Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper

A Novel

By: Hilary Liftin

Narrated by: Ariadne Meyers

The “It” book you absolutely must pack in your beach bag—an addictively juicy novel of celebrity love gone wrong.

• An EW Best Book of 2015 for the Pop Culture Fanatic in Your Life •

“Readers who come for the dirt, real or imagined, won’t be disappointed; there’s plenty of gold in these True Hollywood hills.”
—Entertainment Weekly

Chosen as a Great Summer Read by:
• USA Today • People Magazine • Entertainment Weekly • Good Housekeeping • Cosmopolitan • Vogue.com • The Hollywood Reporter •

“[A] delicious beach read.”
—People Magazine

“A hilarious, tabloid-trashing gotcha novel.”
—Vanity Fair

“A juicy work of shocking betrayal.”
—Us Weekly

“I’ve had a million meetings in my acting career, and I had no idea that this would be the one that would change my life forever. I walked into the room, and there was Rob . . . in the flesh.”

Actress Lizzie Pepper was America’s Girl Next Door and her marriage to Hollywood mega-star Rob Mars was tabloid gold—a whirlwind romance and an elaborate celebrity-studded wedding landed them on the cover of every celebrity weekly. But fame, beauty, and wealth weren’t enough to keep their marriage together. Hollywood’s “It” couple are over—and now Lizzie is going to tell her side of the story.

Celebrity ghostwriter Hilary Liftin chronicles the tabloids’ favorite marriage as Lizzie Pepper realizes that, when the curtain falls, her romance isn’t what she and everyone else thought. From her lonely holidays in sumptuous villas to her husband’s deep commitment to a disconcertingly repressive mind-body group, Lizzie reveals a side of fame that her fans never get to see. Full of twists and turns, Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper is a breathless journey to the heights of Hollywood power and royalty and a life in the spotlight that is nearly impossible to escape.

Narrator is great as a woman, not so much as a man

Would you listen to Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper again? Why?

Maybe - it was a good story (I kept trying to make real life connections to the characters and situations), but it drove me nuts when the narrator read the part of Rob Mars (and every other male) in the story. Very distracting to hear her husky voice play the male parts.

How could the performance have been better?

I would have preferred to have her read the whole story in her own voice, and not try to imitate male voices in the story.

Something You Already Know, but wanted to hear

Where does Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It would be a 4 out of 5

What other book might you compare Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper to and why?

any other interesting "like real life" tale

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narration was decent, but the ability to change voices to match characters was poor.

Who was the most memorable character of Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper and why?

Lizzie of course, or maybe her dad.

Any additional comments?

I wasn't hard to imagine who these characters were in real life.

A Very Good Story!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. It's an interesting story and the subject is different then I'm used to. I liked it a lot.

What other book might you compare Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper to and why?

I don't think I've read another book on "Fiction" celebrity relationship and divorce. I'm sure there a quite a few biographies and memoirs that have been written about this subject, but those kind of books don't appeal to me.

What does Ariadne Meyers bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She is a very good narrator and I enjoyed her reading of this book. She brought life to the characters. I didn't think she did the best job at narrating the male characters though.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I thought the story of Lizzie and Ron's relationship was on the sad side, and the whole "cult" thing was disturbing, kind of like Scientology!

Any additional comments?

I don't understand why more Audible.com listeners haven't given this book a shot. It's really a well written book and the subject is quite interesting. It's a lot better then some books on the New York Times Best Seller list these days!

Perfect weekend journey through fame

Get ready! This inside -tale contains romance. fame and a cult .It’s addictive. More please!

Not Sure What They Were Trying to Do Here

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

Not really. I did want to know how it would end, but it was very dull in the end.

Has Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper turned you off from other books in this genre?

No.

What didn’t you like about Ariadne Meyers’s performance?

In my opinion, she was obviously picked because she sounded like Katie Holmes. Her reading was fine, but her male voices were horrifying. They all sounded like old, ill men with lung problems.

Could you see Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No.

Any additional comments?

I feel that this book is a bit cruel. If Ms. Holmes had nothing to do with it, then it's an overt attempt to profit from her really sad story. As a work of fiction, the story lacks details to make it interesting. At times the author tries to use grander words or references to literature, but these attempts don't really work. The story lacks substance, and the ending -- Spoiler Alert! -- is not believable. The simple fact that Lizzy left Rob in no way plausibly means that a huge organization with that much reach would fall apart.

I didn't enjoy the story and found it a sad attempt to replicate, whether by using facts or just conjecture, a really sad chapter in someone's life.