There's a Word for That

By Sloane Tanen

Janine Kessler started out life as the daughter of a successful Hollywood producer. In her teens, she became a sitcom star, much to the disappointment of her father, her mother Pamela and her younger sister Amanda.
Marty Kessler knew from experience that Hollywood fame ruined people and he didn't want his daughter exposed to stardom. Pamela preferred her prettier, younger daughter and expected Janine's fame for Amanda, as did Amanda.
But the sitcom ended after a few seasons and Pamela, who suffered from depression, killed herself, leaving her two teen daughters struggling to understand. Janine ended up in treatment and vanished from the spotlight.
Now in her forties and living on the income from reruns of the her old sitcom and on her rich daddy's generosity, Janine has just drifted through life. She shuns her former fame and lives a secluded life in New York City.
But her father, Marty, is in trouble again, for the umpteenth time. He has long struggled with alcoholism and drug abuse and he is, once again, in rehab. Janine travels to Los Angeles to be with him. While there she reconnects with her sister Amanda and her two teen daughters, both of whom have dreams of fame and fortune, very much against Amanda's wishes.
While in rehab, Marty runs into his first wife, Bunny. Bunny, a superstar children's author (think J.K. Rowling) is also at the rehab to deal with her alcoholism. Attendant on Bunny is her son Henry, who has a strained relationship with his mother. Marty rediscovers exactly why he fell for Bunny as a young man and they make plans to travel together, which is an unpleasant surprise for everyone involved, especially for Marty's live-in girlfriend, Gail, who is more attached to Marty's bank account than she is to Marty.

Janine, Marty, Bunny and Henry are the main characters in the story, with the largest part concerned with Janine. In the beginning, it centers on the Kesslers and then abruptly switches to Bunny, without a clue as to how she connects to the Kesslers. We don't find out she is Marty's ex until quite late in the story when she and Marty bump into each other at rehab. I enjoyed that.
It's a pretty good story, although the ending is a bit cliché and deus ex machina. It wasn't all that amusing and certainly not hilarious as described in three of the blurbs on the back cover. Take the blurbs with a grain of salt.

Review by Publishers Weekly.