Review
Tara McDonald is slim, beautiful, rich and a successful Scottish TV personality who changed her name, her looks and her past to bury a shameful secret. But for tabloid journalist Jordan Holmes, his career would be made if he dished the dirt on Tara. Like her, Jordan hasn't revealed his true identity and while he is busy digging, she is busy falling for him.
This is a fine escape fantasy from first-time writer Lennox Morrison: a modern Cinderella story about Glasgow girl Scarlett MacDougall, an overweight young woman with no self-esteem. Scarlett did not have an evil stepmother and nasty stepsisters when she was growing up - but she had a self-centred, cruel mother and hordes of schoolmates who made her life a misery. To escape them Scarlett dreamt about becoming one of the beautiful people in the glossy magazines - a rich, slim celebrity. And so, with the help of her very own fairy godmother, her old English teacher Flora, Scarlett re-invents herself as ultra-thin, super-fit celebrity television astrologer Tara MacDonald. But is that it? Is she fulfilled? And happy? Being a modern celebrity is not all champagne and glossy pictures; the tabloids are glad to dig up old secrets and Scarlett has one she definitely does not want discovered. Morrison's occasional attempts to darken the story strike a slightly false note, but for the most part this is a splendid piece of froth, accomplished, entertaining and throughly enjoyable. Perfect summer reading. (Kirkus UK)
ISLA DEWAR
'A tongue in the cheek look at the media mixed with the poignant and dark story of a lonely fat teenager...mix of glitz and grit.'
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