Sometimes life gets messy.

After a rocky start in Spoiled, Brooke Berlin and her newly discovered half sister, Molly Dix, have settled into something like sisterly love, but the drama is far from over.

Now that Brooke’s caught a taste of fame and her movie star father’s attention, she wants to launch a blog that will position her as the ultimate Hollywood insider. But between schoolwork, party-planning committee meetings, and spa treatments, she hardly has the time to write it herself…

Enter Max McCormack, an aspiring author with a terrible after-school job pushing faux meat on the macrobiotic masses of La-La Land. Max reluctantly agrees to play Brooke’s ghost-blogger for an impressive salary, and the site takes off, but how long can their lie last? In person, Brooke can’t live up to the intellectual wit of openbrooke.com, and Max soon begins to resent hiding her genius behind a bandage dress-wearing blonde. Can the girls work together to stay on top, or will the truth come out and ruin everything they’ve built?

PS: You might want to check out my review of Spoiled before reading this one.

Messy is written in the hilarious, sarcastic and witty manner that is the trademark of the Go Fug Yourself girls. Every page is infused with priceless jabs at both factual and fake Hollywood stars, most of whom–being the unplugged teen that I clearly am– I’ve never even heard. But here’s the catch: I laughed anyway. I didn’t even know who they were talking about and I laughed anyway. Okay, laugh is a weak word to describe my snorting-slash-snickering-slash-rolling-around-on-my-bonbon-strewn-floor-clutching-my-stomach. But, as Brooke Berlin would say with a generalizing sweep of her manicured hand, “details.”

As accurately described in my current poll (which you may find a little to the right of your screen and graciously vote on), Messy is the quintessential beach read: light, fun, and knock-your-socks-off hilarious. Old Hollywood clichés inadvertently compliment high school clique melodrama and up-and-coming It Girl debauchery as our two main characters learn to become dependant of one another in the hopes of bettering their futures. There is no saying more appropriate than Hollywood Is Like High School with Money in cases like these– especially when our read focuses not only on high school, not only on Hollywood, but on a high school in Hollywood whose students are more artificial than Glow‘s twisted sense of humour.

Well, all the students but Max McCormack (otherwise known as Kermit), of course. Yes, Max– what with her green hair, consisting-almost-entirely-of-black wardrobe, and serious writing aspirations– is certainly the square peg in Colby-Randall Preparatory School’s very round, very flaky hole. Her rebellious disposition has always led her to believe certain truths: bottle blondes, stupid celebrities and spoiled brats were simply meant to be mocked. However, this disposition cannot help her now, in the face of a desperate need for money, an overly-tempting, well paying job, and– this is the worst part– Brooke Berlin.

Some of you may be wondering what kind of job could even come near tempting the anti-establishment Max. I’m going to dash all of your hopes right this instant by saying that, contrary to popular belief, it does not involve egging Jennifer Hudson’s house (although this, too, would be completely satisfying for all parties). This job involves different key words, such as ghost, writing, and blog. Now, being a blogger, myself, I utterly delighted in the scattered postings of the girls’ witty blog, www.openbrooke.com. Or should I say Max’s witty blog? Brooke obviously has no idea what she’s talking about. And Max is growing tired of letting the glamazon hide behind her words.

Brooke is admittedly my favourite character. Although I most certainly am not the shallow fake most would claim her to be, I can absolutely relate to her need to constantly be wearing an attractive ensemble and drive to find the perfect pair of shoes. However, let’s not assume that Brooke is this afore-mentioned shallow fake. The youngest Berlin has piles upon piles of insecurities, doubts, hopes, and dreams (most of which do involve fame and fortune, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here). In Messy, Brooke has most definitely become the realistic and at least quasi-deep person that she failed to represent in Spoiled.

As you may have guessed, although Messy is the claimed sequel of Spoiled, it’s more of a companion than anything else. Despite the fact that Molly does make brief appearances in certain nostalgic scenes, she has stepped off of the stage in order to allow her best friend and sister to take her place as protagonists. I’ve heard rumours that Brooke’s BFF Arugula may be the centre of Cocks and Morgan’s next book, but the person who I’m hoping to see more of is Shelby Kendall: self-proclaimed enemy of both Brooke and Molly.

Nevertheless, such a novel would not be complete without two of my favourite mandatory ingredients: drama and boys. And what better way to incorporate both than a delicious twist on the classic love triangle? When the unconventionally short and unconventionally bookish Taylor Swift (his stage name is Brady Swift, for obvious reasons) comes into the picture, our two protagonists become dazzled and not slightly giddy. The melodrama that ensues is best left for the actual reading of this book, but I will say that it is very intense, terribly evocative, and highly enjoyable.

Messy‘s obvious hilarity and delectable drama warrant 4.6/5 stars. For all in need of a light, creamy, and somewhat candy-coated escape.

Oh, and enter my current giveaway for a chance to win Burden of the Soul! You only have one day left.

I’ll keep you posted,

Buy Spoiled on Amazon

16 year old Molly Dix has just discovered that her biological father is Brick Berlin, world famous movie star and red-carpet regular. Intrigued (and a little terrified) by her Hollywood lineage, Molly moves to Los Angeles and plunges head first into the deep end of Beverly Hills celebrity life. Just as Molly thinks her life couldn’t get any stranger, she meets Brooke, her gorgeous spoiled half-sister who welcomes Molly to la-la land with a smothering dose of ‘sisterly love’. But in this town nothing is ever what it seems.

Set against Redbull-fueled stylists, tiny tanned girls, popped-collar guys and blackberry wielding publicists, Spoiled is a sparkling debut from the writers behind the viciously funny celebrity blog Gofugyourself.com

Discovering that your father was rich and famous and, therefore, you are. It’s a story that’s been told since the time of princesses. Unlike most people, though, the Gofugyourself girls tell it well.

Here are the facts:

-Molly Dix is a tomboy.

-Her step-sister, Brooke Berlin, is a spoiled girly-girl.

-Brooke had never heard of her father’s illegitimate child before and is furious at her for suddenly stealing the spotlight.

-Brooke is viciously manipulative and a great liar.

-Brick Berlin, the father, is oblivious.

-Molly is having boy trouble.

-Brooke is very observant.

-Molly knows how to make friends with Brooke’s enemies.

So, let me ask you: Is this going to go well? No. It is not. It is going to go horribly, horribly wrong.

Will anyone come out of this savage, wicked, battle unscathed? No. They will not. They will all be terribly socially harmed.

Will simple drama lead to horrendous repercussions?  Yes. Horrendous repercussions.

Are you going to enjoy it? Yes!

Considering the marshmallow fluffiness of this type of book, I was pleasantly surprised. At first I thought that Brooke, being the selfish spoiled brat that she is, was completely superficial. But as the novel progressed and the secrets of Brooke’s past unraveled, she began to prove to me that she has depth.

Molly was equally likable. I imagined that after her mother died and revealed that Molly’s father was none other than the A-list actor Brick Berlin, Molly would be in shock and sniveling. However, she turned out to be a strong heroine who fought against Brooke’s drama with some tricks of her own.

Light, hilarious, delicious, and complete with a yummy cover, Spoiled is a Hollywood-set contemporary that, if you loved Mean Girls and The Clique, you do not want to miss. 4/5 stars.

I’ll keep you posted,