Famous

Kate Lyndon

HarperCollins

Otago Daily Times, July 30th 2005

Having read a lot of bad chick-lit, Famous by NZ author Kate Lydon came as a delightful surprise. 

At 33, Samantha Steel’s life seems perfect.  An SPG (Single Professional Girl) working for a leading Auckland ad agency, she and her friends Mands and Lizzie live for shopping, parting and champagne.  Her definition of disaster is finding another woman at a party in the same dress, or learning an ex-boyfriend is now a woman (“and more gorgeous than you…was anything worse?“).  Well, yes-as she discovers after a one-night stand with a well-known-to everyone but Sam-and very married sportsman.  Terrorized by paparazzi who condemn her as a home-wrecking floozy, she is forced to flee, incognito, to a rural town to escape.  The nightmare continues as she faces such monumental challenges as cooking, lighting fires, life without good coffee…

Sam is a delightful narrator, her tone light, witty and ironic.  She laughs with the reader at herself rather than falling into self-pity, and I genuinely liked her.  Lydon’s plot is action-packed, her humour deft and insightful, and she is an author to watch.  Grab a latte, turn off that cell phone and enjoy the read.