The Extra

  This was an Audible Plus title which is a quick and light romance story which made a great palate cleanser to follow up binge reading an 8 book fantasy series back-to-back. It follows Gabby who is considered by her family and friends to be quite flighty and fickle, she's not got her future figured out, not in a long-term relationship, bouncing from job-to-job. Her roommate is an actor that's just starting to find success with a recurring role on a long-running soap opera and encourages Gabby to give working as a recurring extra on her show. This brings Gabby into contact with hot actors, high-strung divas, starving writers and more drama off screen than on-screen. It's fun, it's an easy read, there is a great cast of well-defined characters. I called this a romance, as that's what it was sort of advertising itself as and it LOOKS like a romantic comedy, with the styling of the art and the synopsis, but I wasn't really all that invested in the romance parts of the plot. I would have been perfectly satisfied if Gabby ended the story still single. This didn't really let the rest of the book down to much as the sort of ‘coming-of-age', self-growth parts of the narrative and the entertainment of the characters and their conflicts was enough to carry it, and I wonder if it might have actually been even better if the authors had chosen to downplay the romance more and make it more of a woman's fiction, finding herself focused book instead. 

 

I gave this book 3.5/5 stars. There are other books set in this same universe and I wouldn't rule reading or listening to those out, but I'm not particularly compelled to either.