GOING LA LA
By Alexandra Potter
Fourth Estate, UK publisher
2001
ISBN # 1-84115-387-7
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If life was a pendulum, Frankie would
be the clock. In one week she's gone from having everything,
a great
job, a gorgeous boyfriend and a wonderful
flat, to having nothing at all. She's devastated but forces
herself to pick herself up and make some decisions about what
to do next. So she packs up her life in London and goes to Los
Angeles to visit her closest friend, Rita, who's there trying
to make it big as an actress.
Rita's neighbor, Dorian, is a wild. That's about the only
way to describe him. He has his hands in almost everything
in Hollywood, knows just about everyone, and is on everyone's
A lists. How he got in that position no one knows but Rita
and Frankie like him and the three become fast friends. It's
Dorian who tips Frankie off for a job as a set assistant and
with this job a whole new world opens up for her.
Frankie's first encounter with her new boss, Reilly, is in
the parking lot of the studio when their cars "bump"
into each other. A short time later Frankie discovers that
she's working for, Reilly. Could the day get any worse? If
not for her new friend Matt she was sure she would have ended
up getting fired.
Matt was what Frankie would class as a typical Californian,
laid back, tanned skin and speaks surfer lingo. He's great,
but as the days and weeks pass, Frankie finds herself drawn
to Reilly and makes it her mission to get on his good side
in the hopes of getting into his bed. But is Reilly really
Frankie's Mr Right?
"Going La La" is Miss Potter's second novel, though
I read it after her other two, "What's New, Pussycat?"
and "Calling Romeo". It's not hard to see that Miss
Potter has a good thing going as her storytelling is quite
good. While this is typical "chicklit" (the new
women's fiction term) the story has a good bit of romance
in it.
The characters in "Going La La" are quite likeable.
They're well developed which makes them believable. This is
what I like about Potter's books, the believability. Heroine's
are allowed to be ditzy but also possess intelligence and
some common sense.
The plots are not unique but the telling is well done. So
often we read about American's traveling to Europe to find
Mr or Ms Right, the perfect job or a new life of some sort.
But in this case, Frankie has traveled to America, which keeps
alive the old believe that America is the land of milk and
honey, and job opportunities.
Hollywood is not one of my favorite California places but
I enjoyed seeing it through Frankie's eyes, the glamour, the
hoopla, the wealth, and the sunshine around every corner.
That along would make this a great book to read in the winter.
Miss Potter seems to be publishing one book per year so 2003,
if I read the copyrights in these last three novels, so we should
be seeing a new story very soon. I, for one, will be first in
line when the bookstore opens the day it's released.
