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dianametzger's review
3.0
This was a fun/quick read. I listened as an audiobook. It's the fictionalized Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes story. A good summer read. Exactly what you expect and want it to be.
nsusdorf's review
4.0
What is remarkable about this book is that it truly reads as a celebrity tell-all. This is quite the accomplishment for Liftin and the reason I gave it 4 instead of 3 stars. A great vacation read!
emjay2021's review
4.0
3.5 rounded up. Sometimes you just need an entertaining book you can read while your brain takes a much needed vacation. This was that book for me this past week.
Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper is a fictional first-person narrative of how a 24 year old actress (Lizzie Pepper), best known for her role in a long running TV show, is swept off her feet by a much older, handsome, famous megawatt movie star (Rob Mars). It chronicles their whirlwind romance, quick engagement, surprise pregnancy, birth of their children, and wedding. It also goes into Rob’s involvement with a cult (One Cell) that has tentacles all over Hollywood, and Lizzie’s slow realization that she is under complete surveillance by the cult, her every move observed, every email and text read, every phone call listened to. The novel ends with Lizzie’s James Bond-like perfectly orchestrated escape and divorce from Rob and extrication from the cult.
There is absolutely no way this book isn’t based on the real life relationship of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise. The details are far too similar, though the author has changed a few things—for example, Lizzie and Rob have twin sons, instead of a single daughter. But in all other ways it is pretty darn close. Which of course makes the reader wonder: how much of this is the way things happened for Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise?
For their sake, I really hope it is not that accurate. But something tells me even if the author was just guessing at the bits that no one could really know, the private things that happen between a husband and a wife, it probably hits closer to home than one would think possible.
Anyway, if you ever wonder about the lives of famous people and their relationships, if you ever read celebrity gossip, you’ll probably enjoy this. It’s not going to win the Booker, but the writing is decent and the plot keeps you turning the pages. It was perfect for my purposes this weekend and I found it a satisfying read.
Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper is a fictional first-person narrative of how a 24 year old actress (Lizzie Pepper), best known for her role in a long running TV show, is swept off her feet by a much older, handsome, famous megawatt movie star (Rob Mars). It chronicles their whirlwind romance, quick engagement, surprise pregnancy, birth of their children, and wedding. It also goes into Rob’s involvement with a cult (One Cell) that has tentacles all over Hollywood, and Lizzie’s slow realization that she is under complete surveillance by the cult, her every move observed, every email and text read, every phone call listened to. The novel ends with Lizzie’s James Bond-like perfectly orchestrated escape and divorce from Rob and extrication from the cult.
There is absolutely no way this book isn’t based on the real life relationship of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise. The details are far too similar, though the author has changed a few things—for example, Lizzie and Rob have twin sons, instead of a single daughter. But in all other ways it is pretty darn close. Which of course makes the reader wonder: how much of this is the way things happened for Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise?
For their sake, I really hope it is not that accurate. But something tells me even if the author was just guessing at the bits that no one could really know, the private things that happen between a husband and a wife, it probably hits closer to home than one would think possible.
Anyway, if you ever wonder about the lives of famous people and their relationships, if you ever read celebrity gossip, you’ll probably enjoy this. It’s not going to win the Booker, but the writing is decent and the plot keeps you turning the pages. It was perfect for my purposes this weekend and I found it a satisfying read.
d_ho16's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
In my "thinly veiled celebrity fanfiction" era, I guess. This was a fun, quick read about a girl next door type actress falling in love with a mega movie star who’s involved in a questionable cult… definitely not hard to figure out who it was inspired by. This book was mostly fluff reading but had a few moments of really resounding emotion as Lizzie took stock of her life and how she ended up where she was. It had the potential to get really horrifying a few times but just never quite hit the emotional beats it felt like it was aiming for. A solid beach read, and while it focuses more on the celebrity gossip than the culty parts, as someone who enjoys books about both those things it was definitely worth the few hours I spent reading.
meganpalmer731's review
4.0
Super fun read and fascinating fictional take on a potentially true celebrity situation! I understand why Entertainment Weekly said this was one of the best beach reads of the summer.
