Josie Pie was born to be a star. So she dropped out of high school to pursue her Broadway dreams, but after months of failed auditions, she finds herself broke, beaten-down . . . and nannying in Missoula, Montana. Lonely and directionless, Josie checks out the local bookstore, looking for the ultimate escape.
And escape she does. Literally. She falls into the plots of her books, including a bodice ripper, a dystopian thriller, a YA romance, and more, all filled with swoony co-stars who just make her yearn to repair things with the boyfriend she left behind in NYC.
As her reality begins to unravel, what starts as a welcome break from her lackluster life soon begins to feel like a stifling nightmare - but is it too late for Josie to get back to the real world?
Once upon a time, Josie was kind of a big deal. She owned her high school stage, and there were many who believed she would "make it". Encouraged by her drama teacher, she dropped out of school to audition for a Broadway production in NY. But after not quite making the cut, she fled and hid out in Montana working as a Nanny. Feeling the weight of her failures, she found herself escaping via the pages of a book, but there seemed to be a bit of magic fueling these escapes.
I had a rather good time reading this book. I think Josie's conflict is one people could relate to on some level. She felt as though she had peaked in high school and there was really nowhere for her to go. In reality, she was impeding her future by constantly looking back. She let her high school hey-days and day dreams define her self worth, and that was keeping her from moving forward, taking chances, and also from forming meaningful relationships.
Via the different stories she dropped into, she was able to gain a bit of perspective on her past and who she was now. She discovered quite a few truths about what she thought were the best-days-of-her-life, the person she was back then, and the different things she was capable of now. I thought it was a rather ingenious path to self discovery.
Overall, I enjoyed jumping from book to book and seeing Josie grow and learn.
