The Accidental Bestseller

The story of 4 authors who help one of the group who has a deadline due but no story. Each takes from her own life and puts it in the one's book and it becomes a best seller. The fallout begins between them and their families. I loved the support that they gave each other. Each woman was well defined. The others in their lives were also well defined. What I most especially loved was that each woman became stronger through this experience. They all needed to learn to communicate with each other and the others in their lives. Each also had to do soul searching as the fallout alienates them in so many ways. I liked that some stuck to their guns and did not break and give in. Others had to soften their positions and try new ways of living. show more I enjoyed this very much. show less

Opening at a writer's convention, Kendall is hoping to win a coveted Zelda award. Instead, her publishing company drops her and even her three long standing writer friends can't keep her from fleeing to her home where another bombshell drops on her. Her husband has been gone all weekend and Kendall must face the fact that he has been cheating on her and wants a divorce. In short, her life is falling apart around her ears. Fleeing for a second time, she high tails it to the cabin in the North Carolina mountains that she has always loved. It is here that Mallory, Faye, and Tanya ultimately find her, hiding from the world, completely emotionally paralyzed, and unable to write. Her three friends decide to help her write the final book of show more her contract so she can get on with her life. But when they do this, they expose the long buried secrets they've kept from the world and from each other. Even worse, this book that was supposed to be ignored, a chore to be gotten through before Kendall can move on to other things, becomes a bestseller and opens all four of the writers and friends to the scrutiny not only of the world but to each other and to their loved ones.

An interesting premise, this does share a bit of the seamy side of publishing and exposes a fickle and subjective profession. It also gives a few insights into some of the ways in which writers write and how they feel about their chosen profession. Mostly though it is intended to be a book about friendship and secrets. The characters are quite different from each other and their secrets are mostly fitting given their personal lives. But the bond of friendship between the women needed a bit more development to be completely believable. It can be hard to balance an ensemble cast in a novel, making certain that each character receives enough time on the page and enough development to feel authentic but Wax does manage that balance here, telling each main character's story by turns, allowing the reader to understand each home life and a bit of why the secrets are so important, even potentially devastating. The secondary characters, the children and men in the womens' lives, were quite flat and undeveloped but necessary to the plot. But this was a minor weakness. While the women could be frustrating and some of the secrets were a bit much, this was mostly a likeable piece of chick lit. show less

The Accidental Bestseller by Wendy Wax

Wow! Just wow! I just this moment finished this book and I’d like to say to Ms Wax BRAVO! If you are a published author, you will appreciate the insiders look at some of the quirks of the industry and perhaps you will even recognize someone you’ve had to deal with in the past. If you are a pre-published writer, you may appreciate the look into what other authors have to do to get over those dry spells. If you are simply a book lover like me you will appreciate everything about this book. And if you are a woman, you will appreciate the author’s views on best friends who will help you out when life seems to be too much; no matter what it costs them. And in this book they all have the potential show more of loosing it all.

Years ago four women from varied back rounds met at a writer’s conference and formed a bond. None of them had been published, but they sure hoped to be one day. Well that “one day” happened for all of them. Each woman writing a different style of books: Faye writing Inspirational Romances, Tanya writing contemporary romances books for a Harlequin-esque company called Masque; Mallory striking, confident and very prolific with her novels. Yet as successful as they are on the surface, each one holds a secret close to their hearts. And then there is Kendell.

Kendell is having problems in the literary world and has tumbled into mid-listdom, not only that, a new book deadline is quickly approaching with nothing yet written, and to add insult to injury her husband has left her for a younger woman.

Kendell is the main protagonist of this book, or is she really? We find her escaping to the mountains to lick her wounds. And of course Kendell’s BFF’s come to help her through this rocky time and hope to kick-start the creative juices that seem to be missing from Kendell’s messed up life. I won’t spoil anything for you more than has been already, but a plan is hatched, goes into effect and they collaborate on a novel using their own lives and unfortunately their own writing voices.

What no one would fathom is the book becomes “The Accidental Bestseller” (literally) and true to life - what may go well one minute, collapses the next.

We learn the secrets behind each of the masks each one wears and I found my stomach in knots praying that this would work out well for at least some of them in the end. But I’ll leave that up to you to find out.

Very fast paced, deeply absorbing, well plotted and written. It has finely drawn characters that you can imagine as your own bet friends. Do not by any means mistake this as a “chick-lit” genre book, it most certainly is not. This book is unique and a breath of fresh air . Something that you will not regret spending your hard earned book buying dollars on. I know that I haven’t.

