No Ordinary Life by Suzanne Redfearn

Today is my second day of blog tour twofers. Suzanne Redfearn's latest is brand spanking new out this week and I've got a review and a guest post from the author for you today. That guest post will be going up next, so you'll definitely want to hang around and check that out!

Her husband has been gone for months, her son's selective mutism has caught the eye of family services, and their money has run out. As much as she hates to admit it, Faye is left with just one choice: pack up her three kids and move to LA with her mom. 

Faye vows to find a new job, but with little to her resume but waitressing there's not much in the way of options. Twelve-year-old Emily is sullen about leaving behind her friends but Tom is being homeschooled by Faye's mom, thankfully granting him a reprieve in dealing with his mutism issues. When four-year-old Molly becomes an internet sensation, though, all of that changes. 

Faye isn't quite sure about her preschooler having a job, but the money is too good to pass up. It doesn't take long, though, for Faye to begin to understand all that child stardom entails. And then her husband comes asking for his share.

It is hard to read a book like this and not get emotional! From the sleazy Hollywood folks to the awful, awful husband, this book is pretty much packed with characters I loathed. Some of them just gave me the creeps and others made me downright angry.

Because on the other side of the characters I hated, there was Faye and her children. Characters I loved. Molly, the precocious and clever four-year-old star; Tom the nervous eight-year-old who believes he's the cause of his parents' separation; and twelve-year-old Emily who finds herself thrust into the Hollywood circle without actually being a part of it.

And then there's Faye. Faye is beyond living paycheck to paycheck when the story begins. And even though her mother is there to help, LA isn't the best place for an out of work waitress. So of course she'd find it impossible to turn down the kind of money Molly is offered. Her first mistake, in a line of many, many mistakes, however, is trusting that the people around her have Molly's best interests in mind.

No Ordinary Life may be fiction but it's also a sadly accurate peek inside the world of child stardom. A glimpse behind the curtain and beyond the glitz and glamour. It's not pretty. Some of it is frustrating and more of it downright scary to imagine. And while Redfearn says herself that it's not meant to be a "statement on the entertainment industry" I think it may just make a few people reconsider next time they pick up a tabloid gossip rag.

Rating: 4/5