After a successful first season of Jenna & Jonah’s How to Be a Rock Star, teen idols Charlie and Aaron (aka Fielding Withers to his fans) are given an ultimatum: “fall in love or fall apart.” Three seasons later, the Family Network actors must plot every kiss for the paparazzi, sacrificing freedom for stardom. But when Aaron is falsely outed as gay, and the "family-friendly" (rather, ratings-conscious) network drops their show, the acting duo tries to salvage their plummeting reputations as Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. As in their previous The Half-Life of Planets (2010), which garners a clever allusion, the dual authors alternate chapters and witty banter as the teens try to figure out how to act, live and love without a guided script. While the Charlie and Aaron/Beatrice and Benedick comparisons become overdrawn by the end, the biting commentary on “reality” TV and society’s obsession with fame will keep readers laughing, as will all the remembered Jenna & Jonah scenes. Love, American style. (Fiction. YA)
