And coming up next............ (Coming Up Next - Penny Smith)

Member Name: mumto3

Product:	Coming Up Next - Penny Smith
Date:	22/05/09 (121 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It gave me something to read - it helped me sleep

Disadvantages: It never really got going - poor character developement

For my birthday recently I received Coming Up Next by Penny Smith. I had requested the book after seeing it on www.amazon.co.uk as one of my recommendations.

I have obviously heard of Penny Smith from her appearances on GMTV but my most vivid memory of her is when she sang with Curtis Stigers on Just the Two of Us. I wouldn't say I am a huge fan but as it was someone I recognised and it is her first book I felt I would give it a try. The blurb on the back made the book sound interesting and a little different to the books I have been reading lately.

I received quite a lot of books for my birthday and of all of them I chose to read Penny Smiths book first.

The basic storyline centres around Katie Fisher an anchor woman on popular breakfast show Hello Britain! Who is unceremoniously sacked from her position and replaced with a younger perkier model. The book follows Katie's fall from grace and how it affects her life and relationships with those around her.

I felt that with Penny's background this book could be semi autobiographical and hoped to recognise some well know people within the characters depicted. Unfortunately I was a little disappointed with the book and was left feeling let down by the whole story. I felt that the tale didn't flow very well and tented to jump about quite a bit between characters to the point where I would lose track completely. The book never really got going but I kept reading in the hope that something would happen.

The characters in the book were instantly forgotten and I didn't feel that you ever got to know any of the characters enough to feel anything for them. There seemed to be a lot of characters in the book and I often forgot who they were and had to go back through the book to find when they were introduced and what relevance they had. I didn't like the main character Katie very much and felt that she came across as a self-obsessed lush most of the time. I felt that more could have been done with some of the characters including Bob the love interest who I felt could have been a good character to explore further. As it was I was left hoping that Katie wouldn't get her man because I didn't like her and didn't want her to live happily ever after.

After I finished the book I just felt very disappointed and could barely remember any of the characters. The story never got going and seemed pointless, there did appear to be a bit of a twist in the book but it was made so obvious from the beginning that when it was revealed it wasn't a surprise as you knew what was going on all along.

Maybe I am being too harsh as this is Penny's first novel, maybe there wasn't supposed to be a surprise twist and maybe the lead character was supposed to be a thoughtless old soak.

I don't think I'll be rushing out to buy any more books by Penny Smith based on this first effort but I would possibly read another if I found it at the library.

This book is available from www.amazon.co.uk for £4.99

ISBN 978-0-00-726889-4

Summary: Not the best book I've ever read