This book was unexpectedly awful. It was much darker than i anticipated and I struggled to get through it. Do not recommend.

i did request this book. It was sent by publisher and I did not have time to review/cover it. My sincere apologies for this. I hope you understand.

I love all kinds of novels about actors and actresses trying to make it (or reinvent themselves) in Hollywood, but Hollywood Daze felt very cliched and done to me. I couldn't escape the feeling that I had read something like it before.

I didn't really like this. I found the plot to be to thin and have no tension or true drama and the characters all seemed underdeveloped and a bit weak and boring. The writing style was okay but this could have been better.

This book didn’t interest me from the start so I did not finish [dnf] it a few chapters in, unfortunately

I wanted to like this book because of the cover and description but...I just couldn't connect with the characters. Much less care about them. The writing was great but having likeable characters is a big must for me. 3 stars at best!

I really wanted to like this book but I just didn’t. The story is a young girl who comes to Hollywood to assist her brother who is a Uber-anxiety-ridden screenwriter/Director. The problem with this book is that it’s super confusing. The story is all over the place and goes off on tangents. The writing style further masks the story as the author skips from scene to scene with no clear explanations. While reading, I was constantly having to re-read sections thinking I must have missed something but I never really did...this one is just all over the place. I wouldn’t recommend it.

Oh god, what on earth did I just read?



The idea of this sounded interesting to me:



"Hollywood Daze is a dark, provocative coming-of-age tale set in a devilish town.



At the centre of this razor-sharp adventure is talented, deadpan, recluse Mona Larvink.

Lonely and lost, Mona arrives in dazzling Los Angeles to help the only person left, her brother Joost, a famous European film director, to make it big.

But working for her brother is a drag, always turning into major drama.



Enter: "A thief, a troll, a taxidermist and a traumatised dog."

The de facto leader of this group, Elki Daniels, is also an insider who can explain Hollywood to Mona and, why not, even life.

Elki makes Mona believe she can stand up to her brother's selfish demands.

But the movie industry forces you to play its own wicked games. Soon - and maybe it's Mona's damn fault - everything spirals out of control and Mona finds herself before and impossible choice that could destroy her friendship, her family and everyone's future"



It has potential, but my god, as it is this is all over the place and not in a good way, maybe its partially because of the formatting but nothing in this flowed, you would be in one scene, then the next line you would be at a different time and location.

There were also a few typos that I noticed, the dialogue between the characters was so confusing, half of the time I didn't know who was talking, none of the characters really had a distinct voice.



I honestly don't want to give a bad review as such, so I can only be fair instead, I think that this could have been good, we all hear about how hard it is to make it in Hollywood so this could have been an interesting way of showing that, and to some extent it does, but it is just a little bit too confusing to read and the plot gets lost.

I have heard that there will be a sequel to this so I hope that is better than this one.



Personally I would not recommend this to anyone, and I do love a good old "coming-of-age tale".

This book was honestly such a mess. I almost wanted to DNF it, but instead I just read some parts, skimmed and skipped most. I only wanted to see if it had anything going for it, but I was disappointed.

The characters are terrible and not a single one of them gripped nor interested me. The writing was...chaotic. Things were so disjointed and the atmosphere was non-existent. It felt juvenile and the dialogue tried too hard to be honest. It didn't work and I just...really didn't enjoy this one.

I feel like I have read a lot of other similar books and I enjoyed it but I feel it felt a bit flat for me and I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I have read others.

A surprising book, much more than a coming-of-age book, filled with eccentric characters and the delightful Mona, the main character. As Mona navigates her way through La-La Land, we see the depth of her emotions, her keen intelligence and her wicked wit. A thoroughly delightful book, fun, edgy, unforgettable. Looking for more books from this author.

As a cinema student i wanted to read this book. But i didn't get what i expected. I didn't connect the characters. It is an okay book for me.

I've no idea what UnREAL is but something that meets Bringing up Baby...bring it on.

Now, I LOVE that movie. But obviously, books that talk too much about movies aren't as much fun as watching those movies.

The dialogue in this book is so boring and banter-ish and I-don't-even-know-about-what that I found myself constantly needing to skip over just to not put this book away. And then even when something actually happens even that falls flat on thriller genre or any semblance of action.

Or maybe I'm just a selective reader who needs more genuine character development in order to care about what happens to that character in the first place.

I know I like depth and insightful prose, but humor can be a big part of it, too. I mean just look at Neil Simon - only dialogue and his plays are over-the-top adequate portraits of the poor and struggling in Manhattan. But this book is trying so hard to be something...I'm not even sure what that it's losing all sense of direction towards some sort of plot.

Just label it chick-lit and you'll reach more happily ever after with readers.

Thank you Netgalley for the copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book was all over the place. Usually, that is taken in a negative context, but I think it might actually work here. It's different and edgy, with rough edges and sharp corners. It felt unpolished and gritty, and I think by the ending that was what really drew me in.

So, the characters are a little strange and off-kilter. Their relationships and interactions are frequently weird and random. Mona has just arrived in the States, following her famed Dutch director brother, Joost. He's really just a toxic blight on her life, only concerned about himself and his career, oh, and his "artistic integrity."

Luckily, Mona meets a whole menagerie of individuals that help to make her life in LA a little more bearable. Now, to note, I wasn't blown away by any of the characters. Their personalities weren't exactly warm and bubbly, rather they tended to be abrupt and rude at times. Maybe it's a millennial thing since many of the characters seem to be in that age range.

However, once the book progressed and Mona was on her own, I did appreciate her growth and maturing personality much more. Her time with the "turtles" was one of the better parts of the book.

I thought the ending had a surprising twist, in that it wasn't what I expected when the story came full-circle from the first scene (kudos to the author for pulling a switcheroo on an implied ending!). I did appreciate the creative way Simona Moroni wrapped the story up, with the future wide open with possibilities.

Overall, I gave the Hollywood Daze a 4/5 rating, with detractions for a writing style that didn't draw me in (until well into the middle of the book), some unclear character backgrounds, and the inability to relate (or empathize) with the most of the characters.