Stay Tuned

by Lauren Clark

[Leah]

Lauren Clark’s debut novel is set in the world of TV, a rarity for Chick Lit novels, and a world I enjoy reading about myself. As a former newscaster herself, Clark is perfect to write about the newscaster world and she does it with aplomb. Although the novel is relatively short and although you could say it’s a teensy bit lightweight that I expected, I found it to be a quick and easy read, and there wasn’t really anything wrong with it at all.

Melissa Moore is TV producer for WSGA and loves her job; she loves crisis managing its two stars: Tim and Alyssa, she loves the deadlines, and trying to fit all of the segments into each thirty minute slot but what Melissa really dreams of is anchoring herself. So when Alyssa goes nuts and punches Tim during a live telecast, Melissa is thrust into the role of anchor and is asked to fill in as anchor alongside Rick Ross until her boss, Drew, can find a permanent replacement… except Melissa doesn’t want to be a temporary anchor, she wants the job permanently. Melissa’s homelife is on the edge of a precipice, with a husband desperate for a promotion in his job, her mother is slowly descending into her dementia and her daughter is miles away at college, question is can she find the balance she needs to make sure her life doesn’t fall apart completely?

I really enjoyed reading Stay Tuned. I liked the look into what it takes to make the news each evening go off without a hitch, I liked how Melissa balanced being producer as well as anchoring after Alyssa’s meltdown, and, actually, I liked the relationship between Melissa and Rick Ross. Call me crazy, but I liked the banter between them, I liked the spark there. I did find Melissa’s homelife problems to be a bit too easy. Especially since a sit-down between her and her husband would have seemingly solved everything, except neither of them bothered to do that. The story of Laura and her mother was also interesting, but I’d have liked more depth to that, all of Melissa’s visits to the nursing home were somewhat in and out but I felt the overall topic of dementia (which, by the way, must be the cruelest illness out there) was handled sensitively.

Overall Stay Tuned was an interesting and massively quick novel to read. I didn’t really have any problems with the novel, but on the other hand I do wonder how much of it I will remember in the future. However, for what it was, I enjoyed it. It was written really well and I loved a lot of the characters (particularly Melissa’s best friend Candace, and Melissa’s mother’s nurse Sharice). I’d definitely recommend it, especially as the e-copy is a mere $2.99. It offers a lovely peek into the world of newscasting (which, I admit, isn’t the most glamorous of TV, is it? But Clark does a good job of making it interesting!) and it gives you characters to really root for and warm up to. The ending was really touching and if Clark wanted, a second novel featuring Melissa and the gang wouldn’t entirely be out of the question, and I’d definitely be in line to read it, because Stay Tuned is a novel to keep yourself Tuned to. (My puns are getting better…. Right?)