This was a fun, sweet Hallmark-esque story about Cat Cranwell, a very famous social media influencer trying to escape from a partnership gone wrong by working with her uncle at Kannery National Park in Montana.

I love all the national parks, so I was intrigued by that, the social media plot point, and because it was published by a Christian publisher.

It’s not a Christian-themed book or plot, so if you don’t necessarily want that but do want a clean book without bad language or any spicy romance scenes, this is a good book to try out.

I wouldn’t really consider it a rom-com like it’s labeled, but more of Cat’s journey in realizing that there’s more to life than social media, being on your phone, and the dangers that come with being extremely absorbed in online life/presence than a romance or rom-com. It was a book with a little romance, but not a book where romance was the main feature. It was definitely endearing and the people were interesting and funny, but rom-com…maybe not.

This would also be a great book if you enjoy small-town plotlines (which I’m always a sucker for). The little Instagram posts at the beginning of each chapter were cute and a nice touch.

I enjoyed all of the characters. They each brought something great to the story. I’d have loved to see a little more with Uncle Terry and maybe a little more background for Cat and Zaiah both, but nothing to make me take down my rating.

While Cat was super famous and pretty rich, she wasn’t shallow or stuck up. She was open to the experiences and people she met at the park, she was willing to grow as a person. I really appreciated that.

Overall, I enjoyed it a lot!

If you want a clean read with a small-town feel in a national park, personal growth, and a touch of romance, you might like this one!

—

I listened to the audiobook when I was doing things around the house and when I had some downtime, I read the book interchangeably.

I am not really an audiobook fan mostly because for some reason the narrator’s voices always bother me. Especially when it’s a female doing a male voice and vice versa. I was pleasantly surprised that this narrator’s voice wasn’t annoying to me at all. I thought she did a great job. Of course, I’m sure that’s subjective to each person’s own ears.

Famous for a Living comes out May 16th, but you can preorder it on Amazon now!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson, and Melissa Ferguson for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

4.5/5⭐️

This was such a cute rom-com! I had read a previous book from this author and enjoyed it as well so now I’m officially on board as a true blue fan.

Cat is a wealthy influencer in NYC who needs a place to hide out after being accused of financial crimes with her business partner. She takes a job with her beloved park ranger uncle in Montana and is thrown together with his coworker Zaiah, a flip phone user. 😂 As she and Zaiah grow closer, Cat begins to see that she might be missing out on life on her own terms as she tries to please her public with theirs.

Again, a sweet (no language, sex) story about acceptance and being one’s self. And as a side note, Cat’s best friend Serena and her park intern roommate Mina each need their own books…seriously. 💙💙Recommended.

My sincere thanks to the author, NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for providing the free early arc of Famous For A Living for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

I enjoyed this book. The characters were likable the story was fun and enjoyable. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Hear me out, but this book would have been MUCH better if the romance was omitted entirely. I ran into this issue with Meet Me in the Margins, another Melissa Ferguson romance, wherein the male love interest felt super one-dimensional and the romance itself felt more like a plot tool than the focus of the story. It didn’t help that much of the conflict and tension between the main couple centered around social media (over)use, an issue that’s pretty nuanced and thus felt silly being written about seriously in the context of this lighthearted novel. The romance truly seemed to be on the back-burner in what was otherwise a nice book about America’s Sweetheart finding herself in a rural town after a very public fall from grace (AKA, the plot of Hannah Montana: The Movie; AKA, the plot of It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey). Seriously, the first date doesn’t take place until the 88% mark. But hey, it seems like there aren’t many options for nice, clean romances outside of the YA section anymore, so I think this will appeal to a lot of people regardless. I had fun reading it and it made me happy, so all in all I count it as a win.

4 out of 5 stars - If you ask me, I'll tell you to read it

This was an interesting story of two polar opposites when it comes to social media... the influencer and the guy who doesn't even have a smart phone! Cat is a social media maven who has a fall from grace and needs to find a way to get her life back together. Zaiah is a park ranger at Kannery National Park in Montana where Cat's uncle works and has invited Cat to come and get away from it all.

It was extremely interesting seeing behind the scenes information about how the influencer life goes while it's on it's highs and it's lows. I had absolutely no way to relate to it, but it was kind of fun to learn about.

