This was an odd book. At times I loved it, and at times I thought it was utterly ridiculous. All in all, I did enjoy the story and the character development. I thought the portrayal of addiction and the struggles the main character faces seemed realistic. I thought that the nickname cockring was a little over the top, but I am sure in the celebrity world assistants get called worse than that.

When I read a fictionalized book based on the author's real life, I can't help but think it all happened the way described, and if that's the case, A Star is Bored is like a day spent at the theme park. You will not be bored. There are tremendous highs, laughter, moments of sadness as if you've witnessed a mother slap her child, cheers, and "I can't believe it" exclamations.
Not a perfect book, but a page turner.

Byron Lane was Carrie Fisher's assistant, so as I listened to the audio version of this, I kept wondering if there were bits that were taken from his time working for her. This book is hilarious at times and heartfelt at others, so it gives the reader a varied reading experience. The audio version was a nice treat to listen to while completing work around the house!

Kathi Kannon is known worldwide as a sci-fi franchise heroine Priestess Talara, daughter of a showbiz legend and sometimes a writer of high regard. She hobnobs with celebrities and lives a lavish lifestyle that would amaze any young California transplant, so how can Charlie pass up a chance to work as her personal assistant? What could be just another take on cruel, demanding bosses like The Devil Wears Prada turns into something more heartfelt as Byron Lane tells this unconventional love story between an eccentric, troubled Hollywood actress and her young, aimless assistant. As Charlie is tasked with keeping track of Kathi's many, many medications, he finds himself enchanted by her lust for life. Inspired by author Lane's time working for Carrie Fisher in real life, this funny, sweet novel is a mix of Hollywood fantasy and touching family drama. A near perfect beach read!

I picked out this book after reading the jacket cover. I found the description of the plot charming and hoped that the story would be witty and lighthearted read. The novel, based upon the author's experiences as a personal assistant to Carrie Fisher, actually left me feeling a bit despondent. The first-person narrative is overly detailed and anxious. I had a hard time reading beyond the first three chapters as I felt that the author struggled to convey to the reader the awe that was clearly inspired by meeting and working for the famous actress. The author continually stated that the narrate felt the force of the actress's charisma and that her "shine" and "wit" made him want to continue to be in her orbit. As a reader, these statements didn't really jive with the descriptions of the interactions described on the page.

The narrator's internal dialogues, which did read like train-of-thought monologues, I found to be tedious. After three chapters in which not much happened, I decided that I would skim the rest of the novel. While I wasn't strongly emotionally invested in the narrator or the budding relationship between employer and employee, I continued to hope that the story would inject some of the lighthearted and zany tales promised in the description. I was disappointed to find that the narrator, who I tended to pity more than empathize with, made poor decisions and was blatantly naive in certain portions of the novel. While the resolution was nice, and there was some personal growth on the part of the narrator, I certainly didn't feel the "shine" that was mentioned throughout.

The cast of supporting characters, from the overbearing mother-of-the-star to the antagonistic and domineering narrator's father didn't feel fully realized. Even the character of "Kathi Kannon" wasn't engaging.

In the end, I finished the novel but I'm not sure I took more from it than perhaps gratefulness that my childhood hadn't been as traumatizing as the narrators, that I hadn't had any type of terrible employment as the narrator, and that I likely wouldn't be reading another novel by this author again.

As an executive/personal assistant I was very interested in this book. I've worked as a personal assistant to very wealthy families in the DC area and was always interested in my colleagues on the West Coast, who work for celebrities. This book was a trip on the wild side for sure. I did feel that the humor was a bit over-exaggerated, which I didn't find particularly funny, but it was interesting for sure. The glibness about suicide in the beginning bothered me a bit, but that was just the character. Kathy was very hard to like. I found Charlie very witty and likable and enjoyed the progress of his career and personal development.

Seldom do I truly feel heartbreak with periods of laughter strewn between. Lane gives us a peak at a fantasy world of celebrities, wealth, power before pealing back the layers. The famous are people too, fighting their own fights, albeit with more resources. As we take the journey with Charlie, we see the ways in which the lives of the rich and famous collide with our own and where the clear divides are located. A tender book, A Star Is Bored is a quick read that packs a punch.

