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Reality Jane

3.07 of 5 stars 3.07 · rating details · 14 ratings · 7 reviews

Set behind the scenes of America's most popular guilty pleasure--reality TV--Reality Jane delivers a high-spirited, delicious tale of finding love and a career in Hollywood while juggling lipo envy, singlehood angst, and the resounding results of success.

Reality Jane follows Jane Kaufman, a Canadian journalist who, because of a lucky connection, finds herself in LA as a pr...more Set behind the scenes of America's most popular guilty pleasure--reality TV--Reality Jane delivers a high-spirited, delicious tale of finding love and a career in Hollywood while juggling lipo envy, singlehood angst, and the resounding results of success.

Reality Jane follows Jane Kaufman, a Canadian journalist who, because of a lucky connection, finds herself in LA as a producer on a hot new reality show. Mingling with rock stars, attending Grammy parties, and visiting the Sex Kitten Mansion, Jane sees her new career as a one-way ticket to the big-time! But for a small-town girl thrust into the cutthroat Hollywood scene, 90- hour work weeks, heartless bosses, and superficial womanizers are a rude awakening.

Just when her love life seems at its bleakest, along come not one but two guys vying for her heart: hunky Alex, a hot up-and-coming reality show host, and Grant, a sweet, sincere cameraman who's unfazed by Hollywood fame. With a sizzling sex life on the horizon, and maybe even true love, Jane's fondest hopes seem en-route to full realization when she lands the cherry gig of all time: a producer's post on TV's hottest new self-help talk show.

But the deeper Jane ventures into reality TV, the more completely un-real her life-personal and professional-becomes. And the realities of life behind-the-scenes-like goading people to confess their deepest, darkest secrets on cue-are chipping away at her very soul.

Lead character (and narrator) Jane embodies the perfect blend of smart-ass sarcasm, weary cynicism, and hopeful romanticism to appeal to today's readers. She also possesses a biting, acerbic wit that casts devilish, laugh-out-loud observations on the Hollywood scene, which are sure to please celeb watchers and reality show junkies alike.

A hugely entertaining glimpse at the world of reality TV from one of its own, who's lived and breathed the business practically since its inception, Reality Jane is the chick-lit novel that reality TV junkies and chick-lit enthusiasts have long been waiting for.(less)

Paperback, 304 pages

Published October 31st 2011 by Bancroft Press

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May 20, 2012 Michele Capobianco rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bancroft-press, baltimore

Small town, Canadian journalist Jane Kaufman is finally in Hollywood, living the dream life of a television producer; 18 hour work days, endless coffee beverages, and heartless employers. This was not what Jane was expecting when she signed up to work for Ricky Dean, the hottest self-help reality icon in radio and, now, TV.

Learning the lessons of betrayal and loyalty in the biz, Jane realizes that maybe Hollywood isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Jane tells us of her adventures behind the camera...more

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Oct 10, 2011 Cheryl rated it 2 of 5 stars

Jane Kaufman went from being a journalist in Canada to being a producer for the hit reality show, The Purrfect Life with Lucy Lane. Don’t mistaken the title of this show to be about cats or kittens, unless you are interested in the sex kitten variety. Yep, Jane’s first role as a Hollywood producer is for a show about superficial, rich people and stuck up models. Jane’s first episode that features DJ, MC Toke (yeah I know but this is really the name he goes by). Even after this disastrous event,...more

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Oct 30, 2011 Leah rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-2011, ebooks, for-review, netgalley

Reality Jane appealed to me because, like the rest of the world, I find reality TV fascinating. I’m not a reality TV junkie, but I like shows like I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and I’ve watched The Hills, but what mostly appealed to me about Reality Jane was the behind-the-scenes look it was going to give. I love to know what goes on behind-the-scenes because you always wonder how much of reality TV – which is meant to be real – is actually, in fact, scripted. Shannon Nering is a reality TV...more Reality Jane appealed to me because, like the rest of the world, I find reality TV fascinating. I’m not a reality TV junkie, but I like shows like I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and I’ve watched The Hills, but what mostly appealed to me about Reality Jane was the behind-the-scenes look it was going to give. I love to know what goes on behind-the-scenes because you always wonder how much of reality TV – which is meant to be real – is actually, in fact, scripted. Shannon Nering is a reality TV producer herself, so if there’s anyone who knows reality TV is must be Shannon and I was interested to see how she put it on the page.

For the most part, Reality Jane is a quick and fun read. It’s nothing entirely special, and despite the fact Jane does indeed spend a ton of time producing, none of it is particularly gossipy or juicy. It’s not as in-depth as Lauren Conrad’s LA Candy series; it’s not like an expose on reality TV, which I thought was a shame because that’s what I was expecting. It took me mere hours to complete the book but I just don’t think I’ll remember it in a weeks time. It’s never a good idea when I can’t wait for a book to end, and with Reality Jane I couldn’t wait to get to the end because it just wasn’t what I expected and it was just too all over the place for me.

The most disappointing part of the book is that Nering skips over a ton of details. I read one chapter early on in the book where Jane is all set for her new job, she’s agreed to spend a weekend in San Diego with Toni, her new friend, and come the next chapter, she’s been to San Diego and she has a new boyfriend, to boot. I mean, it was all done so quickly that I thought maybe she was dreaming, as she goes to her new boyfriend, Craig’s, house for a BBQ. There’s so much detail skipped when the book should have focused on some of the smaller details. It just seemed all over the place, the way the book moved on weeks later, months later, with big events occurring and us only knowing about them after the event.

