Book review: Shooting Stars by Allison Rushby

Jo is a 16-year-old paparazzo who’s desperate to get out of the game, but needs the money.  When she’s offered a week-long job with fantastic pay, it seems like the perfect solution to her problems.  But this particular job is low and dirty and will mean betraying the only star she’s ever liked…

Jo or Zo Jo as she is know on the paparazzi circuit is a streetwise sixteen year old living in LA. Jo trades on her youth and ability to look younger than she is to get into places that the average paparazzo can’t and as a result has achieved a certain level of fame and notoriety for getting the shots that no-one else can get. In Shooting Stars we meet Jo as she’s offered the chance of a lifetime to gain access to a hot male star in an undercover assignment which will allow her to earn the  money she needs to go to study towards her dream career as a portrait photographer.

I liked Jo a lot; she’s independent, strong-minded, feisty and fun. The novel launches straight into the action as she sneaks into the venue of the moment in pursuit of teen music star Ned Hartnett. I did find myself wondering how she got away with running all over town in pursuit of the rich and famous (I don’t think my parents would have let me do that at 16!) but Jo’s Dad is a famous paparazzo too and fully supportive of his daughter’s after school job. Both the glam and nasty sides of Jo’s job are shown in full as the novel progressed and I was in turn impressed by Jo’s ability to hold her own in a largely male domain and surprised by the life she leads and the impact that her photography has. Shooting Stars will certainly make you think about the relationship between the famous, the media and the public.

As Jo finds herself stalking Ned undercover at a retreat in Boston, the story becomes even more interesting as she is forced to confront some of her own demons and faces a major dilemma about the task she’s been set as her friendship with Ned deepens. But all isn’t what it seems and it soon becomes clear that Jo isn’t the only one with secrets. I loved the twist in the story and thought it was really nicely done and not entirely what I was expecting. The romance element to the novel is so cute and I also thought the supporting cast were good believable characters and I especially liked failed ballerina Katrina. The novel raises a number of deeper issues that I’m sure many readers will empathise with; feelings of failure, difficult relationships with parents, bereavement and loss and also touches on mental health issues, striking a good balance between the serious and lighter moments.

Allison Rushby gets extra kudos from me for ending her novel with a fab epilogue that rounds up what happened to the main characters after the main story ended – I love knowing what happens next to the characters I read about, so thank you Allison! Shooting Stars is the first of Allison’s novels that I’ve read and I really enjoyed her style of storytelling. I’m very excited that she is currently working on an e-serial set in 1920′s London called The Honourables, where triplets, estranged since birth, are suddenly brought together and forced to compete for their inheritance! Look out for the first installment in the summer.