Reality Jane: A Novel [Kindle Edition]

Reality Jane took me on a rollercoaster ride of success and what it meant to sacrifice in order to achieve it.

Jane, a journalist from Canada, finds herself thrust into the fast paced Hollywood lifestyle all thanks to a lucky connection. Jane is the new producer on a reality show. Her life suddenly becomes a blur of Grammy parties, Sex Kittens, rock stars and backstabbing. It doesn't take long for her to realise the glitter of Tinsel Town doesn't always cover the greed and darker side.

Just when her life and career seem at its bleakest, Jane is offered a new opportunity on a hot new show. The new show brings not one, but two hotties into Jane's life - upcoming TV host, Alex, and down-to-earth and gorgeous camera-man, Grant.

But Jane must make some choices and decide what is more important to her - integrity or success, love or career, honesty or lies.

Reality Jane had the perfect mix of my two favourite things - reality TV and chicklit. This is an awesome read for anyone who loves either of these, and the awful decision of choosing between two men...

For the most part, Reality Jane is a quick and fun read. It's nothing entirely special, and despite the fact Jane does indeed spend a ton of time producing, none of it is particularly gossipy or juicy. It's not as in-depth as Lauren Conrad's LA Candy series; it's not like an expose on reality TV, which I thought was a shame because that's what I was expecting. It took me mere hours to complete the book but I just don't think I'll remember it in a weeks time. It's never a good idea when I can't wait for a book to end, and with Reality Jane I couldn't wait to get to the end because it just wasn't what I expected and it was just too all over the place for me.

The most disappointing part of the book is that Nering skips over a ton of details. I read one chapter early on in the book where Jane is all set for her new job, she's agreed to spend a weekend in San Diego with Toni, her new friend, and come the next chapter, she's been to San Diego and she has a new boyfriend, to boot. I mean, it was all done so quickly that I thought maybe she was dreaming, as she goes to her new boyfriend, Craig's, house for a BBQ. There's so much detail skipped when the book should have focused on some of the smaller details. It just seemed all over the place, the way the book moved on weeks later, months later, with big events occurring and us only knowing about them after the event.

Another really annoying part of the book is the love story. Oh my God, Jane is the most fickle female character around! She's in love with Craig, she's in love with Grant, she's in love with Alex... I have never known anybody to be in love with so many people at exactly the same time. She happily kissed Alex then flitted to Grant, whilst not over Craig. It was mind-boggling and really, really confusing. Even as the book draws to a conclusion, she still isn't sure who it is she really wants and I just wanted to slap her. I hate books where every male falls at the feet of the female character despite the fact the female character in questions says she's not slim, not beautiful, etc because it's unrealistic. I don't want there to be three different men to choose from, I want one man to focus on, to root for but neither Grant nor Alex nor Craig were particularly swoon-worthy.

Reality Jane just wasn't what I expected it to be. Jane was OK in the beginning - if naive - but as the book moved on, she got more and more big-headed. She blew up at Grant numerous times for no reason, when he was merely just trying to help. I'd have liked if the book focused more on the producing than Jane's love life. The producing parts were good, and I think Jane redeemed herself well enough in the end... But this book just wasn't for me. It was clunky in parts, it was all over the place with seemingly missing scenes that weren't missing at all; Nering just hadn't written them in, instead expecting us to guess where Craig had come from. Guess where Craig had gone... It's sad. I wanted to like the book, it sounded interesting and it was readable enough, it just lacked the plot or the characters to really take off.