Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

Title: Audrey, Wait!
Author: Robin Benway
Average Price: U.S. $8.99 ($11.00 CAN) Paperback
Publisher: Razor Bill (Penguin)
Publication Date: 2008
Number of Pages: 313

Book Excerpt

From audreywait.com:

California high school student Audrey Cuttler dumps self-involved Evan, the lead singer of a little band called The Do-Gooders. Evan writes, "Audrey, Wait!," a break-up song that's so good it rockets up the billboard charts. And Audrey is suddenly famous!

Now rabid fans are invading her school. People is running articles about her arm-warmers. The lead singer of the Lolitas wants her as his muse. (And the Internet is documenting her every move!) Audrey can't hang out with her best friend or get with her new crush without being mobbed by fans and paparazzi.

Take a wild ride with Audrey as she makes headlines, has outrageous amounts of fun, confronts her ex on MTV, and gets the chance to show the world who she really is.

For those of you who have read Audrey, Wait! then I'm sure it won't shock you when I tell you that my first thought when I finished this book was "Wow. Just wow."

When I first started this novel I had some trouble getting into it. I couldn't relate to Audrey at all. I remember reading a line in the book that went something like "If you don't like you music loud enough for the neighbours to call the cops then I'm afraid we won't get along very well." Please Note: I don't speak music (except for Christmas carols). I still have no idea who Lady Gaga is and I pride myself in the fact that I am familiar with Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus.

I also absolutely loathed the swearing in this book. Me + swearing = unhappy customer. Every time someone swore in this book I flinched. I'm sure I got permanent nerve damage from that.

However, I hung on to this book and kept reading because A) Audrey is one of the most entertaining fictional characters that I have ever met, B) I wanted to know if James would start speaking again and C) It was HILARIOUS reading about the predicaments Audrey got herself into. Finally, sometime in the middle of the book, Audrey began to realize that she had to do something about her sudden uprise in popularity if she ever wanted to make it home from school without being trampled by fans. This is probably when I started to relate to Audrey and really get caught up in the story.

On the back of my copy of this book it has a quote from Pop Culture Junkie: "I want to be friends with Audrey, James, Victoria and Jonah" and I have to say - I couldn't agree with you more! The only thing I kind of found . . . unbelievable about James was how different he was once you got to know him. It almost felt a little too surreal.

This book is perfect for anyone (especially music fans!) who would love to hear the truth about being famous and the way some people feel about it. I'm giving it an A-!