I loved this book. It took me a minute to get into it but once I did, I had a great time reading! Very light and exactly what I needed. I enjoyed the storyline and found myself rooting for the characters!

Thanks for ARC
I loved the blurb of the book. I enjoy reading about fans and fandoms. 
References to fandom related things were fun.
Loved the characters and writing style.

I really enjoyed Kind of Famous. It’s the first book from Mary Ann Marlowe I’ve read and it won’t be my last. I loved the energy and style of writing, I loved the unique and (mostly) likeable characters, I loved that it held my interest from the very first to the very last page. It was fun and flirty, and a total feel good read. There’s just so much to love about Layla. She’s strong, independent, determined and goes after what she wants.

Layla Beckett is a redhead from Indiana who has managed to turn her obsession with music into a career. She’s now got a job at a famous music magazine in NYC. This means she’s had to step away from running an uber successful fan site of her favourite band, Walking Disaster. Immediately she is drawn into the world of music and musicians, and meets fellow ginger and drummer for Theater of the Absurd, Shane Morgan. Their relationship starts out at a breakneck pace. Shane is sweet but also quite insecure about his position in the band - who know the name of the drummers? Drummers are always in the shadows, never the one who gets the girl... The more their relationship progresses the more unsure Layla is of how to bring up the fact she’s run a fan website for the last decade of a band Shane knows, tours and is friends with. She doesn’t want to be accused of trying to sleep her way into the bands inner circle. She’s kept this secret from him and the more serious they get the harder it gets to tell him. But like all secrets it’s bound to come out sooner rather than later. For a relationship that starts out so fast with both of them flying on instinct and emotion, will it be able to survive when the truth comes out?

This is book #3, in Flirting With Fame series. This book can be read as a standalone novel. For reader understanding, and to avoid spoilers, I recommend reading this series in order.

Layla is starting work at a new job in New York. She wants to do well but it worried if anyone finds out about her past with her blog, it will be all over. Secrets make it hard to move forward.

Shane goes after what he wants - and he wants Layla. Right from the beginning they share a spark and a sense of humor. Can they make a future with the past staying hidden? If it all comes out will they get past the deceit of a withheld story?

The music business is treacherous at best, but the characters in this series are HOT and they know it. This story was full of sizzle and sexy. I loved that there was room for bonds of friendship to form under high pressure conditions too. The characters were complicated and made for an interesting read.


***This early copy was given in exchange for an honest review by Netgalley and its publisher.

I want to thank Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Kind of famous starts of with the main character Layla starting a new job. With this job she comes in contact with all the people she is actually a fan of. She runs a fansite named Talking Distaster, this being the biggest fansite of the band. She does this incognito which means that nobody knows who she actually is. All the while her friendship with the band and their friends starts growing. Shane who is the drummer in an other band liked Layla from the first day. Shane and Layla start a relationship. With this comes the problem of to telling everyone the truth about running the fansite. 

While i liked most of the book, i must say that the beginning was more about the secondary characters than the main character. There are a lot of secondary characters. They may be necessary for the story, but in the first chapters it was kinda dragging. I did like the Shane’s and Layla’s love story. 

With the secret of the fansite, the growing friendships and her relationship with Shane. Layla has a lot of choices to make. 
 I give this book 3 stars, because beginning was dragging for me, but it did pay off in the end. 

-C

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Are you a music lover? Do you believe in love at first sight?  Are you into happy ever after? 
Then look no further than this book. This is a book for every one who fell in love with their favorite band and wished they could live in their world.  This is a great read that you can easily get lost in the pages. 
Thank You NetGalley and Mary Ann Marlowe for allowing me to read the advance copy of this book.

I think I have learned that I am not a huge fan of rockstar romances. It just all seems so unrealistic. However, I did appreciate how Layla became friends with Jo and Eden, and that led to meeting the guys. I really liked their friendship and how authentic it was. While Jo was maybe a little too trusting of Layla in the first place to invite her to her house, I did like how approachable and down to earth she was. Shane feeling like he was just a stepping stone for most girls was sad at first, but as the book went on it just became annoying. I thought the fan site aspect of this book was fun, and something a little different than I have read in other rockstar romances. 
Overall, the storyline was cute, but felt like it was missing something for me. 

3.5 stars
I received this book for free in return for an honest review.

This is the type of book I needed to read right now. It's light, it's fun, it's the type of book you wish you could BE the main character. It's full of fun things like moving from the Midwest to NYC, meeting your favorite musicians, getting an awesome new job, and an insta-love story.

