Catch a few unexpected punches and life's circumstances can have you wishing you were someone else living a different life. Regular people, eager for a moment in the spotlight, want to be celebrities; celebrities, desperate for a few moments of privacy, wish for normal lives. Such thinking lays the groundwork for Carol Snow's JUST LIKE ME, ONLY BETTER.
Divorced substitute teacher, Veronica Czaplicki, isn't quite sure how her life has turned out this way. One minute, she's happily married and in the next, her husband has left her for another woman and she and her son live in a two-room guest cottage behind a friend's house. To make matters worse, people keep mistaking her for the star of a tween television sitcom, Haley Rush.
When Haley's manager notices the resemblance, Veronica is given the opportunity of a lifetime. She's needs money, not to mention some excitement in her increasingly mundane life, and Haley needs an impersonator to help cover promotional events so she can have some privacy and and get some rest. Sounds great, until Veronica discovers it's neither easy nor necessarily fun living someone else's life.
Carol Snow gives a "behind the scenes" glimpse into the life of a B, maybe C-list, television actress, into what Hollywood and celebrity really look like. Even this far down the star totem poll, there are expectations, paparazzi, and hangers-on to contend with, enabling Veronica to discover that not everything nor everyone is as it seems. Veronica has a sassiness combined with vulnerability that lays bare her insecurities and ultimately leads her to take control of her life.
JUST LIKE ME, ONLY BETTER was fast-paced and mostly fun, the perfect summer vacation read.
From the author of Here Today, Gone to Maui, the
story of a woman who finally got a life...some else's.
Ever since Veronica's husband found the love of his life-
not her-she's been a walking zombie with runny mascara. It
doesn't help that she keeps getting mistaken for Haley Rush-
the Hollywood starlet whose dazzling life is plastered on
every magazine.
When Haley's manager offers Veronica a job as a celebrity
double, it only takes a moment before she says yes.
Veronica gets to drive Haley's car, wear her phenomenal
clothes-and have fun with her hot celebrity boyfriend,
Brady Ellis. Too bad the job's only part-time, and at the
end of the day she has to return to her life as a cash-
strapped substitute teacher and cub scout mom.
But when real sparks fly with Brady, is it a fantasy come
true or a disaster in disguise?
I remember the exact moment when Haley Rushβs fame reached
its tipping point. I was in the produce department of
Ralphβs supermarket, desperately trying to concentrate on
school lunches and the price of bananas, when all I could
think about was my husband, Hank Czaplicki, who days
earlier had announced - well, mentioned, really - that he
had found his soul mate, and she wasnβt me. An image of
Hank kissing Darcy DaCosta, a.k.a. "North Orange Countyβs
#1 Realtor!*" flashed through my brain just as a skinny
prepubescent girl with blue braces and a high ponytail
appeared at my side and blurted, "Can I have your autograph?"
Speechless, I stared at her, tears making my vision the
slightest bit blurry, and shook my head with confusion.
"Kitty and the Katz is my favorite show!" she squeaked.
I blinked furiously, as if trying to hit the reset button
in my brain, when, suddenly, I understood. There was that
girl - what was her name? That actress who everyone said
looked like me. The one who could sing. Sheβd been in a
sitcom as a teenager, and now she had her own show on one
of those kidsβ cable networks. Bailey? Kayla? Something
like that.
"Iβm not who you think I am," I told the girl with the blue
braces, my voice tight from the force of withheld tears.
Her shiny smile faded, just a little bit.
"Iβm not her," I said, more forcefully this time.
The smile dropped, her cheeks flushed pink, and her eyes
clouded with disappointment. "Sorry," she mumbled,
slouching away to rejoin her mother by the bagged salads.
A few minutes later, I stood at the checkout line,
clutching my cart for support, wondering what I had
forgotten to buy. Iβd gotten milk for Ben, bananas for
Ben, Lunchables for Ben. If not for Ben, I would have
crawled into bed and stayed there forever. My five-year-old
son was the only thing standing between me and a complete
breakdown.
When the woman at the checkout counter looked at me funny,
I thought that tears had smudged my mascara. But no: I
hadnβt bothered with makeup since the day Hank walked out.
The checkout clerk pointed to the magazine display to my
left. There was that actress on the cover of a glossy
weekly - Haley Rush, that was her name. She was on a beach
somewhere, wearing a ridiculously small white bikini, her
skinny arms wrapped around the glimmering body of a
sculpted young man. Above the picture, three-inch tall
block letters read, "Haley & Brady: HOT!"
Below that, Haleyβs self-satisfied face gazed at me from
the cover of a fashion magazine. A third magazine cover
showed her and the pretty boyfriend with the caption,
"Haley Rush: all grown up and head-over- heels in love."
I looked back at the checkout woman and shrugged.
"That Brady Ellis is pretty cute," she said.
I nodded and tried, unsuccessfully, to smile.
"So ... thatβs not you?" she asked.
I looked back at the magazine covers and sighed. "Only in
my dreams."
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