A review by dontmissythesereads
Birds of California by Katie Cotugno

5.0

Book #48 read in 2022

Thank you to Harper Perennial and @netgalley for the complimentary digital copy for review.

Former teen TV actor Fiona St. James has kept hidden from the spotlight since the famous crash and burn that ended her career. Now years later, in the age of TV reboots, she is contacted to reprise her role. Meanwhile, Sam Fox, her TV brother learns his current show is being canceled. Sam is all for the reboot, but it’ll only happen if Fiona is on board. Can he convince her?

When I was starting this book, I thought I would be reading about the bad behavior of an actress, but it was so much more. Fiana’s character is deep and there are a lot of layers to her life even from when she was a teen. It actually made me sad and think of child stars like Britney Spears who had to grow up in the spotlight. How is it possible to know who wants to be with you for you or for your fame? 

Learning about Fiona’s past and present through Sam’s eyes was interesting. Fiona questioned his motivation for wanting to hang out and even had me questioning it.  

Letting us know that not everything on the surface or in the media is real or what it seems, this book was an impactful read!