A Courtly Pick: Dangerous Deceptions

Dangerous Deceptions
(A Palace of Spies novel, book 2)
by Sarah Zettel
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
2014
371 pages
ISBN: 9780544074095

Read an excerpt

Entertaining, fun, flirty, and fabulous, Dangerous Deceptions brings the court of King George I of England to life.

Peggy Fitzroy is a lady in waiting for the Queen--in a remarkable situation to spy. While she seems to be flirting with the men and playing cards with the ladies, she is picking up valuable information about who would want to topple the throne. Her Uncle Pierpoint  promised her hand in marriage to Sebastian, the man who attacked her in Palace of Spies. Peggy refuses to marry him, but Sebastian is not one to back down from a fight.

Peggy's heart belongs to Matthew but there is no way she can marry him. Peggy needs to figure out a way to stay unmarried and dis-engage herself from Sebastian. She suspects Uncle Pierpoint is up to no good and begins spying on his bank and sneaking into his office at his mansion. Her cousin Olivia decides to help her even though she is sure her father has nothing to hide.

Court life is full of intrigue and innuendo and Peggy has to learn to tread carefully in the face  of deception. Gossip and braggadocio seep into every corridor of the castle. Everyone is not who they appear to be and some spies hide in plain sight.

Peggy uncovers a plot to overthrow the King and unmasks an old friend--which leaves her defenseless and humiliated. She will have to choose her own future. Will she return to court? Will she choose love over duty? Will she move to the country and give up court life?


Sarah Zettel captures the period of history with delightful prose and attention to detail--both historical details and the period's fashion and manners. Readers will delight in Peggy's narrative and how she is able to outsmart men in power even though she's supposed to be a mere lady in waiting.

Recommended grade 7-up. Two instances of mild profanity. No sex.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)

Non-Fiction Pick: Shooting Stars: My Unexpected Life Photographing Hollywood's Most Famous

Shooting Stars: My Unexpected Life Photographing Hollywood's Most Famous
by Jennifer Buhl
Sourcebooks
2014
352 pages
ISBN: 9781402237007

Visit the author's website and learn more about her adventures in Hollywood

Jennifer Buhl, like so many starry-eyed dreamers,  moved to Hollywood to find fame and fortune on the silver screen. Just like the thousands of others, she finds herself waiting tables and counting her pennies not her job offers. A chance encounter with a mob of photogs convince her that she's in the wrong business. Instead of waiting on customers and picking up tips, she could be following celebrities and picking up "tips" about their whereabouts.

She convinces Richard, a nice looking paparazzi, to allow her to ride along with him on his next adventure. They follow Britney Spears up a steep canyon road to her house. They're not alone--about 25 other photogs are in the convoy of tinted windowed SUVs. They leave empty handed but Buhl is fascinated. She finds a news agency online and talks her way into a job--a sort of job. At first using borrowed camera equipment, Buhl learns the ins and outs of celebrity "shooting."

Shooting Stars reads like a gossip-y reality show or an episode of E News. There's plenty of name dropping and some name calling--take that, Seal! Readers learn that Seal does not have very nice behavior toward a female photographer, Nicole Richie secretly likes the paps, Paris Hilton will always pose and she drives slowly so the paps can get their best shots. Some celebs are not so nice--Seal, for one according to Buhl and Keith Urban and wife  Nicole Kidman are private people who don't take kindly to a photog sneaking pictures of them.

The inside scoop on the paparazzi is detailed throughout the book. Most of the paps live and work in L.A. which has the highest numbers of stars. Most of the seasoned paps are British--they started their careers as news photographers. Now, many of the paps are from Mexico or South America. Most are male; very few are female. Buhl learns to pay for tips and has a grocery clerk tip her off when a celebrity is sighted in his store.

There are some cardinal sins to shooting photos: don't take pictures of celebrities' children or at their school, don't ever take a photo of a celebrity inside her home or in the back yard, ask if you may take the photo, make eye contact, if you can make a celebrities  laugh, they will always allow you to take a photo.  Also, ugly pictures don't sell. The public wants to see pretty pictures of celebrities doing normal things: walking the dog, shopping for groceries, or driving a car. They don't want to see their favorite celebrity in a compromising shot. No one ever "outs" a celebrity until the celebrity comes out of the closet on his/her own.

Buhl clears up the misconceived notion that celebrities hate the paparazzi; most celebrities realize the paps help keep them current and in the news. If their pictures aren't out there, the public soon forgets them and they are no longer relevant. In fact, it's a well known fact that many stars call the paparazzi to let them know they are going to an event: a Christmas tree lot or a pumpkin patch or even shopping. The paps get their photos, the photos are paid for, and surprisingly, the paps sometimes even give a percentage back to the star.


The relationship between the paparazzi and celebrities can get heated but for the most part it is symbiotic--each needs the other in order to make money and have a career. Buhl gives readers what they want: a chatty book about a young woman trying to make it work in Hollywood and chasing the dream of working in entertainment. With the onset of Twitter, the paps now know exactly where celebrities are located. If a celebrity posts that she's getting her hair done, the paps knows exactly where she is. Instagram makes it easy for celebrities to post their own images and control what pictures of them are out in the public eye.

Recommended grade 9-up. Language, mature situations.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received the arc from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)

Middle School Pick: Gossip From the Girls' Room

Gossip From the Girls' Room
by Rose Cooper
Delacourte Press, 2011
198 pages

Cute, quirky, and funny, Gossip From the Girls' Room is a novel aimed at tween girls--probably those tween girls who keep diaries, girls who write their names in cursive with hearts for dots above the i's and j's, girls who whisper their latest crush's name to their BFF's.

Sofia keeps a super-secret pre-blogging notebook where she writes down all the super-secret gossip she "overhears" in the girls' bathroom. Actually, she stands on the seat of the last commode and hides in wait, hoping someone will spill a fat, juicy secret. Then, Sofia reports her findings in her blog--which is widely read by students at Middlebrooke Middle School.

Much of Sofia's time is spent worrying why Mia St. Claire is so annoying rich and unbelievably pretty. Sofia's BFF Nona goes a little boy crazy and begins to have little time for Sofia. To make matters worse, Sofia's mother takes a substitute teaching job at Middlebrooke!

Oh, the woes of middle school! Illustrated by the author, this novel's font has the feel of a written diary like The Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries. Readers who loved Dork Diaries will like this book.

Recommmended grades 5-7.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.