I'm so glad Lauren Graham decided to write a book. I miss Gilmore Girls more than probably any other show that has ended, so when I heard about this book and saw some reviews that it reads like Lorelai wrote a book, my hopes skyrocketed. Luckily, the book did not disappoint. 
 Franny is a struggling actress trying to "make it" in New York, while also trying to keep her head above water financially and looking for love, sort of. She is approaching an arbitrary deadline she set for herself to either make it or give up acting altogether, and she's constantly thinking that maybe she should stop trying right now anyway because confidence is hard. 
 I can relate to Franny in a lot of ways, and I suspect a lot of women could: she tends toward a low to middling self-esteem level, with moments of sheer boldness and moments of soul-crushing insecurity for variety. She is way harder on herself about everything she does than anyone else is. She tries way, way too hard but only because she cares so damn much. 
 The book has a lot going for it. Franny, her dad, her friend Jane, her roommate Dan, and the various actor friends she has are all interesting and well developed characters. The humor is completely on pitch, and I laughed out loud many times, at lines like this: 
 I really want a cigarette. I think there might be one left in a crumpled pack in the bottom of my bag. I know there is, in fact, because I pretended to myself that I forgot about it but secretly know it exists. (Franny, p. 37) 
 "This may come as a shock to you, but many studies have shown there's at least a slight nutritional difference between spinach that's rotting in the crisper drawer and spinach that's ingested into the body." (Franny's friend Jane, p. 120) 
 (answering the phone) "It's me. It's her." That doesn't sound right. "It is I." (Franny, p. 126 - this one had me laughing for about 10 minutes, but it might be just me.) 
 At least half the dialogue has a crazy strong Gilmore Girls feel to it, in a way that is perfect and wonderful. Also, this book reminded me of an early Sophie Kinsella novel, particularly the "humiliation" humor and secondary/tertiary character types. That's probably some universal chick lit things, though. 
 I also enjoyed that the book was set in the 90s -- Franny is constantly checking her answering machine from pay phones. Pay phones! And the song name-dropping at the wedding scene really set the scene for me (although I was only in 8th grade or so when those songs were popular - still, I was there). 
 Another part I really liked was the ending, although I have a feeling it will be a controversial point among readers and I see why people wouldn't like it. I, however, really did like it. (view spoiler)[The whole time I was reading the book, I was worried it would end with a fluffy, too-happy ending where she lands the lead in a movie or something and all her troubles are over forever the end! That wouldn't fit the tone of the book, though. And yet, neither would her losing many more parts and quitting acting altogether, for good, finally. I didn't want either one. And this ending, where she's on the verge of something, but more importantly, realizes why she's doing it at all and starts to feel like she's on a path, feels extremely right for the character and this story. (hide spoiler)] 
 The only thing I didn't completely love about the book was how incredibly predictable parts of it were. In several instances, I could see a situation or problem coming several chapters (or even more) before Franny caught on to the idea. It didn't really fit her character since she seemed really smart and sharp, and it made me feel like the author was talking down to me, not expecting me to "get it" and so leaving huge giant hints everywhere. The foreshadowing should have been toned almost all the way down; honestly, those situations were predictable anyway, so foreshadowing at all is fairly unnecessary. 
 But that issue didn't dampen my enjoyment of the novel very much, and I still have to say this is the really enjoyable, delightful book that I expected from Lorelai (I mean, Lauren Graham) (no, I actually do mean Lorelai).