Messy by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan

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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?

If you’re in serious need of something ridiculous and outlandish, then look no further. Messy is the companion novel to Spoiled and in my opinion, it’s even better!

What makes Messy a treat is the antagonistic relationship between Brooke and Max – Brooke being the total Hollywood package with her blonde hair and deep knowledge of shoewear and Max being the antithesis with her standout green hair and astute understanding of normal humans. When Max agrees to be the ghostwriter for Brooke’s blog, it’s really a means to an end. That end being a summer writing program in New York that she’s been unsuccessfully saving money for. Needless to say, Max struggles with feeling like a sellout for working with Brooke but at the same time can’t help but be a little awestruck by Brooke’s world.  Somehow, the two manage a passable friendship that seems to call for carting Brooke around from one casting call to another. Max must  have missed that in the fine print. It’s when Brooke’s blog lands her a lead in a brand new movie version of Nancy Drew that things turn hairy and utterly nonsensical. Not only are people’s perception of Brooke more positive because of the blog but expectations are also higher. They actually think she has substance and intelligible things to say!  But the bonus is that Brick Berlin, Brooke’s famous actor dad is finally paying attention to her. His approval is what she has always wanted and she’s not about to squander this achievement.

Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan have a blast poking fun at all that’s ostentatious and trendy in and about Hollywood. They have plenty of ammunition considering how successful they are with their own celebrity fashion blog gofugyourself.com. You know how you hear people say, “You can’t make up this stuff”? It does make me wonder how true some of the more insane scenarios in the book are. Try as you might, Brooke is hard not to like. She’s not as shallow and brainless as she appears. Every scene she's in is amusing because she's so unabashed about who she is. She's never malicious – oblivious may be but I look forward to whatever she has to say. And thanks to Max, my new favorite phrase is “mind bitch” as when she, through her own internal process, serves up bitchy responses to a conversation currently taking place. I think it’s brilliant! Mostly because I do it all the time. Now while Hollywood is the backdrop, the story does essentially come down to friendship, honesty and may be some humble pie.  Oh and boys. Don’t forget, there’s always a boy or two involved.

So yes, definitely give Messy a read. It's quick, smart and just simply entertaining. For me, it was just the perfect thing to take me out of the doledrums of a hellish couple of weeks recently. I needed laughs and that's exactly what I got. Now I'd also like to suggest an idea for their next book. How's this for a scenario? Brooke encounters the creatures from Jersey Sore (no, that's not a typo. I despise reality shows and consider that one in particular to be an example of an evolutionary glitch). Anyway, it would be interesting to see if Brooke could bring a little bit of class to that unkempt set. Just a suggestion ...

~ Bel