I was intrigued by a novel written by a former celebrity assistant that was compared to Postcards from the Edge. It does have a similar snappy style that makes it a great summer read. I enjoyed the well-described observations of the quirkiness all around. I really liked Charlie and seeing his confidence and happiness grow through the years. I especially liked how the book ends similarly to how it opens. I liked the symmetry and the little bit of order it restored to a very chaotic existence.

<i>I'm thinking</i> this dialogue makes me wonder if Carrie Fisher ever guest starred on Gilmore Girls
<i>I'm thinking</i> this main character is very likeable
<i>I'm thinking</i> this book just went on for too long.

Hey Siri add this book to peoples' beach bags.

Thanks to #partner @NetGalley for the digital ARC of Byron Lane's A Star Is Bored in exchange for an honest review. The book will be published on Tuesday, July 28.

Byron Lane’s fictional A Star Is Bored details the relationship between fabulous film star Kathi Kannon, daughter of Hollywood royalty, and her assistant, Charlie Besson (our protagonist). I pictured Carrie Fisher in every scene between Kathi and Charlie. But ultimately, that mental casting doesn't matter because the book, at its heart, is about Charlie. (I will admit that, the minute I finished the book, I headed to Google to see: was author Byron Lane really Carrie Fisher's assistant? And the answer is yes. It doesn't *truly* matter because the world he created, and the people within it, are real enough to stand on their own. But I also wanted to know.)

Charlie is depressed and adrift, anchorless after the death of his mother when he was 12 and his father's constant verbal abuse. Charlie's memory is haunted by attacks from his father's attempts to shame and scream Charlie into denying his homosexuality. Miserable in a job writing nightly news updates, Charlie jumps at the chance to interview with Kathi Kannon, who is looking for a new assistant.

From the moment Charlie enters through the gate of her mansion, he is swept into a world where he is running slightly behind, off kilter in the face of Kathi's bizarre requests, brilliant and playful and crass language (she calls him Cockring through the entire book), and expectation that HE should know what to do. I felt a sense of dread in those early moments of their relationship because it's so clear that Charlie has no idea what he should be doing and is ill prepared for the force that is Kathi's will. But Charlie soon resolves to be a good assistant, to figure out what he needs to do, to carve out the best way to take care of Kathi.

Ever-present through the novel is Charlie's awareness of Kathi's drug addiction and the disapproving, yet supportive enabling of Kathi's famous mother, Miss Gracie, who lives on the same estate. In Miss Gracie's assistant, Roger, Charlie sees a potential future, one in which he is inseparable from Kathi, both elevated and doomed by his willingness to sacrifice his autonomy to her glamour and charisma, her Shine, as she calls it.

The book is funny and sad and hopeful and beautiful. There are times that it's almost painful to read--there's some secondhand embarrassment, but there's also a sense of fear when we as readers can see Kathi's path, while Charlie is in denial. I enjoyed the entire book, but the last third, which is so, so tender, made A Star Is Bored a triumph for me.

DNF this title. I can get behind a quirky character but the combo in this book was too much for me. Just didn't hold my interest. Purchased based on positive reviews but I don't know who I would recommend this to.

I loved this sweet, fictionalized story by Carrie Fisher’s former assistant about....a personal assistant to an actress famous for playing a space princess. (Who could THAT be?)Although the publisher’s note makes sure to tell us it is all a work of fiction, I clearly heard Carrie Fisher’s unique and wacky voice in every bit of Kathi’s dialogue. The book shows, with humor and sentiment and some sadness, what it is like to be almost a family member to a very effervescent, very talented and very drug-addicted celebrity. The assistant Charlie (nicknamed “Cockring” by Carrie, I mean Kathi) clearly loves Kathi and tried to save her life. As her assistant, he was responsible for keeping her afloat in almost her every waking moment. This book hurts the heart a little extra when you read all of Charlie’s efforts to save “Kathi” from dying of drug addiction, when we now know Carrie Fisher died that way. This begins as a light and humorous memoir but evolves into something deeper with a lot of heart. Very much recommend.

Thanks very much to NetGalley, Henry Holt, and Cockr....uh, Byron Lane for the ARC of this entertaining, alternately heartwarming and heartbreaking read in exchange for my honest review.

This is really fun! It is an inside look at Hollywood friendships and romances, and it feels so real, I think, because the author was once an assistant to the late, great Carrie Fisher. I look forward to recommending this to readers who enjoy some glamor and glitz with their romance.

