Play Shop: Let's Pretend Sets

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Lily Thane is a thirty-two-year-old actress best known for her twenty minute appearance in a low-budget British romcom as winsome orphan ‘Little Lucie’ at the age of four, and it’s clear that her star is waning, not that her mother and manager, “the momager”, is willing to give up on a dream that easily. This is a truly immersive read and I enjoyed the insight it gave into the darker world of fame and fortune! This is a complex book which is genuinely enthralling as Lily must try to survive, and I was pleased to have the opportunity to read and review it. My main criticism is that the ending of the novel felt rushed and would have benefitted from both being made clearer and also explored in a little more depth. In a way, Vaughan has created a special world which transcends geographical boundaries as she establishes a world where the super rich and the created celebrity images overlap, guarded by an impressive range of managers, agents and PR experts.

This was a slow burn delve into the outrageous lifestyles of the celebs caught up in the world of tv and movies, sadly I wished the ending had a bit "more. Laura Vaughan has created a character in Lily Thane that has a family that is known in theatrical circles, even if it’s not for the sort of lightweight roles that she is currently linked to in her efforts. That said, the relatively brief chapters and regular exchanges of dialogue help to keep things moving along at a fairly decent pace and the introduction of (and references to) Lily's old stage-school buddy Adam Harker, who needs an appropriate red-carpet companion to seal the deal of making it big, offers the reader some intrigue.In hindsight, the book I finished and the book I started (with only the blurb for guidance) feel completely separate from each other. The narrative follows Lily from reuniting with Adam after not having seen each other since stage school to her quest to unravel the mystery of exactly how he died. I also liked how character driven this book was; there were definitely some shady characters along the way! It starts with Lily Thane who is from an acting family but she is really only known for a film she made as a child.

Lily was a really interesting character and it’s crazy to think just how much one person will put up with in the hopes it will further their career. There is a lot to unpack in the first act, yet somehow it lunges itself forward and provides a thrilling reading experience. How you look the choices you make in life can direct your future, people who seem to have it all really happy, on top of the world behind closed doors living in sin. I've read Vaughan's previous novel The Favour and this one is similar in the twisted character relationships and general sense of terrible people who might be capable of murder, though I didn't quite enjoy the atmosphere of this one as much.

It is all a bit glitz and glamour and then the relationship turns bad as the other side of Adam starts to show. The other characters are also complex creations, with their awareness of social media, and in the case of Nina, celebrity gossip, as a force in their success or failure. To be honest, Lily's investigation into Adam's death was the least interesting thing in the book, I was far more into their spiralling toxic 'fauxmance'. Cocksure Adam is a flawed character, an addict and a game playing master of manipulation with a goodie bag of drugs as big as his ego.

Her old stage-school friend Adam Harker is on the brink of huge success, but to keep up appearances needs a trusted companion.I would have liked a little more detail as the ending felt a little bit rushed, but I really liked the unexpected turns and thought it was very clever! The early scenes immerse you in an upper-crust world of celebrity, party drugs, and money, where gossip and reputation are everything, and it's a horrifying world at times, with a cast of unlikeable characters and lots of reminders of life's fickle nature.