Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

Being an ordinary teenager living in California, Audrey would've never guessed that breaking up with her boyfriend would make her famous! But that ex-boyfriend happens to be an egotistical musician, and so, you guessed it! He wrote a song about their breakup. And surprisingly, the song, "Audrey, Wait!" has caught the interest of some minor record labels, and before anyone knows it, it's climbing the charts and is being played everywhere! Good bye, normal life! Now a piece of Audrey's love life is being made known to everyone and the tabloids are starting to follow the subject of this song, Audrey, around!

Audrey just wants a normal life, but that’s completely out of the questions when bands, fans, reporters, and crazy managers are plaguing her house with calls, killing her e-mail, and sending more text-messages than you can shake a stick at! While Audrey is trying to evade the limelight, her best friend, Victoria, wants Audrey to play up the fame and get free lip gloss, concert tickets, and more publicity! But how can she concentrate on free lip gloss when her love life is out for everyone to hear, people are selling out random information about her to the tabloids, and the press portray her as the ‘bad girl friend’ and are publishing lies? She’s just trying to hold her job at the Scooper Dooper ice cream store at the mall, listen to music, and hang out with her friends! But speaking of her love life…there has been some pretty interesting twists lately…her co-worker at the Scooper Dooper is kinda hot, but so is the lead singer of the Lolitas…ack! What would the media do about this new development in her love life (seemingly the top interest of all teens right now!) if they heard??

There was just one predictable, slightly cliché part: of course pressure gets to Audrey and she really does try to do the right thing, but relations between her and her best friend are strained, and they argue. That, in turn, causes further discord and Audrey eventually discovers herself and spills the truth and kicks butt in front of a (very) large audience. Just a bit predictable for me in the later part of the book, but definitely a unique and fun read overall!! Audrey sees how ugly the other side of fame is and is often forced to do damage control for her parents! It's not too hard to connect to some of the characters in the story; Audrey attends your typical school with a popular crowd and students that buzz about with the latest rumors.

Audrey, Wait! had a fast pace that doesn’t let the book drag on, and personally, I loved the lyric snippets from different songs that started out each chapter (little foreshadowing)—fantastic idea! Audrey herself is quite a spunky character and I loved her fat cat! Great, dynamic characters, mixed with some creativity, humor and pop culture, and I would say Audrey, Wait! is a pretty good read. I definitely recommend it for all you looking for a light-hearted summer read, so long as you’re not someone who’s easily offended by plenty of cussing since this book does drop the F-bomb quite a few times.