I really liked the main character, Layla. I'm all about seeing a woman in a romance novel that has a STEM career. Also, she stands up for herself and takes no shit. And other than the color of her hair and her clothes, there isn't much physical description of her, which I liked. I felt that with most of the characters, you were left to use your own imagination on what they looked like. 

Shane was a solid MC, too. He's a famous musician, but struggles with his own insecurities he has to overcome. He's also a redhead, which makes for a cute coupling with Layla.  I love a man who is unafraid to express his feelings. And his grand gesture more or less turned me into the heart eyes emoji. Love, love, love. 

The supporting characters were great, too. I love a solid friend group!  This is my first book by Mary Ann Marlowe, and so I just now saw that Eden and Jo already have their own stories that I can't wait to read! I would definitely recommend this to my friends!

I have read from the 1 siri of this rockstar romance and I really love it. I like the way the characters blend in with the plots a d I love how each conflicts being resolved beautifully with love.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange of my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book

Layla Beckett is from a small town outside of Indianapolis. For years she has been an admin on a fan site for her favourite music band. Never in her wildest dreams did she never think she would land such an amazing job in New York working for a music magazine "The Rock Paper". Not only does she get to write about what she loves, she also gets to work and become friends with people she has loved and idolized her entire life. Problem is will her secret life on her fan site get in the way, or will her new friends think she is using them to get ahead in her career. Things get even more difficult when she meets Shane, the sexy drummer.

I loved the storyline of self discovery. Layla is not the same character we meet at the start of the book, her self discovery and self worth is developed massively throughout the book. When Layla first arrives in New York she has no friends and nowhere to live. Low and behold, Jo, a famous photographer literally adopts her and takes her into her home and ultimately into her famous life. At the start I though, that's not very believable however Mary Ann Marlowe has a way of dragging you into her world and all the characters seem to be like your old friends. I have only read one other book by Mary Ann "dating by the book" so I didn't know the backgrounds of the main characters within this book, however I don't think that hindered my reading experience.

Shane is amazing, he is sweet and absolutely the best. His relationship with Layla is quiet intense and is very fast paced, so leave a few hours to yourself when reading this book as you will not want to put it down.

Overall I recommend this book!!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. 


The synopsis of this book really reeled me in! It’s been a while since I’ve read a rock star romance novel and so I was excited to start this one. 


We meet the protagonist, Layla Beckett, who runs a very popular fan-site for this band she’s in love with, without giving her identity away. So when she lands a job at a famous music magazine and unexpectedly starts to meet the people from her adored band and drummer boy Shane Morgan, her secret blog starts to become a problem.


 For the most part, I really liked Layla and her attitude towards life. She wasn’t a perfect character by any means. She made a lot of mistakes, but she always knew when she was in the wrong and I loved that. Layla knew herself really well and what it was she expected from herself, relationships, and the people she interacted with. 


“My mom had passed on a bit of wisdom to me. She said, “Layla, if you can’t talk to a boy about sex, about your body, then you’re not ready for sex with him.”


Next off, Shane, a.k.a drummer boy/ Layla’s love interest. Compared to Layla, I thought Shane was just a-okay. He’s different from most of the cocky alpha males that are usually in this genre, and so I found that to be exciting. However, his silly, shy, and dorky behaviors were overshadowed by his immaturity. 


When Shane first appeared in the book I immediately thought he was around 25 years old. Midway through when he revealed his age to be 31, I seriously dropped my phone and had to look at the screen again to see if what I was reading was correct or not. The man acted like a 19-year-old but in a 31-year-old body. He would lash out like a kid at times and overreacted, big time, to a lot of what Layla did and so that didn’t make me the biggest fan of him. 


Romance-wise I thought it was cute although a bit too quick for my liking. I would have wanted their story to be prolonged a bit more, but I guess for Shane and Layla it was just an instant feeling. 


Having said that, it still was an entertaining story with intriguing side characters—my favorite of them all being Jo—that kept me from sleeping. I liked it and I’ll definitely be reading more of Mary Ann Marlowe’s works soon! 


Definitely check out Kind of Famous, coming out April 7th, if you’re interested in strong female characters and rock star themed reads:)


RATING: 3.5 STARS

If you are a music lover or love fan boards, this book will be a home run for you. If, like me, that is not  your scene, it's still an interesting, if somewhat slow read. I felt I could read a chapter, put it down, and there was no hurry to pick it back up to find out what would happen next.

Layla finds out that being famous in her little corner isn’t easy!