sasha_in_a_box's review
4.0
I flew through this book! I had to abandon it while I finished several works of serious lit-rachure, but I finished it in 2 days after I was done. So things going for this book:
- written by a Hollywood ghostwriter, so she's got the style down pat
- it's about a mega-star actor "Rob Mars" who married a quirky actress "Lizzie Pepper", who became famous through her role on a teenage romantic drama (I think?) "Dawson's C American Dream", had a pretty successful indie film career, and was tossed into a big franchise based on a "video game" the second she married "Rob Mars". Sounds like someone you know? Well, some more of the story:
"Lizzie" is completely swept off her feet, despite "Rob"'s embarrassing public proclamations of love, and dives head-first into his life, including the highly controversial but seemingly innocent spirituality/self-help group known as "One Cell". She is at the peak of drunken happiness when she discovers that she's pregnant. Nothing can possibly go wrong! After all, she has replaced her best friend with someone who can help her get acclimated to "One Cell" better than before, and her pesky dad is cut out of her life, no more chances to spoil her fun! She's put her foot down, after all. Life is good~
This was very tongue-in-cheek, quite thrilling, and a massively fun book to read. It has its flaws, some stemming from the fact that we all know what's going to happen, but it's hard to tear your eyes away from a well-written torrid celebrity drama that could have happened just the way it's described. It helps that "Lizzie" is very likeable and easy to empathize with. Perhaps the inevitability is what makes this so fun. I wouldn't recommend this as your serious literature read of the year, but it's a wonderful snack in between heavy-hitters.
- written by a Hollywood ghostwriter, so she's got the style down pat
- it's about a mega-star actor "Rob Mars" who married a quirky actress "Lizzie Pepper", who became famous through her role on a teenage romantic drama (I think?) "
"Lizzie" is completely swept off her feet, despite "Rob"'s embarrassing public proclamations of love, and dives head-first into his life, including the highly controversial but seemingly innocent spirituality/self-help group known as "One Cell". She is at the peak of drunken happiness when she discovers that she's pregnant. Nothing can possibly go wrong! After all, she has replaced her best friend with someone who can help her get acclimated to "One Cell" better than before, and her pesky dad is cut out of her life, no more chances to spoil her fun! She's put her foot down, after all. Life is good~
This was very tongue-in-cheek, quite thrilling, and a massively fun book to read. It has its flaws, some stemming from the fact that we all know what's going to happen, but it's hard to tear your eyes away from a well-written torrid celebrity drama that could have happened just the way it's described. It helps that "Lizzie" is very likeable and easy to empathize with. Perhaps the inevitability is what makes this so fun. I wouldn't recommend this as your serious literature read of the year, but it's a wonderful snack in between heavy-hitters.
cammmiam's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 out of 5 stars.
This is basically a "fictional" version of the notorious marriage and divorce between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. The story is the most compelling as you are left to wonder: Is this how it really went down?
For me the most interesting aspect was learning how Lizzie/Katie worked in secret to blindside her husband with divorce papers.
I will warn that the characters are very sterile, so if you are not super into celebrity gossip then the allure of secrets being spilled (because that is the only allure to this story) will be lost on you -- therefore I'd advise to read something else!
This is basically a "fictional" version of the notorious marriage and divorce between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. The story is the most compelling as you are left to wonder: Is this how it really went down?
For me the most interesting aspect was learning how Lizzie/Katie worked in secret to blindside her husband with divorce papers.
I will warn that the characters are very sterile, so if you are not super into celebrity gossip then the allure of secrets being spilled (because that is the only allure to this story) will be lost on you -- therefore I'd advise to read something else!
purrfectpages's review
3.0
I didn't know much about Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper before I read it. Once I got not too far into the book, however, I saw what everyone else already knew; that this was definitely NOT a book about Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise. Nope, not at all.:)
Once I made the obvious connection, I was eager to read on. After all, I have ALWAYS seen Tom Cruise as shady and callous. I've long waited for the real Tom Cruise to be revealed. But as of now, anything negative printed about Cruise has just been speculation. I guess that just goes to show how far Hollywood power can take you.
I gotta say though that I felt the book didn't really deliver. We never learn anything horrible about Scientology, err...One Cell. And Rob Mars himself isn't particularly and evil character. He's just that...a character. There is no real Rob Mars. And while Lizzie is clearly disillusioned and even downright disgusted with Rob and his posse time and again, it takes her a good, long while to really do something about it. I guess it's not so unrealistic to believe it's hard to walk away from a rich and handsome movie star. But this is fiction after all, so it shouldn't have been that hard to write, right?
Once I made the obvious connection, I was eager to read on. After all, I have ALWAYS seen Tom Cruise as shady and callous. I've long waited for the real Tom Cruise to be revealed. But as of now, anything negative printed about Cruise has just been speculation. I guess that just goes to show how far Hollywood power can take you.
I gotta say though that I felt the book didn't really deliver. We never learn anything horrible about Scientology, err...One Cell. And Rob Mars himself isn't particularly and evil character. He's just that...a character. There is no real Rob Mars. And while Lizzie is clearly disillusioned and even downright disgusted with Rob and his posse time and again, it takes her a good, long while to really do something about it. I guess it's not so unrealistic to believe it's hard to walk away from a rich and handsome movie star. But this is fiction after all, so it shouldn't have been that hard to write, right?