a secret, she is the secret daughter of a world-famous rock-star, not that she's ever seen or spoken to him. Her ex-boyfriend sells her story to the gossip rags and embellishes it to make Ellie look like a sex-mad, crazed stalker who sold her own story for money. Then her half-sisters weigh in with stories of how Ellie is a gold-digger and the tabloid press drag up every picture of Ellie in a bikini or at a party from her Facebook page to portray her as a party girl.
Now her father's lawyer and publicist are doing damage control, but are either of them acting in Ellie's best interests? Also, Ellie has never heard the whole story about how her parents got together and why they split up - did her mother cut him out of their lives or didn't he want anything to do with them? It doesn't help that her father's lawyer, David Gold is extremely handsome and charming, but not to be trusted.
Told from Ellie's POV in the present and her mother Ari's POV when she first met Ellie's father, this is a feel-good romance where the heroine triumphs. Loved it.
However, Ellie has a secret, she is the secret daughter of a world-famous rock-star, not that she's ever seen or spoken to him. Her ex-boyfriend sells her story to the gossip rags and embellishes it to make Ellie look like a sex-mad, crazed stalker who sold her own story for money. Then her half-sisters weigh in with stories of how Ellie is a gold-digger and the tabloid press drag up every picture of Ellie in a bikini or at a party from her Facebook page to portray her as a party girl.
Now her father's lawyer and publicist are doing damage control, but are either of them acting in Ellie's best interests? Also, Ellie has never heard the whole story about how her parents got together and why they split up - did her mother cut him out of their lives or didn't he want anything to do with them? It doesn't help that her father's lawyer, David Gold is extremely handsome and charming, but not to be trusted.
Told from Ellie's POV in the present and her mother Ari's POV when she first met Ellie's father, this is a feel-good romance where the heroine triumphs. Loved it.
thedearest's review
4.0
Should be a romcom. Manning's novel should be made into all the movies in that genre. Lord knows it's better than all of it.
measurelesstoman's review
4.0
It wasn't quite perfect. I needed more chemistry between Ellie and David.
allyriadayne's review
4.0
4.5
First of all, when will Sarra Manning stop dragging me back?
Second of all, I'm a weak person so it'll never be free.
As I've said many times, I have a love/hate relationship with all SM books I've read. This one, though, wasn't as divisive as I thought and I was quite glad because I don't have the energy to hate myself for liking it, like I did with [b:Unsticky|5981262|Unsticky|Sarra Manning|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1278271300s/5981262.jpg|6154611] and [b:Adorkable|10890319|Adorkable|Sarra Manning|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1332268356s/10890319.jpg|15806095].
Ellie Cohen is a an average twenty-something working in an art gallery (Vaughn's art gallery!!!!) until she breaks up with her douchey, drug addict boyfriend and he releases Ellie's most personal secret to the press: She is the daughter of Sir Billy Kay, one of Britain's legendary rock stars. Now she's got to deal with the invasion of her privacy, the papers defaming her as Sir Billy's secret bastard daughter and the fact that her normal life will never be the same, with the plus of daddy issues, jerk fathers and morally challenged lawyers.
It sounds as any teenage fantasy but Sarra Manning's novel doesn't stop with dealing with fame, but to what point are you protecting your loved ones by keeping secrets from them? This is best represented with the inter chapter snippets of Ari (Ellie's mom) and Billy Kay when they were still in the outskirts of fame in the 80s (sex, drugs, rock n roll, and a baby), and which translate quite nicely to modern times with Ellie and David's communication problems, while dealing with the scandal.
I liked the love story with Ellie and David, though one problem I have with SM's books are that she loses herself with the banter and the personal drama, and that her relationships sometimes feel like the characters don't like each other much, and while that did happened it wasn't as pronounced as Unsticky, which made me like the book much more. As always, the characters were very real, even Ellie's breakdowns regarding the invasion of her privacy.
I'm biting my nails for the next SM book, though I might regret it later.
First of all, when will Sarra Manning stop dragging me back?
Second of all, I'm a weak person so it'll never be free.
