ACCORDING TO A SOURCE is a light and entertaining read about the inner workings of a celebrity gossip magazine. Ella/Bella and her friends are interesting characters and it was great fun to read about their antics. Stern gives us a delicious romp through the Hollywood scene while posing an interesting moral dilemma. Recommended for fans of MOVIE STARS BY LIZZIE PEPPER.

I started this book, but didn't find it compelling. I had a difficult time relating to the characters, and the scenarios they faced.

I found myself to be underwhelmed by this book.
The story had a very quirky and spunky vibe to it.
It was very fluffy chick-lit which can I do love!
I think at the end of the day this book just wasn't quite for me.

I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book tells the story of Ella Warren, an undercover freelance reporter for The Life, a gossip magazine. Ella's job involves her going to the hottest clubs and restaurants in Hollywood to search for a new scoop each night. This unfortunately takes her away from her boyfriend of seven years, Ethan. And then one night all of a sudden Ethan decides he's had enough. He moves out the next day and Ella is left adrift. But between her heiress best friend Holiday and her college best friend Jessica, Ella manages to pull the pieces together and actually even finds a new boyfriend. Her new editor at the magazine though has started using a points system to decide who gets fired or not, and so Ella is under more pressure than ever to get the biggest and best scoop, no matter the cost.
Overall I liked this book a lot. It reminded me a lot of the Gossip Girl books, which I loved as a teenager. The gossip about all the celebrities included code names instead of real names, which made sense because I think otherwise it would have been too hard to keep track of who was who with the celebrities. The pace of this book was great and there was a good amount of scandal and intrigue. There was also betrayal and romance and family drama. I can't imagine how anyone could have fit anything else into this book, it was bursting with interesting events. And while I liked it, there were pieces of it that I didn't love. I thought Ella was just too self-absorbed for my tastes. Even after she turned things around at the end she still seemed a little too all about her. Other than that though I really liked the book and I would recommend it.

The main character of According to a Source, Ella, is a celebrity gossip writer. Her job is to attend parties and frequent clubs to obtain gossip about celebrities and report in to her magazine which is both online and in print. When the book begins Ella puts her job above everything else in her life. Then there is a management change that makes her further dig into her job to the neglect of her boyfriend, best friend, sister, and mother.

This book is light reading that should go fast. However, I found myself struggling to make myself return to the story to find out what was happening. For most of the story, Ella was so dislikeable that it was hard to keep reading. Everyone knows people who refuse to take any responsibility for their own mistakes and choices but it is nearly impossible to root for such an unlikable character in a book.

Eventually, Ella gets her priorities straight but it takes a long time. The writing was well done but the author used long descriptive nicknames for the fake celebrities in the novel. This particular device was distracting for me and bogged me down until I learned to just skip over the nicknames.

I think due to the skillful writing, this book has an audience. It was just not my type of story.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this novel.

Light, fun, easy read. If you enjoy celebrity gossip (I do) you will likely enjoy trying to crack the codes of the nicknames the author gives celebrities. However, if you aren't interested in the celebrity gossip world, this book is likely not for you--although there are subplots regarding the family of the main character.

Overall, I loved this book. It was fast-paced, and while Ella wasn't super sympathetic early on, she was interesting enough to keep me engaged. Two things bothered me about the book:
1. The celebrity names were really annoyed. Every time the Britney Spears rip-off appeared (and as I type this), I got Oops I Did It Again stuck in my head. Just give them made up names. To me, it came across like the author realized she needed to up the word count, so she gave everyone really long names to fill the pages. And it annoyed me. My eyes started just skipping the names entirely because I didn't care about any of these characters.

2. Her real name is Ella Warren and the fake name she uses to mingle with celebrities is Bella Warren? SERIOUSLY? No matter what anyone says, the people of Los Angeles cannot be that stupid and self-involved. Also, it's weird that she let Holiday introduce her to some people as Ella when she was going to be reporting. Why not just use the fake name all the time? It annoyed me.

