And Playing the Role of Herself by K.E. Lane

And Playing the Role of Herself by K.E. Lane

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I really really wanted to like this book. It wasn’t the worst thing I’ve read, but it just dragged on unnecessarily. The drama and conflict in the story were continued on by constant misunderstandings between two rather stubborn and dense characters. Neither would listen and when they did they took things out of context or immediately had a negative reaction to everything. Constant mistrust also played a factor. The story felt weak and I stopped enjoying the characters after a bit.

Full Review with Spoilers

This book constantly shows up on must-read lists for me. I had been seeing it everywhere. Maybe I went into it with high hopes, but I admit I was disappointed. On the surface, it’s not a bad book. It ticks all the boxes you would expect. But reading this story felt like work. It dragged on much longer than it should have.

The book starts with television actress Caidence, Caid, pining over fellow, and more famous actress, Robyn. And I do mean pining. Caid comes off like a love struck teenage virgin and it get’s old a bit quick. Robyn is famous, and beautiful and perfect… and dating handsome star athlete Josh. Much to Caid’s surprise though, she finds out that they are not dating, but merely letting the media assume they are in order to gain attention. Good for their careers and all that.

Caid and Robyn’s friendship suddenly becomes deeper and tensions between them grow. Once they FINALLY realize there is a mutual attraction, that’s when everything goes downhill for me. They two of them are stubborn and dense. Constant misunderstandings drive the two of them back and forth through arguments and sexy times. Both of them will say the wrong thing, misspeak what they mean, or just plain misunderstand the other. Caid struggles with trust because Robyn has been secretly gay for a while and get’s her jollies on the downlow without commitment. So even though Robyn tells her she’s emotional invested in a relationship with her, it still causes issues. I don’t find this to be a well developed plot and to be honestly it made me not like either of them all that much.

In addition to the constant back and forth, another over used plot device was the “near-death-experience.” Three times in the story something happens to Caid that makes Robyn re-evaluate her feelings for her. Each time was a varying degree of severe. Caid has a rather nasty spill on her mountain bike first, causing Robyn to run to her side to take care of her. Then, Caid goes an extended hiking trip with her younger brother. Her truck gets stolen and abandoned in the process causing national panic that she is missing or dead. Once the mess is sorted Robyn confesses her feelings. Finally Caid is beaten to a pulp by a fan that is manically obsessed with Robyn. Robyn stays by her side during her recovery and it seems this is the finally act that causes them to finally stop mistrusting each other and for Robyn to admit she does, in fact, love Caid. To be honest, by this point it felt far too overplayed.

My favorite part of this book was actually Caid’s best friend Liz. Liz is also a television actress. She’s more famous than Caid and a bit of a diva because of it. Her character however was a pleasant surprise and did not go in any direction I had expected. She was funny, interesting and actually a very loyal friend. I fully expected her to cause drama somewhere through the book and not once was that the case. I was very happy that she also had a happy ending by the end of the book.

Overall, it was worth a read, but it didn’t really hold my attention the whole way through and I realized after a point I was just reading to finish the book.