Another kindle sale book. Hits all the right notes in a kind of mash up between something like Devil Wears Prada and a traditional fluffy romance.

Our main character Rose is hired to do PR for a pop star and while engineering a "romance" for him with another up and coming star, he decides he only has eyes for Rose.

I found it cute and quite funny - especially Rose's relationship with her best friend. Kept me up past my bedtime.

Note: I'm reading now that the pop star is very obviously Harry Styles but as a total old person I had no idea that was the case and inserted my own idea of who it was. ( )

Why is Rose trying to find a boyfriend on Tindr? The app specifically designed for casual hook-ups? Who does that? No, seriously. How out of touch are the authors of Public Relations that they thought this would be a believable choice?

This book is bad in a variety of ways. The two protagonists are very gently awful in a Twilight way. Archie is an insufferable idiot who, despite Rose's promise that he oozes charm, manages to be utterly charmless and somewhat creepy. Rose is a narcissist who is incredibly lucky to have such an amazing friend like Harper. Rose's ability to completely ignore everyone else and zero in on her problems is incredible. And her penchant for dissolving into hysterics over a fairly milquetoast Tindr message is obnoxious in the extreme. I seriously don't know why Harper puts up with her.

But what I find most insidious about Public Relations is the concept this book peddles that celebrities aren't accountable to normal relationship stakes. Rose's entire infatuation with Archie begins and ends with him being a hot celebrity. Archie treats her like crap. He ghosts her for a week at a time, ignoring her texts and phone calls, and then shows up all romantic-like and is immediately accepted back. Rose tells Harper several times that she has no idea what her relationship status is with Archie, but she can never ask because that would be presumptuous. Somehow. Public Relations operates on the idea that celebrities are better than us plebeians because they are celebrities, and therefore if they show us the slightest hint of attention we should fall all over ourselves for having been graced as such. Archie is intentionally opaque, dodges basic questions, and constantly maintains sole control over the relationship--but hey, he wrote a song for Rose so isn't he the greatest?

This is basically the American version of the whole infatuation with European royalty. Like royalty, celebrities in these novels can get away with anything because the heroine should count herself lucky to even be noticed. It's a toxic, old-fashioned concept and it pushes all my buttons.

Bad book. Skip. ( )

Rose Reed is very good at her job in public relations, but she's still surprised when an impromptu client meeting results in her becoming the personal publicist for Archie Fox, the sexy young British pop star (definitely not Harry Styles *wink wink*). Mostly it involves elaborate arrangements for spontaneous-looking dates with an up-and-coming songstress, but the job will also entail spending a lot of time in close quarters with one of the world's most famous heartthrobs. What could go wrong?

This book is so cheesy but so fun. The characters are great and the writing is absorbing and very funny. Two times (in the two days it took me to read the book) I missed my bus stop because I was too into reading. Rose is a well-rounded and relatable main character - I especially appreciated that she is super into one nerdy thing (The X-Files) but that doesn't mean she's super into every other thing that could be considered nerdy (the way it works in real life!). Rose and Archie's budding relationship is way too convenient to be realistic, of course, but that's part of the charm. My cynical side was sated by reading about the PR machine and fake celebrity relationships, and the logistics of navigating around a city as an international celebrity. The authors did a little work to separate this "not Harry Styles" from the real one, but not a lot. A few mentions of One Direction made it through editing, to my amusement. Very cute and I highly recommend it if you're into this sort of book, or if you're a fan of Harry Styles of course. ( )

4.5 stars

Public Relations is a fun beach read. I thoroughly enjoyed the story line and the characters. Rose Reed is a fabulous protagonist, and I loved reading about all of the behind the scenes shenanigans and use of social media to promote young actors’ and singers’ careers. I highly recommend this for anyone looking for a light, highly entertaining read. ( )