After accompanying her best friend to an casting call, Kate is shocked to be chosen for the role, bestie Rowan tried for. She's always been content being in the background, but soon discovers she loves the way the role makes her feel. When everything blows up thanks to a predatory director, she gets blamed unfairly, then blacklisted, and fat shamed.
All of this knocks her plans awry and it gets worse when her parents decide to teach her a hard love lesson by charging her rent and making her buy her own food. Even worse, she has to take an evening job filing papers and invoices at Rowan's dad's law firm. Then there's Ty, Rowan's older brother who she shot down a year ago. He's back from Shanghai and is working at the firm until starting college at Stanford.
When everything else in her life seems like a dumpster fire, her voyeurism (watching an affair and subsequent murder) of a woman in another office in the complex, starts her on one heck of a ride. This is fast-paced and extremely satisfying. ( )

Kate is an unexpected Netflix star in the new series Dirty Pretty Things. What makes this so unusual is she is a size 16, and the character in the book is not. But the director falls in love with her, and new stardom is made. However, when it comes out that her co-star Bella (who is legal 18, meaning NOT 18) is having an affair with the married director, the show is shut down and Kate has to get a “real job “even though she is only 17. Her parents would prefer she goes to college, but if she wants to work, then she is going to work and pay for herself. She gets a job at her best friend’s father’s law firm as a file clerk. She can do it after hours, so she can still go to auditions and everything else she needs to be a real actress. One night she sees a double murder in the window across the way. However, NO one believes her.

This book was slow. I loved Kate as a character, and this read is mostly a character study. It takes half the book to get to the first murder, and then the ending is so action packed, that it speeds to the finish line. Overall, I Iiked this story, and I loved Kate, but I didn’t love the book. If someone has seen the Get Dirty series on Netflix, which is based on another series by Gretchen McNeil, and loved it, then they will love this book. It fits right in. For this reader, they love Gretchen for the Murder Trending books, and this title pales in comparison. It’s not bad, but it’s not edge of your seat either. ( )

I'm confused because McNeil is a strong writer, but this plot had no real anchor, and it constantly meandered. I did like the main character, though that "reveal" towards the end made her look very very dumb. In fact, once the "thriller" part of the book happens, I feel almost every character suddenly forfeits their critical thinking by making unrealistic choices. The Shakespeare passage references I understand it's used for characterization, when other characters started doing it too, it became clear it was more so characterization of what the writer likes . I had no problem with it because I like Shakespeare but I think other people would probably not understand it or question why it was put in. ( )