A Star Is Bored is an endearing story about the assistant to a spoiled celebrity, and I thoroughly enjoyed every page of it. I couldn't put this book down! The high and lows, the humor and heartbreak - this book has it all. Definitely a #MustRead

Fantastic read, start to finish. I always love a debut novel that grips my attention and makes me want to read more. As the end grew closer, I actually didn't want to reach the last page because I wanted it to last longer. This book is a little bit of everything you look for. Lots of laughs, lots of touching moments and some deep meaning.

A Star is Bored is the story of Charlie, who is the personal assistant to Kathi Kannon (a famous Hollywood movie star)
This book has the funny moments you would expect to hear about as the life of a personal assistant, as well as the unexpected friendships and relationships the role creates for Charlie.

While Byron Lane mentions several times this is simply influenced by his time as Carrie Fisher's personal assistant there are very clear parallels that beg the question how much of this is simply autobiographical? It's definitely clear that Byron has experienced a lot of what he's talking about and the rich detail is "A Star is Bored" is one of the things I liked about it.

I wouldn't say it's riotously funny or incredibly witty, but it has a very low key charming quality throughout. I loved the character of Charlie Besson and I was rooting throughout for his growth and for him to overcome his childhood trauma. Some of the banter in the book involving his character is also top notch. So you may be wondering why I'm giving it a three stars if my review is so glowing? Well I really disliked Kathi Kannon.

Kathi is a spoiled rich celebrity and some of her behavior in the book is simply awful to Charlie and others. So I couldn't really understand the magnetism or "shine" that keeps drawing people into her orbit. Charlie is a very codependent personality type so you can understand why he is attracted to this, but are the rest simply doing it for money? Celebrities can get away with a lot so I'm sure this is a realistic depiction but it just felt tedious and far fetched at times.

Overall though it's a fast paced and fairly enjoyable read with some rather poignant moments.

A Star is Bored is a novel that claims to be "influenced in part by the author’s time assisting Carrie Fisher." But, to be clear, it seems almost wholly based on the author's experience as Carrie Fisher's assistant. I didn't know this before reading, so when I started and met Kathi Kannon and Gracie Gold, I was struck by just how numerous the similarities were.

If you've seen the excellent documentary Bright Lights, about Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, the book will feel exceedingly familiar to you. The weird and wonderful estate on which both Kathi and Gracie live is rendered vividly, in all its quirky glory. So too are the distinct personalities of Kathi and Gracie: Gracie with Reynolds' quiet strength and empathy and Kathi with Fisher's wit and crass humor. I enjoyed 'meeting' the actresses through this novel, but after learning about the author's history as Fisher's assistant, I wondered why he didn't simply write this book as a memoir rather than fiction.

In an interview with Broadway World UK, the author said, "The novel is fiction, so it's not about Carrie." But the similarities are obvious, particularly with regard to Kathi's mental illness. Kathi's drug abuse and spells of mania mirror Fisher's well-documented trouble with addiction and her life with bipolar disorder. Even Fisher's beloved emotional support dog, Gary, appears in this book as Roy. The parallels are impossible to deny.

So when does this go from 'taking inspiration' from real life to exploiting the lives of dead women under the guise of fiction? In a way, I almost feel cheated or betrayed--why deny what's obvious, and why try to sell it as the story of someone else? Maybe the author felt it was easier to distance himself from the subject by calling it fiction, or maybe there are legal reasons--who knows. Personally, I would have preferred this story told as memoir, with the truth not obfuscated by layers of ultimately transparent misdirection. It's clear that Fisher and Reynolds meant a lot to the author, based on the few interviews I've read. I wish he would have done them the service of telling this story in their names, love and warts and all, in the most personal kind of memorial.

In A Star is Bored, Byron Lane gives the readers an inside look into what the private life of a hot-shot celebrity could look like when all cameras and lights are off. It was inspired by the author’s time working as a personal assistant for Carrie Fisher and even though the novel itself is a work of fiction, it was impossible for me not to picture Carrie Fisher as the ‘bored star’, which gave my reading experience even more dimensions than ‘just fiction’, as I am sure it will for you, too.

A Star is Bored is essentially about Charlie Besson, who recalls the years he spent working as a personal assistant for Hollywood legend, Kathi Kannon, an actress who is just as well known for her role as a princess in a science fiction franchise as for previous drug abuse, mental health issues, and general ‘craziness’.