As I've said many times, I have a love/hate relationship with all SM books I've read. This one, though, wasn't as divisive as I thought and I was quite glad because I don't have the energy to hate myself for liking it, like I did with [b:Unsticky|5981262|Unsticky|Sarra Manning|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1278271300s/5981262.jpg|6154611] and [b:Adorkable|10890319|Adorkable|Sarra Manning|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1332268356s/10890319.jpg|15806095].
Ellie Cohen is a an average twenty-something working in an art gallery (Vaughn's art gallery!!!!) until she breaks up with her douchey, drug addict boyfriend and he releases Ellie's most personal secret to the press: She is the daughter of Sir Billy Kay, one of Britain's legendary rock stars. Now she's got to deal with the invasion of her privacy, the papers defaming her as Sir Billy's secret bastard daughter and the fact that her normal life will never be the same, with the plus of daddy issues, jerk fathers and morally challenged lawyers.
It sounds as any teenage fantasy but Sarra Manning's novel doesn't stop with dealing with fame, but to what point are you protecting your loved ones by keeping secrets from them? This is best represented with the inter chapter snippets of Ari (Ellie's mom) and Billy Kay when they were still in the outskirts of fame in the 80s (sex, drugs, rock n roll, and a baby), and which translate quite nicely to modern times with Ellie and David's communication problems, while dealing with the scandal.
I liked the love story with Ellie and David, though one problem I have with SM's books are that she loses herself with the banter and the personal drama, and that her relationships sometimes feel like the characters don't like each other much, and while that did happened it wasn't as pronounced as Unsticky, which made me like the book much more. As always, the characters were very real, even Ellie's breakdowns regarding the invasion of her privacy.
I'm biting my nails for the next SM book, though I might regret it later.
simonaisbooked's review
4.0
Nebolo to dokonalé ako iné knihy od Sarry. Miestami to bolo nudné, miestami čudné, ale hlavne som nebola v nálade, preto som to čítala tak set sakra dlho. No dnes som chytila druhý dych, nabralo to obrátky a škerila som sa ako blbá. Takže úspech, len menší ako iné jej knihy.
Ehm, a Vaughn... nebolo ho tam síce veľa, ani Grace, ale aj tie malé momenty mi zastavili srdce.
Ehm, a Vaughn... nebolo ho tam síce veľa, ani Grace, ale aj tie malé momenty mi zastavili srdce.
margenotbutter's review
5.0
My favourite Sarra Manning book is You Don't Have To Say You Love Me and while I was reading this book I wasn't sure that it was going to live up to that for me but I think now It Felt Like A Kiss might have overtaken it for me.
Despite my 5* rating I wouldn't say it was flawless - I thought the aggression between Ellie and David was poorly described and it was difficult to understand exactly what his problem with her was as it was vaguely blamed on David believing Ellie was a golddigger but at no point did she give that indication so I don't know why it dragged on so long. While I was reading I did think that it was taking a while to get to the resultion and that some of the build up could have been cut out but I loved the last third of the book so much that I'd like to re-read it to see if I still think that or if I was just being impatient.
Ellie was a great lead character, she wasn't a stereotypical 'chick-lit' lead in that she fell over everything but she was strong willed, career minded and her relationships with the background characters were the best thing about the book for me. Reading the parts written from her mother's perspective added a lot to the book, especially as these sections were not revealed to Ellie and so it gave the reader a different perspective on the relationships she had with her extended 'family'.
I really loved this book because I liked that not everything came together properly at the end the way you might have expected. I would recommend the book.
Despite my 5* rating I wouldn't say it was flawless - I thought the aggression between Ellie and David was poorly described and it was difficult to understand exactly what his problem with her was as it was vaguely blamed on David believing Ellie was a golddigger but at no point did she give that indication so I don't know why it dragged on so long. While I was reading I did think that it was taking a while to get to the resultion and that some of the build up could have been cut out but I loved the last third of the book so much that I'd like to re-read it to see if I still think that or if I was just being impatient.
Ellie was a great lead character, she wasn't a stereotypical 'chick-lit' lead in that she fell over everything but she was strong willed, career minded and her relationships with the background characters were the best thing about the book for me. Reading the parts written from her mother's perspective added a lot to the book, especially as these sections were not revealed to Ellie and so it gave the reader a different perspective on the relationships she had with her extended 'family'.
I really loved this book because I liked that not everything came together properly at the end the way you might have expected. I would recommend the book.