In the Cards: Fame

Eve wants to be famous. She wants to be seen and heard, not just by adoring fans, but also by her parents. She also really wants the lead role in her middle school production of Cabaret. When she doesn't get the part, she learns a lesson or two in humility.

When she's on stage, Eve can shine, lose track of time, and be someone else. But how can she do that if she's not the star? With a cast varied in talent and attitude - a shy leading lady whose performance has to be coaxed out of her, a snotty girl who has her eye on the lead, an overweight class clown, a jock, and many more players, including Eve's best friends helping out behind the scenes as stage manager and pianist, and Eve doubting her own abilities and importance in what she thinks is a small part - rehearsals can be difficult, to say the least.

Mariah Fredericks has written an entertaining, enjoyable book with a realistic protagonist. Eve can be confident and self-assured one moment only to pull back the next. She is easily distracted from her studies and would rather be on stage than sitting at her desk. She makes both good and bad choices and has to deal with what she's done, for better or for worse. She's not a perfect student, and she's not a perfect performer. She is selfish at times, and her stubborn streak is a mile wide. She may have to get her ego in check sometimes, but she's never conceited. Like Mr. Courtney, the play's director, Fredericks pushes her protagonist and lets her yell, scream, cry, get mad, get upset, and get embarrassed. The fights that Eve has with her parents will ring (true) in readers' ears, especially adult who have been on both sides of that battle as both the parent and the kid.

Give In the Cards: Fame to the future stars that you know and love. Note that this is the second book in the In the Cards trilogy. Grab up the other books, In the Cards: Love and In the Cards: Life. Also get Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen by Dyan Sheldon and Dramarama by E. Lockhart while you're at it.