David Van Etten

Mallory has spent all her life trying to stay drama-free in spite of the fact that her overbearing mother is a soap opera drama queen. The last thing she wants to do is follow in her mother's footprints and be a drama princess; she has little to no respect for her mother. Mallory is emotionally distant from her mother and scorns her overacting and poorly rated show. It is ironic then that she becomes a writer for a new soap opera, a show about believable – rather than unrealistic – show more people in unusual situations. Along with dealing with the challenges of being a scriptwriter, Mallory also has to deal with her personal relationships with others, including her best friend Amelia and her boyfriend Keith. AS she soon finds out, her life is already dramatic and soap opera-like as it is without her writing a soap opera.

Having grown up in a soap opera setting, Mallory soon adapts to the mind games of the television production crew; she realizes that it's impossible to please everyone every time. Still, she doesn't let anyone bring her down. Mallory is intelligent, spunky, and rebellious – she refuses to tolerate nonsense from her mother. However, she is flawed, which makes her realistic despite her situation. Perhaps it was because the story was in Mallory's perspective, but I didn't like the other characters; Mallory was the most decent character.

Etten uses good choice of words – Mallory sounds like a normal teenager, yet she's witty, a trait that nobody in the story seems to appreciate. I was hooked after reading the first few pages. One particular line that stood out was: "At school I learned addition, subtraction, multiplication, and long division. After school I learned seduction, distraction, manipulation, and long indecision (6-7)." That was a killer. show less

I am a fan of this series. In this most recent installment (#2 – All that Glitters), we find all of our favorite main characters have returned.

Mallory is still ‘the boss’ of her own soap opera – and she still has to work with the insufferable Trip and his bunch of network cronies.

In the second book, we immediately get the sense that the bright-eyed optimism so keenly felt by Mallory is systematically being shot down at every turn. Mallory had high hopes for her soap opera – she show more wanted it to be about the everyday life of a teenager – but the networks are slowly, but surely starting to put pressure on her to add more ‘sizzle’ to the show.

Mallory is no longer ‘the golden child’. She now has to contend with pushy network people, disgruntled ‘talent’ who seem to be trying to sabotage her show, and she also has to deal with a resentful ex-bff, an egotistical mother and a whiny boyfriend.

As much as the first book was all about hope and possibility, the second book takes a sharp turn and heads right into disappointment, back-stabbing and disillusionment.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed reading the second book of the series, it left me feeling disheartened. I felt sorry for Mallory, but at the same time, I felt annoyed with her. I wanted to yell at her ‘make up your mind! You are either a teenager or a soap opera producer, but you can’t do both’. This plotline was definitely about showing us that Mallory cannot blend her two lives as she had hoped she could. The whole relationship between herself and Keith was painful and, in my opinion, somewhat pointless.

Still, what works so well for me in this series is the tenacity and brains that Mallory demonstrates. She is no wallflower and I loved, loved the parts where she FINALLY fights back with the people who are trying to sabotage her. Some of it is a little far fetched, but I don’t care – it was fun and satisfying to read.

This series is a lot of fun to read. You feel yourself rooting for Mallory and I love to hate those nasty people who are trying to ruin her show – I think for future plotlines, I would like to see more interaction between Mallory and her mother – and see Mallory ‘grow up’ and start dealing with people in a more professional manner. Also, please put us out of our misery and put Dallas and Mallory together – or kill that plotline altogether – I don’t really care either way – but this ‘does he like me?’ thing is getting a little old. Also, I kind of like Javier and Greg’s characters and would love to see these two more involved in the storylines. The scene between Greg and Mallory where they start the ‘did you know’ game was brilliant and very entertaining show less

Fun story, about a daughter of a soap opera diva who comes up with her own youth oriented story and sells it to the network. Am never sure if I like stories about women/girls written by men. Van Etten does a decent job here, although I never get how people seem so together when they're raised by a parent as messed up as this one, with an absent father to boot. This is a fun read, and I think it will appeal to girls. The ending was a bit abrupt and left me thinking "huh?".

Fun follow up to "Likely Story". Mallory's soap opera/teen drama moves ahead in production, she's still torn between Keith and Dallas, her ex-best friend Amelia is making her school life miserable, her stars are sulking about script changes, and her mother is, well, still a diva. Hmmm, perhaps her life is a soap opera/teen drama as well. A fun read, great for middle school/junior high, maybe senior high.