REVIEW: "Almost Royalty: A Romantic Comedy . . . of Sorts"" by Courtney Hamilton

Description

Courtney Hamilton is a Velveeta-loving attorney driven to distraction by a city that seethes with soul-sucking status seekers. When her friend Marcie formulates an impossibly detailed rating system for acceptable men—the Los Angeles Eco-Chain of Dating—Courtney goes on a self-destructive binge that doesn’t stop until she gets thrown out of group therapy for insulting a former child actress.

Courtney is mortified as she watches her best friends give up stellar careers in law and the arts to marry entertainment royalty and civilian overachievers. Worse, they expect Courtney to do the same. So they hatch plots to get her to give up her career, break her addiction to fake cheese, marry into high-orbit wealth and rule the stratosphere alongside them.

But Courtney resists. She doesn’t want to be a poster child for the Opt-Out Generation. And she certainly doesn’t want to be molded into date bait for the top rung of L.A. society. All Courtney wants is to be left alone so she can search beneath the surface for a meaningful life. But between a meddling, narcissistic mother, a self-absorbed therapist and friends trying to send her to dating re-education camps, it seems that fake cheese is the only genuine thing left in the city. Social ambition combats self-actualization in this biting tale of one woman’s search for certainty in a city full of mirages.

Sit. Read. Have some Velveeta. Enjoy. Laugh.

My Take:
4 Stars!
Buy this book to read! It's a must-read, must-have! This book is a great satirical comedy of sorts based upon her friends' lists of the how-to's in LA. It gets even better as you read on! Even though funny, I'm not talking slap-stick funny, but funny in the right places.
Meet Courtney Hamilton, no, not the author! A character in the story! (There you go! What author uses her own name as a character in a book?!!) She is single, a Litigation Attorney, and dating in LA. Among her friends, Courtney cannot be herself, but is expected to follow the 'plastics' (although they talk about and diss those who have done the plastic themselves, too, but would never dare admit theirs! In fact, they accuse Courtney of having some done, and she does not like that!)
She was instructed by her friend's lists starting with 'The L.A. Eco-Chain of Dating List of who to date and how. It is the 'who, money, pre-nup's, money (again), The Good, and The Bad'. There is another list of "How to Be an Imperialist Resident of the Westside of Los Angeles, C.A.", or better yet, it's the "How to Marry Up the L.A. Chain of Dating". LA also has a Celebrity Royalty list, too, the who, the how to or not to talk but knowing when to talk and what to talk about to whomever according to how the celebrity tiers list applies to! This list gets even more detailed from here. Lists, lists, lists to live by!
Another important list also includes who your parents are/were, the schools you attended (or were lucky enough to have your parents get you into or not), what your religion is/was, the college you went to, and how much further you went in education from there as well! Whoever would have thought dating and your social life in general revolved around all these lists!
Courtney is currently dating Frank, and while at dinner, which she will probably have to pay for again because he always seems to forget his wallet at home for what seems like on purpose! Frank has an agenda. He is finally going to propose to her! Instead, Courtney needs to be finding her little niche where she fits in as herself amidst all of these lists, her friends, and her love of Velveeta Cheese she cannot live without! Yes! Courtney is the rebel amongst her friends because of the fake cheese - Velveeta Cheese! I LOVED it!
You can see the character growth so much in Courtney as the story progresses. Her friends pretty much stay behind her, but she blows them out of the water with the way she grows, and no, it's not her forever therapy she's been in that does it, but SHE does it all on her own! It's great! This is a must-read!
I found this book absolutely hilarious in the beginning! I was laughing SO hard! The humor between her and her mother was non-stop! It was beyond funny, it was cracking up funny! I was sitting here all by myself and reading, then all of a sudden I was cracking up hysterically out loud! I wish she would have kept up a few more scenes of this type of humor more through the book! I kept waiting for it, but it didn't come back as much as I would have preferred it to like it was with Mom/Julia. You'll find out about the Mom/Julia 'thing' in the book, too!
I can say with all the idiosyncrasies of the people and issues at hand, this book will lift your spirits unlike any other I have read in a very long time!
Overall, this was a great book and really takes your mind off your dating life, or remind you of dating in the past or present, for sure! Dating in LA is brutal! I am definitely glad I did not grow up and date there!
Pick up a copy of this book and be transported to where we have Royalty here in the US, too! The celebrities! It's so well-worth the read! It's enjoyable, unbelievably true, and all around an excellent book to read! You'll be glad you read it! Read slow, though, so you can absorb every little detail! Or, read it a second time, too! I received this book for FREE from the Publisher, Forrest Thompson Publishers through NetGalley and the author in exchange to read and write a review about it. It is NOT required for this review to be either positive or negative, but of my own honest opinion. "Free" means I was provided with ZERO MONIES to read this book nor to write this review, but to enjoy the pure pleasure of reading it. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255, http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

About The Author of Almost Royalty, A Romantic Comedy…of Sorts

Courtney Hamilton has worked in Hollywood with writers, directors, executive producers, actresses and actors in the entertainment industry in L.A., Las Vegas and New York, including Golden Globe and Emmy winners in television and feature films (particularly in the humorous fiction, humor romance and women’s fiction genres). Based in Los Angeles, California, Hamilton is a keen observer of L.A. Royalty and southern California society (which many consider a romantic fiction of its own).Almost Royalty is a fictionalized satire of Los Angeles social classes and especially those who aspire to be part of the city’s A-Level Royalty.

Make sure to come back THIS Monday, June 2nd, 2014! 

You'll get to kick off the new month with this New Release by debut author, Courtney Hamilton, with a GREAT EVENT! Today - this is my review of this book, but on Monday, June 2nd, that date kicks off a Blog Tour/Book Blast of this book but with a catch! Many bloggers have offered to write about our 'own' Worst Date Ever! You'll get to read stories about our worst dates in an article! And boy do I have a doozy for you! You'll be dying with my worst date ever story that really DID happen! Unbelievably true, I swear!

I'll have even MORE INFO about this book on Monday, too! See you then!