A sharply hilarious and ultimately heartfelt novel about a former teen superstar who grudgingly agrees to a reboot of the show that made her (in)famous, from the author of Reasonable Adults.

Twenty years after Ocean Views went off the air, the beloved TV show about teenage romance and angst is back. No one is more surprised than its former star, Agnes “Ness” Larkin, that she’s agreed to step back into the role of Hailey Grant. After her father/manager took off with her earnings, Ness ran away from the spotlight in shame. But maybe it’s time to stare her past, and her castmates, in their discreetly Botoxed faces.

That enthusiasm lasts until the first table read, which, in co-star Coco’s words, is “like a high school reunion without the dim lighting or booze.” Ness assumed her old fling Hayes Beaumont would be too busy doing Big Hollywood Things to take part, but there he is, seated beside her, exuding pheromones and success.

En route to the deluxe Bahamas resort where they’re to start filming, the cast gets stranded by a storm. Stuck on a tiny island with a paltry cache of food and quite possibly the most useless survival group in history, Ness tries to reconcile her youthful dreams with where she’s ended up—figuratively and literally. The producers wanted drama on and off-screen, and they’re going to get it, but where will Ness be when it’s all over?

Dear Ms. Lefler,

Well, this certainly is not how I pictured this book would go. I thought I was getting a rom-com second chance romance. I didn’t. I must also question it being described as “sharply hilarious.” There is some “heartfelt” I will give it that but when all is said and read, even that is in short supply. What I wrote on my reading list is “Bonkers TV show revival with self centered Millennials on a survivor island.”

Agnes “Ness” Larkin is hoping for a second chance at … everything. The blurb lays it all out. She’s a former YA/NA star who lost it all first when her father absconded with all her hard earned money and second when she reacted badly to that, pushed her friends away, and ended up slinking back home to Toronto where she’s spent years as a property manager. I will give her props for actually doing that up to and including unstopping toilets, laying floor tile, and dealing with demanding tenants. She took this job looking for a paycheck to maybe finance buying another property but mainly to make amends for her past behavior.

First let me say there were way too many characters dumped on me at the beginning of the book. With seven cast members and a crew person to keep track of, I was desperately scrambling to keep a mental list of “who’s who” in my head. Eventually I could keep everyone straight in my head but that took a long time.

The setting for this version of “Survivor” was interesting. The castaways find themselves on a now deserted island in the Bahamas which used to be owned by a porn film king. The decor is tacky trashy and as it’s been abandoned for years, it crumbles around them. Without much food, a generator with only 5 containers of gas, no cell service, and questionable water they’re stuck. They do manage to pull off a bit of trying to make the island visible to possible searchers but fail to do something that I would have thought would be “up there” on a list of things to search for. It’s not the first silly or stupid thing they’ll do.

Ness is getting her chance at trying to make things right with those she spurned in the past alright. For some reason, be it spite or the fact that she’s been a hands-on property manager for years, all tasks – icky or otherwise – seem to fall on Ness. She might grumble and huff a bit but darned if Ness doesn’t actually have some know-how and leadership skills. It’s needed because Lawd these are some whiney ass cry babies she has to deal with. Honestly there were times when I wanted to lean into the book and advise Ness to head off on her own and leave these entitled losers behind. At almost every stage they blamed Ness for almost everything.

About 2/3 of the way through the book I finally just decided to go with the flow and see how this mystery (and the book is mainly the mystery behind how they ended up on this island) resolved. I guessed what was actually happening

Being stranded and in close proximity with all these people gives Ness a chance to make some amends and face her own past. She does learn, she does take advantage of the opportunity, she does come out stronger. Yay Ness. If I were her, I would think long and hard about the fact that so many of them were willing to believe the worst of her but then we’re talking about actors who are seemingly willing to do just about anything to climb the ladder in Hollywood. The ending is completely bonkers. I’ll give the book credit for getting enough of my interest to keep on keeping on when I was bewildered by who’s who and for getting me to stick around to the end just to see how the others would apologize to Ness but this is not a book I would be interested in rereading. C

~Jayne

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