Ruby Parker: Soap Star

Rowan's first novel for younger readers:

Everyone thinks I have the Perfect Life:
I'm Ruby Parker, Soap Star.
Every girl wants to be me.
If only they knew...

Child soap-star, Ruby Parker, discovers being famous when you're a teenager isn't all it's cracked up to be. Spotty and gawky, all her fan mail is about viewers' problems - not how much they adore and fancy her! Ruby Parker has been acting in the glamorous soap, Kensington Heights, for most of her life. She is stunned when she overhears the script writers discussing whether to kill her character off, or to replace Ruby with a more beautiful actress! She has always felt like the ugly duckling compared to her stunning co-stars, but now more than ever she sees that everyone is disappointed how the cute, chubby dimpled four year old has morphed into a lumpy pimpled fourteen year old. Ruby is feeling more self-conscious than ever, and to top it all off, she discovers she's got to have her first screen kiss - with the oh-so-gorgeous Justin de Souza, the soap's hunk. What with dealing with fame on a national level, having her first ever kiss in front of cameras and dealing with everyone's jealousy at stage school, Ruby doesn't think things can get any harder. Then her parents give her the most unexpected (and worst) news yet!