Under the Lights

by Dahlia Adler

[bookishzelda]

Under the Lights is a great story about love winning and finding your place in the world. We get to live life through the perspectives of Vanessa and Josh as they deal with being a part of Hollywood.

It’s hard to explain my relationship with Josh. I didn’t like him, his annoying vulgarness felt like he was trying too hard. If I met him in real life I would call him out on it. He’s the guy that I would roll my eyes at if I met him at a party. I don’t hate him either though. Which is weird. The thing about Josh is that he is what he is. Take it or leave it he doesn’t care. As the book progresses and he forms a stronger bond with Vanessa, my opinion of him changes. By the end of I actually end up liking him.

I loved Vanessa. She is sassy and snarky but still a little vulnerable. I liked how even though she spends some time confused she doesn’t really lead people on. Sometimes she gets sucked into what other people want for her and starts following along a track but once she takes hold of her life. She makes good decisions.

Vanessa and Brianna are such a great couple. They have chemistry right from the get go and we get so see how things develop from them. To be honest as much as I thought Van and Bri are perfect for eachother I almost wanted to rip Van in half so that Josh also could be with her. I don’t if I have ever liked both love interest so much. When Van picks one over the other it’s not heartbreaking or terrible. She still has a great friendship.

There is so much a love about this plot. I mean Dahlia Alder’s writing is perfect first of all but get to see Hollywood through the eyes of a minority. That is definitely something different. Van brings up many good points. She might be a star of a major network tv show but how many Asian-American’s do you see holding the lead in a movie? Every time she made a point about that and why she felt she needed to do what people said it made sense. I felt sorry for her and realized it seems ridiculous that it’s even the case. So we have two things that Van is struggling with, that she might be gay and how that will affect her job and the fact that she is asian and how will that affect her job in the future. The way it’s laid out is great. Also we have Josh’s side of things where he is more struggling with the fact that maybe he isn’t so sure what wants to do and have a Hollywood starlet for a mother might have influenced is life more than he even realized.

I really enjoyed this book and now I need to go back and read the first one. Which you don’t need to read in order to read Under the Lights, but I want to know more about how Ally and Liam got together. I loved the plot and the writing and I hope we are not completely done with Daylight Falls.