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Ruby Parker #6
Ruby Parker: Shooting Star
Young actress Ruby Parker takes on her biggest, bravest challenge yet – in her return to Hollywood!
Fresh from her success in the production of Spotlight! The Musical, Ruby and her closest friends are heading off to Hollywood to audition for parts in the film version of the show.
After Ruby’s last experience in Tinseltown, she’s scared inside but totally ready to take on the biz and all that entails. What she doesn’t anticipate are the dramas that begin to unfold closer to home…
Fresh from her success in the production of Spotlight! The Musical, Ruby and her closest friends are heading off to Hollywood to audition for parts in the film version of the show.
After Ruby’s last experience in Tinseltown, she’s scared inside but totally ready to take on the biz and all that entails. What she doesn’t anticipate are the dramas that begin to unfold closer to home…
208 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2009
74 people want to read
About the author
Rowan Coleman
49 books851 followersRowan Coleman lives with her husband, and five children in a very full house in Hertfordshire. She juggles writing novels with raising her family which includes a very lively set of toddler twins whose main hobby is going in the opposite directions. When she gets the chance, Rowan enjoys sleeping, sitting and loves watching films; she is also attempting to learn how to bake.
Rowan would like to live every day as if she were starring in a musical, although her daughter no longer allows her to sing in public. Despite being dyslexic, Rowan loves writing, and The Memory Book is her eleventh novel. Others include The Accidental Mother, Lessons in Laughing Out Loud and the award-winning Dearest Rose, a novel which lead Rowan to become an active supporter of domestic abuse charity Refuge, donating 100% of royalties from the ebook publication of her novella, Woman Walks Into a Bar, to the charity. Rowan does not have time for ironing.
Rowan would like to live every day as if she were starring in a musical, although her daughter no longer allows her to sing in public. Despite being dyslexic, Rowan loves writing, and The Memory Book is her eleventh novel. Others include The Accidental Mother, Lessons in Laughing Out Loud and the award-winning Dearest Rose, a novel which lead Rowan to become an active supporter of domestic abuse charity Refuge, donating 100% of royalties from the ebook publication of her novella, Woman Walks Into a Bar, to the charity. Rowan does not have time for ironing.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 22, 2017
Lights, Camera, Action! Ruby Parker is back, and this time she is heading to Hollywood with her friends to audition!
This is another book from Boekenfestijn, and again, a book that is somewhere in a series. This time it is a book 6! But I never once felt confused, if anything I was curious and wanted to know more about the events from the previous books. The author really wrote the story well that she mixed in some stuff about the previous books, and also let the new story shine.
I really enjoyed the story. We first see them in the UK, we meet the cast, but we quickly move to the US, more specifically Hollywood. There is an audition for the movie version of Spotlight! and of course our cast has to participate as they had either a big role (Nydia/Gabe) or a smaller role. And they are all hoping to reprise those roles or get an even better role in the US movie version. Well, not everyone. We quickly find out Gabe is much more interested in playing sports, and Sean, well he has his reason, but the others definitely want to win and are trying hard to get the roles they want.
Of course this at times comes between friendship. Ruby, Nydia, and Anne-Marie are all trying for the main role, and you can imagine that brings some tension. It was really well written, and I could imagine it bringing tension, I am glad the author didn't shy away from writing about it.
I would have loved to see a bit more of Hollywood, it is still a place I want to go to one day. But most of the book takes place at the auditions, or at the US home of Ruby's mom boyfriend.
I really loved reading about the auditions. Seeing the scripts, and seeing what our group (and specifically Ruby) had to do for the roles.
Plus I liked the addition of magazine/newspaper articles.
Oh and I really liked Kristy. I was worried how she would turn out, I have read just too many books in which such characters turn out to be snobbish, but thankfully she was a sweet, caring girl, and I would love to see more of her.
There were just two things I didn't like about this book.
First up: Anne-Marie. What a terrible terrible character she was. At times I saw another girl, but generally I found her snobbish, stand-offish, and a bitch. The way she acted towards Sean. Always pushing him to become even more famous, while she knows what happened, while she knows how it hurts him. At least, given the things said, I think she knows about it, and otherwise I do think it is high time to just talk about it. :| And then I am not even talking about how she acts around her friends.
I get that she has a harsh life, her parents don't see her, etc. etc. but really? Is it needed to act so entitled and mean? To treat everyone like shit and act like you are so much better? No.