Cat spends time working at Kannery National Park with her uncle and a rag tag bunch of employees and volunteers. Her job? Figuring out how to make Kannery National Park relevant and a place that people want to visit. Little does she know that her uncle is hoping she can save the jobs of all who work there.

Throughout her stay she and Zaiah get to know each other and start falling for each other. Do opposites really attract? Why does Zaiah really hate social media so much? It was a fun read and I will be looking for others by Melissa Ferguson.

This book started off slow for me, but the more I read, the more Cat changed and grew, the more invested I became. Cat’s transformation didn’t happen overnight, and it took the people around her as well as her surroundings for her to realize her true, happy self. It was fascinating and a little scary to be in her world as a social media creator and influencer, and I was glad that the author brought that world front and center. The supporting characters were also very interesting, as they, too, underwent their own transitions.

Cat Cranwell has come a long way from the timid teen who escaped her harsh reality by posting on social media. Now she lives the perfect life of a social influencer—glamour, glitz, money, and fame. When her new business partner skips town under allegations of selling information from their new start-up, Cat finds herself in the depths of despair.

Brands don’t want anything to do with her, and over a million people unsubscribe in the first hours after the news hits the streets of New York City. Her best friend arranges for her to take a temporary job helping her park ranger uncle at a remote National Park in Montana.

When she arrives, nothing goes as expected. Cat has to room with an overeager roommate in a drafty cabin the size of a waffle, work at a desk in a metal folding chair under a hanging saddle, and spend time with technology dinosaurs. Her handsome co-worker Zaiah uses a flip phone, for goodness’ sake! How will she survive in the wilds with limited Internet access?

But the more she gets to know the crew at Kannery National Park, the more endearing they become. And the more time she spends with Zaiah, the more she realizes she has a problem with social media.

While she waits to get her life back, Cat uses her remaining influence to gather support for Kannery National Park—the unknown gem of Montana. As she answers hard questions from Zaiah, basks in the fatherly love of her uncle, and shares a sisterhood with her roommate, Cat realizes boundaries with social media might make her life better, not worse.

What I Loved About this Book

Ferguson has the sweet rom-com genre nailed in this light read with serious questions. Readers will fall in love with Cat as she moves from the shallow end of the pool to the deep end. And those who have a social media dinosaur in their lives will enjoy Zaiah’s take on the need for boundaries. Ferguson creates a likeable cast of characters readers will want to hear more from in the future.

Fans of Emma St. Clair will enjoy this book.

Another wonderful Melissa Ferguson novel! I devour these in about 24 hours, and I love every minute of reading them. This one dipped into a larger, relevant social issue (social media) as The Dating Charade did with addiction, and I really appreciated that. While Meet You in the Margins was fun and funny, I enjoy Ferguson's writing even more when she approaches one of these relevant social issues and uses the story to examine and reflect on it. This one also had more twists and turns, which I love. The story moves well, the characters are relatable and wonderful to spend time with, and there's always hope in the ending. I can't wait for her next book!

This is a Rom Com that has underlying lessons with its pages. It took a little while to get hooked into the book but once the reader persists it is worth the while. Cat is a social media princess making her living promoting products being an influencer glued to the phone watching reactions and interaction percentages. Things are going well until a fall from the Top right to the Bottom. She does not know what to do nor act without the following essentially cheering her on. In steps her Uncle Terry very much a Dad stand-in and his little park in Montana which needs to grow in attendance or face being folded into another park. Though narrated in first person present tense by Cat, we get to know Zaiah pretty well through their interactions, Zaiah is definitely a worthy hero. The supporting cast of Uncle Terry, Mina, Jax, Kevin, Peggy, and Mark is awesome and I am hoping for a sequel about Mark. Don't forget Serena, best friend of Cat, who is a little scary and over the top but so necessary in pulling the entire story together. If you have a strong social media aspect in your life; you might see a bit of yourself in this story. It is a light fun read while it could also be a wakeup call for someone you know. I enjoyed the characters and many times I laughed aloud while reading. Reading on the Beach will definitely cool you down with the great portrayal of the winters in Montana. If you are looking for a fun read this may be for you.

Thank you to Netgalley the author and publisher for the opportunity.

