"Spin", by Catherine McKenzie

“Spin” is about a young woman, Katie Sandford, a thirty year old struggling writer who loves to party in excess with her friends and who desperately wants to work for a music magazine called The Line. She finally gets the opportunity of a lifetime, an interview with the magazine. She is so nervous and excited she gets hammered the night before and shows up late and severely hung-over for her interview. Definitely not a way to impress a future boss….However they do see some potential and give her a job with their sister magazine Gossip Central, not the job of her dreams but nonetheless a foot in the door. As a test trial, the editors give her an assignment to write a tell-all story about Amber Sheppard, a starlet, from “The Girl Next Door”, a girl who has hit rock bottom and recently entered rehab for drug and alcohol addictions. Katie may be just the perfect person to befriend Amber and join her at the facility to search out the dirty little secrets to a killer exposé.


This is a chick-lit novel at its best, funny, charming, personal and honest with all the OH NO!, AW!, GOSH! You can imagine. The story is filled with delightful twists and turns and the most loveable of characters, some may even compare it to Bridget Jones Diary. Granted, the storyline is a little predictable but it is certainly interesting and very relevant in today's celebrity worshiping culture and of course no women’s contemporary fiction would be complete without a handsome love interest, in this case it is done perfectly adding plenty of spice and colour to the mix…. Aaaaw!!!! Those hot moments will get you every time.:)


The novel is absolutely captivating, an enjoyable spin to the rather sensitive subject of substance abuse and the long road to recovery. A beautiful debut novel, well done Ms. McKenzie