Review: A Secret Beat

A Secret Beat
Rating: 3/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!

Alexia Falls is eighteen, living in her parents' New York penthouse and working with superstar boyband The Keep. But with her heart set on independence and a career behind the camera, she trades it all for a take-it-or-leave-it internship at London's Bright Star Productions.

There, she meets fellow intern Greta. Greta's East End upbringing couldn't have been more different from Alexia's, but she's every bit as hungry for her big break.

But both girls have secrets.

While Alexia doesn't want anyone knowing about her privileged connection to The Keep, Greta has been anonymously running their #1 social fan-feed since she was at school. And when the gossip columns somehow get news of the band's latest scandals, suspicions and accusations start flying...

Real art demands integrity. But staying in the music business requires the opposite. Can you stay true to yourself when your heart follows a secret beat? 

Okay, to be brutally honest, this book was a bit 50/50 for me, and much like the previous book, I feel like the odd one out! 

I have to say Alexia did better than I would in her old job, I'm not going to lie. I liked her for following her dream and for doing what she wanted to do despite what everyone else said. That's something that really resonated with me and struck a chord with me. I was rooting for her and it was kind of hard not to. I wanted her to do the right thing, I wanted her to succeed. But when she went and did The Thing, I was so disappointed in her, and I was rooting for her to overcome it. 

The thing that annoyed me was....plenty of people struggle for money and manage to not sell out their friends. She had people willing to help her out, give her a place to stay...but she was determined to do everything on her own she wouldn't accept it...even if it meant she had to go and do what she did. She also grated on me a bit when she was banging on about how it was difficult not having much money, and how it was so difficult being so rich and privileged and having college paid for. Also....she did The Thing, got paid for it...and then used a chunk of it to buy back a designer dress? That was odd to me. 

Greta was incredibly relatable. I wasn't sure I liked her at first because of her low-key snakey attitude towards Alexia. I mean...she had no interest in doing any of the stuff Alexia was doing, she was there purely for the famous people, but she was being a certain way towards Alexia once she found out about The Keep. She shouldn't have lied about The Keep, but honestly...she really turned things around. She seemed really snakey/shady in the beginning, but my opinion of her changed a lot over the course of the book. By the end of the book I liked Greta more than Alexia. 

There are some familiar faces if you've read the other book...Max, Amalie, Lee, obviously. My fave Geoff made a return and was just as hilarious as ever, with his inappropriately funny comments. I will admit, I wasn't sure what to expect with this book, after the previous book I kind of assumed there was going to be some romance to this but there wasn't. 

A Secret Beat has a nice pace, and it's an interesting look at the seedier side of the entertainment industry, you could see Alexia falling in to that hole and you knew it was going to happen. A Secret Beat takes a look at ethics and morals, as well as friendship and being true to yourself, all backed up by an A+ playlist! 
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