Review: Catch a Falling Star by Kim Culbertson

Summer is upon us and Catch a Falling Star is the perfect beach read. Our main character, Carter Moon, lives in a small town called Little (get it?), California. Her life is ordinary and nothing interesting ever happens around Little. That is, until bad boy movie star Adam Jakes arrives with his crew to shoot a movie. Then, because this is a book, Carter is enlisted to pretend to be Adam’s girlfriend as part of a publicity stunt. Totally realistic, right?

Even though Catch a Falling Star sounds like a romance novel without any substance, it isn’t completely loaded with meaningless instalove and unrealistic events. Carter’s older brother is an important character and his struggles keep the story from being too cheesy. He’s a compulsive gambler and every decision his family makes revolves around his addiction. I think this raised the novel to another level and contributed to Carter’s character development.

Speaking of characters, Carter is not fantastic but I loved the fact that she is content in her town. She considers herself lucky to live in Little and she’s not actively seeking an escape route. She’s confident and would do anything for her family.  Even though the plot sounds more like a bad Disney movie instead of something that could actually happen in real life, I felt like all of her character traits made her very realistic and relatable. I did think that her character was a little bit flat as a whole but I liked her enough to care about her story.

I was on board with this novel until the last few pages. I’m not going to spoil the end for you but I hated it. I was under the impression that something else was going to happen but it ended up being very cliché instead. Also, I had a huge issue with Adam. He’s so annoying! Since he’s a celebrity, he plays the room according to the image he wants to present. This makes getting to know him nearly impossible. Is he genuinely nice? Is he an entitled former child star? Or is he really just a chameleon who changes personality depending on the situation? There are so many version of this guy that I grew so sick of him. All I saw was a manipulative dude who needed a reality check.

As you can tell, I am not a huge fan of the romantic interest in this novel. However, I really enjoyed everything else. While Catch a Falling Star might be a little fluffy at times, it also deals with some serious issues. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick summer read!