Celebutantes

By: Amanda Goldberg, Ruthanna Khalighi Hopper

Narrated by: Gigi Bermingham

Lola Santisi is a 26-year-old member of Hollywood Royalty (Papa's vying for Best Director Oscar number two, and Mom's a fixture at The Ivy). She suffers from "actorholism" (a fatal addiction to dating hunky actors) and CDD (Career Deficit Disorder, an epidemic among children of Hollywood Royalty).

Her latest gig as a Hollywood ambassador means she's been engaging in L.A.'s cruelest blood sport: trying to persuade celebrities to wear a certain designer's gown to the Oscars. Her best friend Kate is an ambitious Hollywood talent agent desperate to move from the B-list to the uber-list. Together with their other friend, Cricket (an actress best known for her role as "lead coma victim"), they navigate the real action leading up to the Oscars: the swag parties, the social maneuvering, the aura cleansing, and the soirees, and the hottest of all exclusive after-Oscars invites: the Vanity Fair party.

©2008 Amanda Goldberg; 2008 Ruthanna Khalighi Hopper (P)2008 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

" Celebutantes is a witty, incisive, under-the-sheets look at the chaos that is Oscar week. I loved it." (Jackie Collins)
"An irreverent satire on Hollywood celebrity, delivered with a keep eye for the absurd, Celebutantes is a wise and witty page-turner." (Arianna Huffington)
"Two daughters of Hollywood...take us through the Oscar rituals of that mad and magical week with all the inside knowledge that they have grown up knowing. They are remarkably adroit and witty storytellers." (Dominick Dunne)

Distracting Narration

The book is a nice bit of fluff that would be the perfect summer beach read. Please note that I wrote "read". I found the narration very distracting and feel that it detracted from my enjoyment of the story.

The narration for the main character was done in "valley girl". Why? She is not from the valley and it is not the 80's. She also mispronounced several celebrity names. How can it be that nobody caught the errors during editing and why wouldn't they have looped in the proper pronunciation? The words she chose to stress during many passages was also bothersome.

If not for the narration I would have rated this 4 stars because the story is what was expected - light, fun and easy, nothing surprising, just a good "beach read".

story OK, narration not OK

The storyline and characters barely work as a light summer read for the satirical "chick lit" (as much as I loathe that term) genre for which it is so obviously aimed. However, there are much, much better takes on similar subject matter; Plum Sykes' "Bergdorf Blondes" is a cleverly written, engaging example(although I can only vouch for the written book).

It's the narration that makes this audiobook so howlingly bad. The narrator, I suspect a Yankee in southern California clothing, doesn't know her LL Bean from her Louboutins. For a book so reliant on designer references and name dropping, the narrator's terrible accents and obvious unfamiliarity with the subject matter is unforgivable and incredibly distracting.

It was a fun listen

I am a big fan of gulp.... gossip sites and all of "those" magazines, along with all of the fashion magazines. So it was fun to hear about all the fashions and the drama.
There was some fun name dropping of famous celebrities which was also fun.
The narrator does a really good job with all of the accents too.
I enjoyed it.

Very Good Listen

Can't give it a five. It was missing just that "something" that I can't put my finger on. But you won't be disappointed. Great narration.

Hard to listen to at times

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The story itself is interesting so yes, I would recommend it but I would warn about the narrator.

Any additional comments?

The reader unnecessarily uses inflections when reading. It sounds too bubble gum valley girl at times. If you can get past that, it's a good, interesting chick lit "read".

Annoying

I found the narration horrible and moronic. It was so annoying, it was actually distracting. And after awhile, the constant name dropping was pitiful. Gucci this, Prada that, Jimmy Choo's, bla bla bla. I was lucky if I got through 10 to 15 minutes before I was snoring. I hate quitting a book before finishing it, but I'm close on this one. The Shopaholic books are 100% better!

Bad narration

The story was predictable, but fine for the genre. The problem with this audiobook was the narration. Her "voice" for characters like Julian was intolerable. And her mispronunciations were distracting. How was this allowed on audible?

One of my favorites!

Despite a few dated references, the book still delivers a funny satire about "hollyweird", with charming characters you come to care about. Very entertaining, and more substantial that I'd thought it'd be. Highly recommend!

Hollywood Fabulous!

This book was so much fun to listen to. The narrator was perfect. Light, silly and frivolous...great listen!