When Charlie first arrives at Kathi‘s gate for his job interview and glances inside her estate for the first time, he thinks: “It looks like a carnival. It looks like an acid trip. It looks like heaven.”

And that is exactly what can be expected from this book. The ups and downs of trying to hold a television job he hates, the exciting new job opportunity to work for one of his childhood heroes, and the job interview itself are just the beginning of a whirlwind of emotions.

I was immediately sucked into Charlie’s life and felt with and for him, as he tried to navigate his late 20s in LA, where he thought he would live out his big dream but got stuck on the night shift, writing reports for a news show on TV. He is still mourning for his mother, who died when he was a child and is still dealing with the aftermath of the trauma his father gave him throughout his childhood by constantly shouting at him and condemning his sexuality.

The moment Charlie starts working as Kathi’s assistant, their lives intertwine and by that I mean: Kathi can’t seem to cope without Charlie and Kathi becomes the sun Charlie circles around. Even in his off hours, he mostly talks about her, especially since his new-found inner circle only consists of personal assistants, who rant about their bosses as much as they revel in their spotlight. But even when he is asked on a date with someone outside of the scene what his passion is, he replies: “I work for Kathi Kannon”, which is a perfect portrayal of how deep his devotion to his boss turned friend turned mother figure really is. But most of all, Charlie seems to feel accepted for the first time in his life by this quirky woman who is just crazy enough to make him feel safe.

The two of them grow closer over the years as they go on holiday together, make it through Kathi’s manic episodes and spend more time together in each other’s proximity as they do with any other person. That is, until Kathi falls back into her old drug habits and puts Charlie in a tight spot. Does he stay and watch Kathi destroy herself? Is he going to let himself be called an enabler by all the other personal assistants? Or is he going to start taking care of himself first for a change?

Lane’s writing is lighthearted and charming, despite the multiple serious topics this book depicts. He writes with humour without taking importance away from serious matters, which made this an amazing reading experience. His writing let me feel sadness and desperation and the brokenness within characters, just as much as the awkward and funny moments at which I would laugh out loud while reading.

A Star is Bored is as much heartbreaking as it is hopeful and just as tragic as it is funny. This is a book for everyone. Everyone who ever felt lost, who ever felt too scared to make a change, or to take a chance. Everyone who has ever loved, ever lost, and who needs a reminder that underneath it all, we are all the same.

If you have watched a star meltdown on the internet, you have a idea of the life of Charlie. Kathi Kannon a spoiled too rich too soon star,has all the usual suspects. A mom who has a selective memory when it come to where the money her daughter makes has gone. Charlie interviews for the job of her assistant, a twenty four hour job that is both menial and at times humiliating. I felt for Charlie from the beginning where it was clear this woman was anxious and tyrannical at the same time. As Charlie begins to take advice from other assistants over drinks it become clear that everyone uses everyone. It can be sad at times but Charlie learns a few hard lessons that helps him move to a better life.

rarely laugh out loud when I am reading a book but this was a rare story that had me laughing starting from the beginning. *
Charlie’s life is anything but perfect. His mom passed away years ago, his dad has a kidney tumor, he is semi-suicidal and his night shift job of writing for a news show sucks! Between one night stands and feeling disconnected with the world, Charlie has been contemplating suicide for some time. That is until we gets a new “lifestyle” (job) working for the world famous actress Kathi Kannon, known for her role as the princess on the iconic sci-fi film (an obvious connection to Byron’s own history of being the personal assistant to the one and only Carrie Fisher). Kathi completely changes Charlie’s outlook on life and opportunity. Kathi’s antics are cringe worthy at times but had me laughing and shaking my head throughout this read!! *
I felt totally immersed in the lives of Charlie and Kathi, and found their growing relationship heartwarming and hilarious. It’s cool to wonder how much of this book is based on Lane’s experience being Fisher’s assistant and how much is completely fictional! *
This book seems like the perfect anthem to Carrie Fisher’s life and a nice shout out to a life long friend. *
While at times this book had me cringing at some of Kathi’s ridiculous behavior (calling Charlie “cockring”) I couldn’t help but fall in love with this story. *
Tap tap tap fizz fizz crackle.
Naming furniture after ancient Chinese emperors
Living room as opposed to dying room. * thank you @netgalley and @henryholtbooks for this ARC!! *