"Fanfare" by Renee Ahdieh

I wanted to like this book. I really did. New authors need the boost up,and I like being able to give that. 'Fanfare' has all the makings of a passable romance novel: the feisty heroine. The handsome movie star who is fascinated with her. A colorful cast of ethnic friends. Romance heaven, right?

Ahdieh is not an untalented writer. Her prose is clear, and she has a nice, sharp-witted turn of phrase at times. I liked her female lead (Chris), on the whole, and she did a good job at making her secondary characters more than stock characters or puppets.

There is trouble in paradise, though, and it hits in the first chapter: repetitive word choice and badly thought out adverbs where a more descriptive verb would have been far better. In fact,this whole novel could have used another draft and suggestions from a tough editor. There are many passages that are very flat, giving us no more information than that Chris is fabulously lovely in all ways, often punctuated with unnecessary exclamation points and capitalized words. Far more irritating, though, were long passages in text and email speak. Yes, I know that such communication is intrinsic to every day life, but reading it in print gets annoying quickly.

As much as I liked her female characters, though, I have to take issue with the male lead. Thomas is very clearly a lightly-disguised Very Famous Celebrity (VFC), from the beanie to the hair, accent, car, name... That VFC quite memorably tagged the author of the book his first major movie was based upon as lusting after the character he portrayed, and evidence of that is clear with Ahdieh, as well. It gets almost embarrassing as Thomas fawns upon Chris, singing her praises in words and phrases that I dare say wouldn't cross the lips of any man. It goes without saying that Thomas is perfect, too. Perfect with Chris' friends, perfect with her mother, even perfectly jealous when the ubiquitous ex-boyfriend makes his short visit. Perfectly unbelievable.

I give this two stars for Ahdieh's potential. She certainly has some, as evidenced by the times her snark made me laugh. 'Fanfare' could have some appeal to those in love with fan fiction (even of the recycled variety) and its almost inevitable lack of character and plot development. It's not overly sexual, though the hint is there; in fact, if not for the liberal use of the f-bomb, this could be YA (This is not intended as a criticism--badly written sex is far worse than none at all).

'Fanfare' didn't do it for me, but I'd be interested in what Ahdieh does next.