Spoiled, by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

On her deathbed, Molly's mom reveals the truth about Molly's father-that he's none other than Brick Berlin, the famous Hollywood actor. Suddenly, Molly is plucked from Indiana obscurity and flown off to live with her dad and sister Brooke in the land of the rich, blonde, and tan. Brooke is not happy with the arrival of the other Berlin girl. The paparazzi is more interested in Molly now than they were in Brooke as far back as she can remember, and Brooke's workaholic dad cares more about making up for lost time with Molly than he ever did for his non-absentee daughter. Brooke wants everything to go back to normal, and is willing to do anything to get it there.

I heard of this book through the authors' fashion blog, Go Fug Yourself (look it up!), and was thrilled to find out there were two entire books of their witty and hilarious writing. Ironically, that was what I disliked most about the book. While short little paragraphs on their blog are smart and funny, it didn't translate well to the book format, where their tendency to ramble got annoying rather than hysterical.

What kept bothering me throughout the novel was Brooke's mistreatment of Molly. It's bad enough that she's acting completely horrible towards her sister, but the fact that Molly's mom just died makes Brooke's actions absolutely deplorable. She couldn't care less about Molly's feelings and made it all about her own emotions, even though she's been feeling those feelings for years and years already while Molly's mother died only about a week before. I understand why Brooke is portrayed this way but her epic levels of meanness earlier in the book prevented me from buying into her repentant act later in the book.

The McCormack siblings were by far my favorite part of the book. Max provided the sarcasm that everyone reading the novel was thinking and did it with the perfect amount of snark. Teddy was, of course, the romantic part of the story and my only disappointment there was the lack of focus on it throughout the story and then an ending for him and Molly that could really go in any direction.

3.9 stars.
 
Sixteen-year-old Molly Dix has just discovered that her biological father is Brick Berlin, world-famous movie star and red-carpet regular. Intrigued (and a little) terrified by her Hollywood lineage, Molly moves to Los Angeles and plunges headfirst into the deep of Beverly Hills celebrity life. Just as Molly thinks her life couldn't get any stranger, she meets Brooke Berlin, her gorgeous, spoiled half sister, who welcomes Molly to la-la land with a smothering dose "sisterly love"...but in this town, nothing is ever what it seems.

Set against a world of Redbull-fuelled stylists, tiny tanned girls, popped-collar guys, and Blackberry-wielding publicists, Spoiled is a sparkling debut from the writers behind the viciously funny celebrity blog GoFugYourself.com.