Secondly: The Sean drama. Dear Lord above, I just knew it would end this way, I saw it coming from a mile away, but I still wasn't happy. Do people not talk to each other any more? Or give each other time to tell their side of the story? Instead they just went full on angry and started ignoring Ruby. I just found it quite terrible. It is not as if Ruby did anything wrong. In fact she has been saying to Sean she can't be with him because of her being best friends with his girlfriend. :|
Then again I couldn't really see the attraction to Sean at all. I just thought he was kind of rude. The way he treated Ruby, the way he acted with his girlfriend, how he didn't really respect Ruby's opinion at all. Oh, this girl clearly says she can't be with me, oh well, let's just keep on getting close to her. Plus I was stunned that he couldn't see what was going on with his dad. I mean really? I was just shouting at my book for Sean to open his eyes. To speak to his mother. To say no to his dad. Oh well, it really had to get disastrous before he could see the badness.
All in all, I definitely want to try out the other books in this series and see what happened there. See how they formed their friendships, see more clearly what happened to Ruby in the previous books (as it seems she went through some drama). And of course I would recommend this book to everyone.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
This is another book from Boekenfestijn, and again, a book that is somewhere in a series. This time it is a book 6! But I never once felt confused, if anything I was curious and wanted to know more about the events from the previous books. The author really wrote the story well that she mixed in some stuff about the previous books, and also let the new story shine.
I really enjoyed the story. We first see them in the UK, we meet the cast, but we quickly move to the US, more specifically Hollywood. There is an audition for the movie version of Spotlight! and of course our cast has to participate as they had either a big role (Nydia/Gabe) or a smaller role. And they are all hoping to reprise those roles or get an even better role in the US movie version. Well, not everyone. We quickly find out Gabe is much more interested in playing sports, and Sean, well he has his reason, but the others definitely want to win and are trying hard to get the roles they want.
Of course this at times comes between friendship. Ruby, Nydia, and Anne-Marie are all trying for the main role, and you can imagine that brings some tension. It was really well written, and I could imagine it bringing tension, I am glad the author didn't shy away from writing about it.
I would have loved to see a bit more of Hollywood, it is still a place I want to go to one day. But most of the book takes place at the auditions, or at the US home of Ruby's mom boyfriend.
I really loved reading about the auditions. Seeing the scripts, and seeing what our group (and specifically Ruby) had to do for the roles.
Plus I liked the addition of magazine/newspaper articles.
Oh and I really liked Kristy. I was worried how she would turn out, I have read just too many books in which such characters turn out to be snobbish, but thankfully she was a sweet, caring girl, and I would love to see more of her.
There were just two things I didn't like about this book.
First up: Anne-Marie. What a terrible terrible character she was. At times I saw another girl, but generally I found her snobbish, stand-offish, and a bitch. The way she acted towards Sean. Always pushing him to become even more famous, while she knows what happened, while she knows how it hurts him. At least, given the things said, I think she knows about it, and otherwise I do think it is high time to just talk about it. :| And then I am not even talking about how she acts around her friends.
I get that she has a harsh life, her parents don't see her, etc. etc. but really? Is it needed to act so entitled and mean? To treat everyone like shit and act like you are so much better? No.
Secondly: The Sean drama. Dear Lord above, I just knew it would end this way, I saw it coming from a mile away, but I still wasn't happy. Do people not talk to each other any more? Or give each other time to tell their side of the story? Instead they just went full on angry and started ignoring Ruby. I just found it quite terrible. It is not as if Ruby did anything wrong. In fact she has been saying to Sean she can't be with him because of her being best friends with his girlfriend. :|
Then again I couldn't really see the attraction to Sean at all. I just thought he was kind of rude. The way he treated Ruby, the way he acted with his girlfriend, how he didn't really respect Ruby's opinion at all. Oh, this girl clearly says she can't be with me, oh well, let's just keep on getting close to her. Plus I was stunned that he couldn't see what was going on with his dad. I mean really? I was just shouting at my book for Sean to open his eyes. To speak to his mother. To say no to his dad. Oh well, it really had to get disastrous before he could see the badness.
All in all, I definitely want to try out the other books in this series and see what happened there. See how they formed their friendships, see more clearly what happened to Ruby in the previous books (as it seems she went through some drama). And of course I would recommend this book to everyone.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
April 15, 2025
Lowk inspirational and the main character vibe is figh uhhhhhhhh
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews