Format Read:E-Book purchased by reviewer
Number of Pages:670 pages
Release Date:May 25th 2011
Publisher:CreateSpace
Series: Love, #1
Formats Available: Paperback, Kindle Edition, e-book, audiobook
Purchasing Info: Goodreads | Authors Website | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK)
Book Blurb:
Ryan Christensen just wanted to be an actor. Never in his wildest dreams did he ever think that accepting a role in an unknown film would toss his career into overdrive. His new fame has cost him dearly; anonymity is no longer an option. His fans stalk him, the paparazzi hound him, and Hollywood studios all want a piece of him. Despite all of that, Ryan Christensen craves the most basic of human needs – to have love in his heart and privacy in his life.
Taryn Mitchell, the story’s protagonist, is a realist. She’s been feigning contentment, running the family pub in Seaport, Rhode Island, while quietly nursing her own internal heartaches. Her feet are fairly glued to the ground and she doesn’t buy into all the hype that has descended on her tiny, coastal town. In her world, men are safe if they’re kept at a distance.
Fate has other plans for these two when their paths cross one sunny afternoon. A group of female fans has attacked him, leaving his shirt torn, his face cut, and Ryan in obvious distress. Bonds between them form from the most dramatic of circumstances while jealousy, insecurity, and the stress of his celebrity life try to tear them apart.
Through all the tabloid lies, secrecy, and pressure, can Taryn’s peace and Ryan’s high-profile insanity live together in harmony?
My Thoughts:
To be completely honest, I don’t know exactly where to start with my review of Love Unscripted, or how to not write a small essay trying to explain my feelings towards this book… After reading all those raving reviews about this book and checking its premise, I was quite certain that this book was one I would really enjoy. And I picked it up because I really needed to read that kind of book that you fall in love with and can’t put down. But, despite all the 5 star reviews and my hope to like it, I ended up more than disappointed with it.
As soon as I started reading it, I was quite certain that I had a winner in my hands. Let’s face it, I’m a sucker for stories where celebrities fall in love with girls or boys next door. Whether it’s a book or a movie, those kind of stories are my favorite . So, for the first 100 pages or so, I was completely hooked and just couldn’t put my e-reader down. Yeah, sure I had some minor problems with the narration or the characters, or a number of other things, but I couldn’t care less. I just loved it. So, one could wonder how from feeling like that I ended up hating this book… So, that’s what I’m going to try to explain. Because even if it’s a few days since I put this book down, my feelings towards it are still all over the place. So, I’ll try to put in bullets below everything that I didn’t like and frustrated me, a method I have never followed before in my reviews, but I’m afraid I have no other way of putting my feelings into order.
So, here’s what I didn’t like:
I get it, being famous, isn’t easy. Despite all the pros and the way most of us secretly wish we were famous actors or musicians, being constantly criticised about every move you make or hearing and reading lies about who you are isn’t an easy task. Heck, it’s no wonder that drugs and suicide is so common among people whose life is seemingly perfect. I get it, I even sympathise with all the famous people out there (I’m in a charitable mood, what can I say? 😛 ) and I completely understand the necessity of the author to keep pointing out how difficult Ryan’s life is. But honestly, there are limits to everything. After a point I kind of felt that the author either didn’t know how to fill all those long pages or she seriously wanted us to feel sorry for Ryan. Excuse me, but I just can’t feel sorry for any celebrity out there. I can understand (I guess) their difficulties, but there are people out there with far worse problems than a bunch of psychotic fans. And now that we’re talking about fans, I think that Reber slightly exaggerated the whole thing. There are definitely crazy people out there and celebrities are a more common target, but, it almost seemed that Ryan and Taryn suffered every possible far-fetched scenario one could live through: Stalkers, crazy co-stars, crazy ex and co-star in new project, crazy production people and all those scheming to drive apart our happy couple. Is it my idea or it’s just too much?
Ryan was ok I guess. He was cute and apart from his constant whining I don’t have anything else to note. Well, apart from the fact that he was too good to be true. But the same rules apply for almost everything in Love Unscripted, both good things and bad, are unrealistic and over exaggerated.
My feelings towards Taryn are more or less the same as for Ryan, only here, I have to note something else.
The whole point of this book, is how a celebrity can fall in love with a girl next door, a common woman much like me and you. Only Taryn, is far from normal or common. She is beautiful as a model, smart like a scientist, sings like a singer and plays the piano as well as the guitar, she can sketch like an architecture and actually remodels her place based on her plans, can mold glass, make pottery, has a way with children and parents alike and oh, she’s beautiful as a model and has the hair of a model, so if any of the above traits couldn’t help her in finding a job, she could easily become one of those models for shampoos… So, how much like me and you sounds Taryn? Cause she doesn’t sound anything like me or my best friend or anyone I know, period. So, am I to understand that guys like Ryan can fall in love with my common ass as soon as I’m something like Taryn??? Come on!!!
“-Honey I made coffee, can I pour you a cup to show you how much I love you?
– Yes sweetheart please. Please show me how much you care for me despite what people seem to think of me”
Well, I’m pretty certain that if I continue, I can easily double this review in length, which is unnecessary as it’s long enough as it is. Bottom line, Love Unscripted has a story that could have easily suck me into but unfortunately the execution of the whole thing is pretty bad. I know I’m once more in the minority of readers but honestly, I couldn’t find a single redeeming quality in this one after a point. I just couldn’t. And believe me I tried really hard to. Maybe that’s why I feel so disappointed in the end.
I’m sorry you hated this so much, but I can totally understand the whys. So this one is not coming on my wishlist. Anna, quick question. I subscribe to your blog by email, but it does not seem to work anymore, for at least a few weeks.
Yeah, Aurian do yourself a favor and remove this book from your list. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone!
And thank you for letting me know about the problem. It seems that there’s something wrong with my feed, something with the changes on blogger that I have to check out as soon as possible. Thanks for letting me know 🙂