‘Rising Star’ is the first book in a new Young Adult series and really shines a spotlight on the extreme pressure that teenage artists have to gone through to become pop stars. 

The story is seen through the narrative of Dani Trueheart, who’s dream is to become a famous popstar. It was always her mother’s dream for her to succeed and make the family rich and pushes her daughter to the extreme with workout and singing sessions and encouraging her to skip school and concentrate on her career. But when Dani’s dream becomes true and she gets a recording contract, her mother becomes consumed with jealousy as they have to appoint a guardian for Dani and that job goes to Martin, her instructor. Dani moves to Miami to achieve the life that Sheba’s always dreamt, the only fly in the ointment is being away from her boyfriend as well as her mother’s jealousy and resentment towards her daughter’s success. 

This book is a fascinating story and gives an insight into the pressure that teenagers are put through by overachieving parents. Dani’s relationship with her mother is hard reading, as she pushes Dani to succeed but once she finds out that she’s not immediately going to be making millions, she pushes her away and regularly hurts Dani with her evident bitterness. I admired Dani with her courage to give up her family, friends and first boyfriend to achieve her success and follow her dream and her determination at such a young age. 

The book also highlights the pressure of the industry and what our favourite pop stars like Britney Spears and Christina Aguliiara went through, the rigorous singing lessons, the recordings and the pressure of their appearance. It also shows the other side of the coin, the normal teenage problems like discovering first love and insecurity and family upheaval. 

A fascinating start to a new series, ‘Rising Star’ is a beautifully written story about the young girl starting an exciting new chapter in life, written with wit and charm that made for lovely reading. 

April 13, 2021 – Hello fellow booklovers, I have another book review for you guys today. I have to say that I have been reading a lot of books that are a little bit out of my comfort zone lately. But this one felt right up my alley. I have always been intrigued by the entertainment industry, how a pop star is made, all the effort and hard work it takes… and this book has a lot about that, and so much more..

Rising Star by Michele Kwasniewski

My first 5 star rating of the year and one I wasn’t expecting.
This book was really good at portraying the life of a pop star, from the early stages of her career to her road to making it big. We live it all through the eyes of Dani our main protagonist. her struggles, her dealings with an more than oportunistic mother who just wanted money and fame vicariously through her daughter.. and you will be thankful you’re not Dany let me tell you… it’s hard hitting, their relationship.. always pushing her, and pushing her and with less than good intentions.
We see her trying hard to mantain her relationships and how it’s quite a difficult task, due to long hours, tigh schedules and just simply being too tired to reach out..

We also see how important it is to have important people on your corner helping you deal with it all and supporting you as best they could by understanding your absence in a way.

It’s easy to see the background and research the author had on the entertainment industry.. You can feel the effort one has to go through to reach stardom.
The character development on this book is top of the line, it only enriches the story.

It starts a little on the slow side but once it picks up you’ll fly through it, it’s easy to read and very engrossing which I appreciate a lot because that’s what I’m looking for these days, to be taking out from my reality for a while.
Thank you to the author for gifting me with this book and I’m looking forward to reading more from her.

Hope you guys decide to give this book a try, it deserves it. Don’t forget that if you want to help me keep on creating content and making you at least smile a bit with my quirky posts and ranty opinions just  visit my Ko-fi page or Paypal.me/cbookramblings and support my work..

As Always

Happy Reading