** I will be making a review post on Instagram, closer to pub date. I will edit and link it down below as well**

This book reminded me so much of The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker. However, while this one had a similar vibe, I wouldn’t classify this as a romance book. Maybe a contemporary fiction with a dabble of romance?

I absolutely adored the characters (main and side). The main characters had great development, even if they didn’t have a distinguished POV.

The plot was entertaining. Social media influencer gets wrapped up in some online drama and flees to the middle-of-nowhere mountains of Montana to help out her uncle’s business (and of course to escape the haters). She relishes in the joys that nature has to truly offer, while meeting some friends along the way. Yes, she has a love interest when she arrives. However, they are just friends until about 80% in the book. Nothing happens more than a kiss (sorry to all my smut lovers).

The story moved fairly slow, which brought some points down for my overall intrigue. The plot had no big moments, in my opinion. It was a story that just coasted along. It was very different from what I expected when first starting the book.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

A sweet, charming romance about an influencer whose life comes crumbling down around her due to a terrible business deal that puts a serious dent in her reputation, and the national park ranger she meets and falls in love with at the small, remote park managed by her uncle where she retreats to lick her wounds and rebuild her life. Excellent supporting cast of characters, believable conflicts, character growth and steam.

I really enjoyed this story! I loved how Cat evolved as a character, and how the other characters were so quirky but how they accepted her. There were moments of hilarity that I have come to expect in Melissa Ferguson's books. This book was just a good time! Highly recommend!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I’m going back & forth between 3 and 3.5 ⭐️’s. I enjoyed this story, yes.. I didn’t love this story, I feel like it’s been done before. I was getting serious tourist attraction vibes which I didn’t like at all. The setting was nice, the hometown hottie was nice, the lesson about social media was nice.. but it was lacking something for me. I can’t put my finger on what. This was publishes in just a few short weeks!

Thanks so much to @netgalley + Thomas Nelson & @booksparks for my copies in exchange for my honest review!

This book unfortunately was not for me. I couldn't get into the storyline and I found the main character to be extremely unlikable. I ended up DNF'ing at the 25% point.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson Fiction, Netgalley and the author for an ARC of this book. I am leaving this unbiased review voluntarily.

I enjoyed this book but was expecting a romance, and there wasn't much of that in this novel. It's a nice story, aimed, I believe, at 20 to 30 something readers. I'm a bit older, so while the wholesomeness (is that a word) of this book was what I enjoyed the most, I think it would be a more meaningful book for younger readers,

That said, the book is well-written, the characters are interesting and I wanted to know more about them. While I didn't get a real 'zing' of chemistry from Cat and Zaiah's interactions, it was the other relationships I really enjoyed.

A 3 star read for me.

Famous for a Living by Melissa Ferguson
Pub Date 16 May 2023
3.5⭐

I had the pleasure of listening to the audiobook and reading the ebook at the same time.

This is a cute story.
I think I would have rated this book higher if it was rather marketed as womens fiction since there was no romance or not enough to be classified as such which kind of disappointed me.
That being said it was it was fast paced, with characters that are very likable.
it kind of reminds me of a hallmark movie. N oh the place has really beautiful scenery.

Cat Cranwell is adored around the world. But when an app partnership goes very, very wrong, Cat suddenly finds herself shunned from the community that not only fed her soul all these years but paid her bills. When Cat’s closest living relative, Uncle Terry, offers her a position on his staff at a small national park in Montana to get away from the city, Cat hesitantly accepts the opportunity.
What she doesn’t realize is that as the new social media strategist her goal is to save Kannery National Park from being absorbed into Glacier National Park by boosting the number of visitors. And at least one of her new colleagues—namely, handsome and rugged ranger Zaiah Hudson—thinks social media is the root of everything that’s wrong with the world

Thank you to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review

I can now say I am officially a fan of Melissa Ferguson! This book had everything I could have wanted in a romantic comedy and I already know I'm going to need a physical copy so I can reread this one later. If you liked The Only Game in Town by Lacie Waldon, you will really enjoy this one.