I think this book will be putting Ms Wax on the best sellers list. show less

I’m not sure what I was expecting when I picked up The Accidental Bestseller, but whatever it was, I got so much more! This book is just fantastic. It’s really a story about friendship among women, courage, living up to your true potential, and honesty. It’s a page turner—I just couldn’t wait to find out what happened to the four remarkable women in the book.

This is the story of Kendall who is a mid-list author with failing sales, Mallory who is a well known New York Times bestseller list author, Tanya who writes romance novels and Faye who is married to a televangelist and writes inspirational novels. They’ve been good friends for 10 years, having met at a writer’s conference, hitting it off immediately. When Kendall’s show more life starts falling apart—she finds out her publisher is dropping her as soon as she completes the last book in her contract, at the same time finding out her husband wants a divorce—she scurries off to her mountain retreat to hide out. Her three friends come to her rescue to help her get that book written.

The story of getting that book written and what happens when it’s published is just incredible. I loved every page of this book and could hardly wait to find out what was going to happen next. There is great character development making each of the four authors very easy to visualize. These were women I wanted to know, wished that they lived next door to me. Wendy Wax has written a wonderful book about the strength of women’s friendships and I hope she writes a sequel to this story. Ms. Wax writes with great insight into the publishing industry, not always a pretty picture. Each chapter begins with a quote from an author about the hard work involved in writing. Some of these quotes are laugh out loud funny, but all are interesting. One of my favorites: There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. –W. Somerset Maugham.

While I was reading the book, I kept talking about how great it was so when I finished it, my husband asked to read it. He’s never read women’s fiction, so I handed it over with some trepidation. But he liked it too and also found it to be a page turner. Now we’re both looking for more books by Wendy Wax. show less

The Accidental Bestseller by Wendy Wax

Wow! Just wow! I just this moment finished this book and I’d like to say to Ms Wax BRAVO! If you are a published author, you will appreciate the insiders look at some of the quirks of the industry and perhaps you will even recognize someone you’ve had to deal with in the past. If you are a pre-published writer, you may appreciate the look into what other authors have to do to get over those dry spells. If you are simply a book lover like me you will appreciate everything about this book. And if you are a woman, you will appreciate the author’s views on best friends who will help you out when life seems to be too much; no matter what it costs them. And in this book they all have the potential show more of loosing it all.

Years ago four women from varied back rounds met at a writer’s conference and formed a bond. None of them had been published, but they sure hoped to be one day. Well that “one day” happened for all of them. Each woman writing a different style of books: Faye writing Inspirational Romances, Tanya writing contemporary romances books for a Harlequin-esque company called Masque; Mallory striking, confident and very prolific with her novels. Yet as successful as they are on the surface, each one holds a secret close to their hearts. And then there is Kendell.

Kendell is having problems in the literary world and has tumbled into mid-listdom, not only that, a new book deadline is quickly approaching with nothing yet written, and to add insult to injury her husband has left her for a younger woman.

Kendell is the main protagonist of this book, or is she really? We find her escaping to the mountains to lick her wounds. And of course Kendell’s BFF’s come to help her through this rocky time and hope to kick-start the creative juices that seem to be missing from Kendell’s messed up life. I won’t spoil anything for you more than has been already, but a plan is hatched, goes into effect and they collaborate on a novel using their own lives and unfortunately their own writing voices.

What no one would fathom is the book becomes “The Accidental Bestseller” (literally) and true to life - what may go well one minute, collapses the next.

We learn the secrets behind each of the masks each one wears and I found my stomach in knots praying that this would work out well for at least some of them in the end. But I’ll leave that up to you to find out.

Very fast paced, deeply absorbing, well plotted and written. It has finely drawn characters that you can imagine as your own bet friends. Do not by any means mistake this as a “chick-lit” genre book, it most certainly is not. This book is unique and a breath of fresh air . Something that you will not regret spending your hard earned book buying dollars on. I know that I haven’t. show less

I really enjoyed this book. All of the characters were believeable and easy to understand. The plot moved along at a good pace and all came together well at the end. While this book may not blow you away with greatness, it was a fun read. Highly recommend!

I received this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.

I've never used this phrase to describe a book before, but this book is very meta.

The book is about four friends who are all writers. Kendall has a meltdown due to her personal life and her friends help her. They suggest that they all write a book together, a book about four friends who are writers.

Each one of them writes about herself, but in code. They want Kendall to get complete credit for the book and they do not want to break their own contracts by writing the story with her.

So, they decide to use the anonymity of their fictional characters to write about their real secrets. Mallory and Faye put the most on the line personally.
But none of them owns up to each other that they are telling show more true stories.

When the book becomes a best seller (that's not a spoiler since it's in the title) their friendship and personal relationships are put to the test.

I enjoyed it. I liked the characters and I though they had a lot of personal growth by the end of the story. show less