But overall, I enjoyed seeing how Ella grows and changes throughout the book. It was a great read, and I look forward to the next book from this author.

This was a super cute little read about a young woman who has developed a secret identity and a super secret job as an undercover Hollywood reporter.

Ella has ben working for years as an undercover Hollywood reporter and she loves her job. She gets to drop celebrity gossip, but tries to be fair about the information that she shares. She's broken up with her long term boyfriend and has a bourgeoning flirtation with a Hollywood agent.

But when her company is taken over by a new boss who wants to make a name for herself, suddenly Ella finds herself competing just to keep her job in a series of "tests" by her new boss. She suddenly has to decide is her job is more important than her personal life and all of her relationships.

A fun beach read - you'll have fun figuring out the identity of the celebrities that she encounters. I'd still take her job, crazy boss and all!

I really enjoyed this insiders fictional look at the publicity/news machine in Hollywood. It was a fast compelling read that had lots of interesting tidbits about how information is controlled in the industry

According to a Source, by Abby Stern, is a fun, light-hearted read based in the glamorous world of La La Land. Ella goes into her alter ego 'Bella' while she secretly spies on the Hollywood Elite of Tinseltown to get the hot gossip for the celebrity gossip magazine that she works for as an undercover freelance journalist.

Ella has to decide is her job worth the important people in her life or is it more important to find the breaking celebrity story. I enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to a friend!

If your into celebrity gossip and the hot spots of Hollywood, then this book is for you! It goes great paired with a bubbly glass of champs and cheers-ing with your fabulous friends! "To glamour and love"

According to a Source is about Ella who sometimes goes as Bella who works for a gossip mag getting all the latest dirt on all your favorite celebrities. All the names of the celebrities in the books are what you might see in blind items on the internet but you can kind of get an idea of who they are based off of - "not so innocent oversexualized pop star" - yeah, thats gotta be loosely based on Britney Spears, right? Ella manages to get all the dirt for The Life and even has managed to befriend actress and socialite Holiday Hall - who knows her secret, and her code that she only writes about things that happen in public.

When a new editor takes over at the magazine and tells the freelancers that there is only room for 4 of them and they will have to earn points based on what kind of stories they get, Ella struggles to keep up. Her mother is very sick and she doesn't want to tell anything about Holiday, even though she probably knows a secret or two. When Ella finds herself in the middle of a scandal with Holiday and doesn't report it to her editor, she pressures her for information and Ella cracks.

Can Ella make right after ruining so many careers, friendships and relationships? She's not sure, but she's hit rock bottom and she is certainly going to try.

As someone who used to try and figure out all the blind items I read on the internet, this book was an interesting look at "behind the scenes" of how that information was sourced. It also had a great storyline and just enough drama to keep things just over the top enough to keep me wanting to turn the page.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

This book is really fun! It's got all the elements I love; celebrity gossip, more than the regular romance plot and fun characters. Amazing!

According to the Source is a fun and entertaining read. It's also the type of book that makes you FEEL like you are living life right along side the characters. I adored this book.

** Full review will be posted on all retailers and media sites closer to release date **

According to a Source is an entertaining, light read for those who love celebrity gossip and the lengths that people go to to obtain such stories. Abby Stern’s style of writing is hilarious, and she has names for all the various “types” of celebrities such as: “Romantic Comedy Actress Who’s Had Bad Luck With Men” and “Former A-List Hot Mess Actress”. However, while I thought I would love this book, I am really not interested in celebrity gossip and what it takes to obtain the gossip so in the end it was not the book for me. I think it will appeal to those who like reading about Hollywood drama, etc.

Thanks to Thomas Dunne Books and NetGalley for the chance to read this in exchange for an honest review.

While this book was fine for entertainment value, the author's use of the celebrity identies was annoying. "Sexy Indie Film Star" and "Oversexed Former Teenage Pop Star" (and so on) made the book clunky and annoying to read. If the author cleaned that up, the book would improve tremendously.

The blurb seemed interesting and cute but the writing here was just terrible. Could not get into the story or characters at all.