The Three Lives of Cate Kay

September 7, 2025 /

The Three Lives of Cate Kay ~ Kate Fagan

Annie Callahan and her best friend Amanda Kent are inseparable. They are both involved in their High School theater, and dream of getting out of upstate New York and moving to Los Angeles in search of fame and fortune. After a horrible accident, Annie leaves town. Her shame at leaving is so great, she does not go back. Instead, she becomes…

Cass Ford, a barista who dreams of becoming an author. On a whim, she audits a writing class at her local college, where she meets Sidney Collins, a lawyer who also wants to write. They become involved romantically, and Sidney works as her lawyer when she becomes a famous author who writes under the pseudonym of…

Cate Kay. Cate Kay has written a mega hit series of books about a couple of television reporters who survive a nuclear blast in Manhattan. The books become movies, action figures, even a theme park. She is working to keep her identity hidden, again due to her shame at running away from the accident in her home town. She becomes involved with the Hollywood Actress who plays one of the pivotal characters in the films based on her books.

The conceit of the book is that it is Cate Kay’s memoir, and rather than telling us her story on her own, she is going public, and inviting all of the many players (both big and small) to tell their side/experiences. In addition to the characters mentioned above, also included are delightful small characters, like Cass’s boss at the coffee shop, the postal worker whose wife was a huge fan of the books, the book editor who discovered her manuscript, amongst many others.

I loved this book. Parts of it absolutely do not hold water and would NOT happen in this day and age. I noticed these things and moved on, I just didn’t care. A fun, quick read, and extra fun to listen to the audiobook version. Highly recommended.

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