Review ~ Will The Real Abi Saunders Please Stand Up? by Sara Hantz

eARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Release Date: May 6th

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Description:
Abi Saunders might be a kickboxing champion, but when it comes to being the center of attention, she’d rather take a roundhouse kick to the solar plexus any day. So when her trainer convinces her to audition to be the stunt double for hot teen starlet Tilly Watson, Abi is shocked—and a little freaked out—when she gets the job.

Being a stunt double is overwhelming, but once the wig and makeup are on, Abi feels like a different person. Tilly Watson, to be exact. And when Tilly’s gorgeous boyfriend, Jon, mistakes Abi for the real star, Abi's completely smitten. In fact, she’s so in love with her new life, it isn’t long before she doesn’t have time for her old one.

But when the cameras are turned off, will she discover running with the Hollywood A-list isn’t quite the glamorous existence she thought it was?

My Opinion

It was the stunt and kickboxing aspect that intrigued me into requesting this book. I'm going through a phase of liking fighter books and with the contemporary theme and movie lifestyle setting I was interested to see how the author merged the two worlds.

Will The Real Abi Saunders Please Stand Up? was a little different to what I expected. I knew there was going to be teenage drama and diva-ish celebrities so I wasn't expecting everything to be focused of kickboxing. However, I felt this part and the stunts were underplayed which was disappointing. There was hardly anything on the stunts and the kickboxing element fizzled out after a few chapters. I really would have liked more of this element in the book as it what intrigued me so much.

Saying that, the book develops into a story about friendship and how Abi's relationships with people around her change as she works in the movie. The characters, I thought, were OK and the emotions and strains put on relationships were believable. I'm glad the author didn't go over the top with Liz's reactions and I definitely liked Matt's subtle actions that let Abi know she was doing something wrong and changing. I also found the stutter Abi was given to be an unusual aspect that I haven't come across in books before and I liked how the author used it to highlight Abi's emotions in certain situations. I thought it was clever how the stutter reappeared around friends when she was nervous and it gave me a way of connecting with her without the author having to describe her every emotion.

I did find though, that for someone who could fight and was supposedly one of the best for her age Abi was a pretty weak character. I know that the author stated her background and stutter had knocked her confidence but she took a lot of crap from people and never used her ability. She allowed the movie stars to walk all over and it did become frustrating when everyone said how amazing she was--wouldn't people be a little scared of her?

Overall though, Will The Real Abi Saunders Please Stand Up? was a light, fluffy read that was easy to relax with. The friendships were crafted well, the emotions were believable and it did have some originality. It was an enjoyable read that was quick, short and easy to engage with.

3.5