Another really annoying part of the book is the love story. Oh my God, Jane is the most fickle female character around! She’s in love with Craig, she’s in love with Grant, she’s in love with Alex… I have never known anybody to be in love with so many people at exactly the same time. She happily kissed Alex then flitted to Grant, whilst not over Craig. It was mind-boggling and really, really confusing. Even as the book draws to a conclusion, she still isn’t sure who it is she really wants and I just wanted to slap her. I hate books where every male falls at the feet of the female character despite the fact the female character in questions says she’s not slim, not beautiful, etc because it’s unrealistic. I don’t want there to be three different men to choose from, I want one man to focus on, to root for but neither Grant nor Alex nor Craig were particularly swoon-worthy.

Reality Jane just wasn’t what I expected it to be. Jane was OK in the beginning – if naive – but as the book moved on, she got more and more big-headed. She blew up at Grant numerous times for no reason, when he was merely just trying to help. I’d have liked if the book focused more on the producing than Jane’s love life. The producing parts were good, and I think Jane redeemed herself well enough in the end… But this book just wasn’t for me. It was clunky in parts, it was all over the place with seemingly missing scenes that weren’t missing at all; Nering just hadn’t written them in, instead expecting us to guess where Craig had come from. Guess where Craig had gone… It’s sad. I wanted to like the book, it sounded interesting and it was readable enough, it just lacked the plot or the characters to really take off.(less)

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Nov 18, 2011 Marcela (BookaholicCat) rated it 2 of 5 stars

After reading the blurb I can say I had big expectations for this book, it sounded fun and entertaining, just what I needed when I picked it up. Sadly I was very disappointed with the story, even though it has its funny moments it was a book I had trouble getting into and struggled page after page to keep interested in the story and the characters, to the point that I had to skim a bit towards the end of the story. I considered DNF-ing it but after investing so much time with Jane I wanted to kn...more After reading the blurb I can say I had big expectations for this book, it sounded fun and entertaining, just what I needed when I picked it up. Sadly I was very disappointed with the story, even though it has its funny moments it was a book I had trouble getting into and struggled page after page to keep interested in the story and the characters, to the point that I had to skim a bit towards the end of the story. I considered DNF-ing it but after investing so much time with Jane I wanted to know who was going to be the “lucky guy” that ends with her.

Let me be a bit more specific about what I didn’t like about it. I can say the story starts ok but it goes downhill pretty fast. Jane is not an easy character to connect with or like. She felt too naive and didn’t have an ounce of self-respect. She allows everyone to abuse and mistreat her and goes from one guy to the other like nothing is happening. It’s obvious her first guy, Craig was using her and she is completely oblivious to the situation. Then another guy comes along (Alex) and while being with him she gets involve with another one (Grant) but that’s not all, she is still pinning from Craig while she is dealing with Alex and Grant. One thing that was almost the end of the book for me was when she “decided” to sleep with Alex because he has been expecting to sleep with her for a long time; she doesn’t sleep with him because she wanted to but because Alex has helped her a lot with the job and he wanted to sleep with her for a long time and of course when this happens she is “in love” with Grant.
It was not just this all this over the place feeling about Jane that didn’t work for me, I had also serious issues with the story. The author talks about big events that are going to happen just to turn the page and start a new chapter and realize those events already happened without any explanation, apart from the reference there are completely non-existent in the story. Characters come and go without further explanations and their characterization was completely stereotypical. There was not one character I can say I liked. At the end Jane kind of redeemed herself, same with her best-friend Toni, but sadly it was a little too late. (less)

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Nov 17, 2011 Pamela Todd rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebook, read-in-2011, romance, women-s-fiction

Reality Jane took me on a rollercoaster ride of success and what it meant to sacrifice in order to achieve it.

Jane, a journalist from Canada, finds herself thrust into the fast paced Hollywood lifestyle all thanks to a lucky connection. Jane is the new producer on a reality show. Her life suddenly becomes a blur of Grammy parties, Sex Kittens, rock stars and backstabbing. It doesn’t take long for her to realise the glitter of Tinsel Town doesn’t always cover the greed and darker side.

Just when...more

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Nov 12, 2011 Aislynn (Stitch Read Cook) rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc-s-to-review, netgalley-read, read-in-2011

This was an interesting read. Not normally something I would pick up but I was intrigued.

Jane is a young journalist from Canada (which I thought was great since I am Canadian!) who lands a fantastic job in Los Angeles. She packs up her small town life and moves to the big city. Jane is a fun character, she's young, hip and wants to be a big time producer.

While this book had some great moments and was well written - I had a hard time getting into it. I think part of my problem was that I'm not a...more

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Nov 01, 2011 Charlotte rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: advanced-readers-copy, nook

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Apr 08, 2013 Anya marked it as to-read

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Shelves: chick-lit

Mar 22, 2013 Linda marked it as to-read

Shelves: celeb-famous, girlie

Mar 13, 2013 Nichole Howell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Oct 21, 2012 Magee marked it as to-read

Aug 02, 2012 Dena marked it as abandoned

Shelves: arc, e-book, fiction

May 25, 2012 Kaley rated it 2 of 5 stars

Apr 26, 2012 Bancroft Press rated it 5 of 5 stars

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Mar 12, 2012 Suzannahjmillette rated it 3 of 5 stars

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Shelves: netgalley

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Oct 21, 2011 Tammy Price rated it 4 of 5 stars

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Shelves: wishlist

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