About the Book
When Amanda Gallo, fresh from the backwater of local TV, lands the job of her dreams at FAIR News—the coveted morning anchor slot—she’s finally made it: a six-figure salary, wardrobe allowance, plenty of on-air face time, and a chance to realize her dreams, not to mention buy herself lunch. Amanda Wakes Up takes off as Amanda feels for the first time that she can make her mom and her best friend proud and think about an actual future with her boyfriend, Charlie. But she finds her journalistic ideals shredded as she struggles to keep up with the issues in a ratings-crazed madhouse—battling for hair and makeup time, coping with her sexist (but scathingly handsome) coanchor, Rob, mixing up the headlines with pajama modeling on the street, and showing Benji Diggs, her media maestro boss, that she’s got what it takes.
As the news heats up in a hotly contested election season and a wild-card candidate, former Hollywood actor Victor Fluke, appears on the scene, Amanda’s pressure-cooker job gets hotter as her personal life unravels. Walking a knife’s edge between ambition and survival, and about to break the biggest story of her career, Amanda must decide what she’s willing to give up to get ahead—and what she needs to hold on to save herself.
My Review
When the book first started, I was ready to hunker down and get lost in the world of morning talk shows with a dash of politics and some romance. Not quite halfway in though, I started to lose interest. I did like Amanda as a main character and the romance issue got entertaining, but there didn’t seem to be much moving the story besides all the politic talk, which I couldn’t get invested in, in part because everything seemed so over the top. There was also quite a bit of predictability and clichés, which surprised me for what I thought this book would be. I tried to hang on until the end to see how everything played out, but unfortunately this one missed the mark for me.
2.5 stars
