It's Up to you New York by Tess Daly

Will Holly find love in the city where dreams are made? Fielding calls from disgruntled customers on a crispbread telesales careline isn't exactly where Holly Collins saw herself in life. Living in a shoebox flat and working in a windowless building on an outer London industrial estate were never quite what she'd had in mind. So when Holly is picked from obscurity to take part in Street Scout, a television series on the hunt for fashion's next big model, life finally seems to be taking a turn for the better for the happy-go-lucky twenty-something. Surely this is her big moment? But Holly knows only too well that dreams are just that and when it feels like everything - and everybody - is conspiring against her, Holly heads for New York with her best friend Meg. The magic of Manhattan has Holly in its grasp: strutting down 5th Avenue and drinking two too many cosmopolitans, taking romantic carriage rides in Central Park and standing at the top of the Empire State building she can scarcely believe how far away the real world seems. But when Holly is faced with the biggest decision of her life can she make the fairy tale become a reality?

After reading The Camera Never Lies by Tess Daly last year I knew I would be wanting to lose myself in another of her books and today was a perfect day as I sat on the sofa opened It’s Up To You New York and I didn’t move until I had completed it!

Holly Collins has a less than glamorous life she works in telesales for VitaSlim and the future isn’t looking bright. That all changes when she is selected to become a contestant on a new reality tv show Street Scout, this is her chance become the next big model on the scene and would be life changing. Although this sounds like a dream come true for Holly her partner James doesn’t seem to be happy for her but luckily she has best friend Meg to encourage her at every turn. Will Holly make it big?

What a glamorous and entertaining read. I did not put his book down. The storyline flowed so well that I just got swept along with the storyline. Set pretty much in the lime light with celebrities and big shots, meant that it was a very modern and glitzy read. What I loved was how grounded Holly was, I was expecting a diva alert but it always seemed like Holly was like a fish out of water in a big bad but glorious world. There were some great characters in this book I loved how genuine Sasha and Meg were I loved both of these ladies. This is the first book I have read in which I didn’t trust any of the male characters they all had me on guard and I couldn’t work out who were the good guys and who were the bad guys but this only kept me reading on so that I could get to the bottom of it!

The author has quite clearly used her back ground knowledge in modelling to write this book and it shows. We are introduced to the world of competitive nature, body image pressure, and of course the bitchiness as there are no friends in business!

I really enjoyed this book and I think I actually prefer it to her debut book. I would love to read another book by Tess Daly but I am hoping that next time we may have something a little less predictable, I would like to see where else Tess Daly can take her writing.

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