If you can't get behind social media influencers, Brawny-esque men in flannel, or quirky small town living, this book may be a pass for you. But if you can get behind all three of those, you'll find an endearing read with wonderful characters you can't help but root for. I loved Zaiah immediately, despite him being a man of very few words. His chemistry with Cat was just SO GOOD! I mean, if you want a romance in a national park, this is it!

All that being said, I do wish they dove a bit more into Cat's past with her family. There are mentions of domestic abuse, but you kind of get left feeling like her past was just briefly mentioned. I think we could have really understood her relationship with her uncle (and aunt that passed) if we had more back ground. Also, this book had zero spice. I'm talking, they only kiss about 3 times and that's it. Now, I really didn't care because the story was so cute, but I want to give a heads up to those who are thinking of reading this one and like a little more spice to their books.

Despite a couple hold ups mentioned above, I'm still giving this one 5/5 stars. I really enjoyed this one and it may be my favorite romance I've read this year (so far)!

Famous for a Living is the first book I have read by Melissa Ferguson. This book was enjoyable and refreshing to listen to throughout the day. This is more of a contemporary fiction book with a splash of romance. It was entertaining seeing how Cat manages the pro and cons of social media for her career and helping her uncle. I did like the Montana nature settings and the activities that happened there. Overall this book was cute.

Thank you, Thomas Nelson and NetGalley, for my gifted copies.

Cat Cranwell, an influencer, falls from her social media pedestal she had been perched upon for so many years. Trying to remain out of the spotlight and let things die down, she travels to Montana to help her Uncle Terry. His current post at Kannery National Park is on the line. If visitors don't start showing an interest in this park, Uncle Terry could lose the post he has been at for his whole adult life. Cat in Montana is definitely a fish out of water. How will she survive this cold?! New York is cold but nothing compared to the cold of the wilderness. For someone who prides herself on survival, Cat quickly learns her survival skills would only get her out of the city limits and not past that. And of course, Zaiah, a park ranger working with Uncle Terry can't help but to get on Cat's nerves from day one. Who is this guy?! Zaiah has her convinced she will never make it here.
I am doing a terrible job of describing Famous For A Living by Melissa Ferguson. This book has it all; Drama, definitely some great comedy, and as if no story is completely without, a love story to boot! This book was written for a Hallmark screen! All the elements that we ladies have come to adore from the Hallmark channel are wrapped up here in this cute, adorable story! I will definitely be recommending Famous For A Living to all my book loving friends and will be looking for other works by Melissa Ferguson! (Did I just find a new author that I love?!) Special thanks to NetGalley, Melissa Ferguson, Thomas Nelson Fiction for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion. The only negative thing I have to say is the e-book format that had "Thomas Nelson Fiction" with their logo on almost every page of my e-book. It was definitely a distraction but I still loved the story! I will not put that against the story itself; that seems more like a publishing/ format problem than something to put against the author. 5 stars for me! #HallmarkAreYouListening? #FamousforaLiving #NetGalley

Famous for a Living (eARC) — 3 ⭐️

𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: May 16th

𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: “From Park Avenue to the Parks Department — the world’s most beloved social media star is about to get a rude awakening.”

𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰: I was pleasantly surprised by the turns this book took along with the underlying message, and the characters were likable. Overall, it was a sweet, lighthearted story with elements of friendship, romance, and self growth.

However, I felt like the ending was rushed, and I didn’t see as much character development as I’d hoped. Plus, I would classify this book as more of a women’s fiction story with a side a romance than your typical rom-com, which is what I was expecting. While this book wasn’t my favorite, it seems like a lot of readers are really liking this one!

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝 —
🏃‍♀️ Fast Paced
😠 “Who Did This to You” Trope
🧠 Mental Health Rep
🏞️ National Park Setting
👥 Well Developed Supporting Characters
💗 Contemporary Romance
🥾 Adventurous
🔐 Closed Door Romance

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐢𝐟 —
📱You have an unhealthy relationship with your phone
🐻 You’re scared of lions, tigers, and bears… and snakes too
🧥 You’d buy a heated coat when facing the cold
🐻‍❄️ You’ve participated in a polar plunge
☕️ You’d do anything for a good cup of coffee

𝐓𝐖: car accident, body dysmorphia

Thank you, NetGalley and Thomas Nelson, for providing me an eARC copy along with an audiobook ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.