Layla Beckett had finally gotten her foot in the door getting a job with a music magazine doing social media. Layla has a small secret that she runs a large fan site for some of her favorite bands because she has been to some concerts that she likes. She gets to chance to actually meet some of the members at a cookout but she connects with the drummer. Drummer Shane Morgan has always been the band member that most people don’t remember since he’s behind his drum kit but when he met Layla at a cookout, he became interested after talking to her and finding out she liked him more than his bandmate.

Layla is kind of famous in her small area of the internet but when she tries to keep her job, the fan site and her dating separate everything starts to fall apart.

Kind of Famous is a fun look at working at the music magazine and dating someone you know a lot about without letting them know that you are one of their biggest fans.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

DNF at 30%

I did not enjoy this.
The main character moves to NYC for a job, immediately gets offered to stay in the guestroom of a coworker the first day who also happens to be friends with the leadsinger of mc's favorite band who she meets the second day.
Love interest calls it love at first sight after 2 days.
MC calls herself a 'true fan' bc she's 'in it for the music'

Not my cup of tea.

This hits the spot for rockstar romance! This is the first book I’ve read of Marlowe’s  and even though it’s not part of a series, I need to read about Adam and Eden’s story as well as Jo and Micah’s!

Kind of Famous reminds me of my teenage years. When I used to feel overwhelmingly infatuated with boy bands. Come on, who didn’t dream of marrying one of the Backstreet Boys? I could totally relate to you Layla!

Layla runs a popular fan site for a band name “Walking Disaster”, has a kickass job and after moving to NYC  made some famous connections. I like Layla, she had a firm belief in what she deserved in a relationship and wouldn’t settle for anything less. 

Shane is the slightly insecure drummer for the band “Theater of the Absurd.” A band Layla knows and follows. Layla and Shane instantly have a connection! (One that, back in the day, I totally would have killed to have with Aaron Carter 😉).

I must say though, some things I found a bit unrealistic or lacking:

#1 Layla did not bring up her website once she started seeing Shane. If she didn’t want this to bite her in the butt later, it should have been one of the first things discussed or at least agonized over.

#2 They fell into the relationship too quickly. I get insta love but I didn’t even get that vibe from them. It just didn’t feel as organic as I would have liked. Their love lacked depth.

#3 It was focused on the main characters so much, the friendships formed seemed, again, lacking of any depth and not plausible for how quickly they formed.

Overall a great, light romance read I would highly recommend!

Thanks to Netgalley for the chance to read this ARC!

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, this was another book that I was really looking forward to until I discovered it was written in first person. 

I find it really hard to connect with characters written in first person and there are very few books in this narrative that I enjoy. 

I did try with this book but it's another on the DNF pile, I gave up at around 40%

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I really enjoyed it. I’m definitely going to check out her other ones.
It was a fun, fast paced read that had me laughing at some of the things that happened. I was pulled back to my teen years and my fascination/stalker habits I had with my favorite group. This has a bunch of steamy 🔥 scenes that are descriptive so I wouldn’t classify it as YA but definitely geared toward a younger audience. But with me being in my 40’s I still enjoyed it!.
If you are looking for a book to take your mind off everything crazy going on in the world I highly suggest this one!

The premise seemed promising, but the actual story fell a little flat.  Everything falls into place a little bit too neatly for the main character, Layla from the start.  She meets famous people, finds a great place to live, and gets herself an insta-love boyfriend (Shane) in a matter of days after arriving in NYC.  After you get over the speed of which everything takes place, the actual book is an overall a quick read.  There are some cute scenes between Laya and Shane,  A decent read for the beach.

So this one is a bit tricky. There are a few things that I could really rag about but also I simply enjoyed the story.

This is an insta love between Layla, music lover extreme, and Shane, drummer in a rock band. They meet one time and suddenly have to be together. Like it's love in a week. Also I feel like they are teenagers versus 28 her and 31 him. Like take ten years off of them and that's the maturity level. 

Everything just kinda falls into Layla's lap. She moves to New York for a music magazine job. Instantly becomes friends and is offered a place to stay after one meeting with this photographer she idolizes. And meets soon to be boyfriend all in one night. Like we all wish life was this easy. 

So the negatives aside, this a quick read. It definitely has cute moments and steamy parts, and funny things. I wouldn't race out to get this book right away but kindle unlimited and a rainy afternoon...sure.

I loved this book! It was funny, with characters that you can't help but root for. From the first page I was hooked. I laughed, and cheered while the story unfolded. I learned a little about a world I have never really explored and found it fascinating. If you have looking for a fun and witty book give this one a chance.