When Ness Larkin signed on to recreate her character 20 years after her hit series ended, she wasn’t quite sure what to expect. After the series ended, she had hit a wall. She was acting out, flaming out, and shutting everyone out. It took years for her to get her life back together again, and she thought she had left acting behind. She was in real estate now, the person her tenants call to fix the garbage disposal or unclog the toilet.

But then Hollywood called. The Good News Network has decided to revisit Ocean Views, the story of a group of teens getting their first taste of adulthood. The ensemble cast included Ness’s best friend Libby and the love of her life Hayes. But after the show ended and her father absconded with all her earnings, Ness had frozen them out of her life. She knows going back would mean taking responsibility and apologizing. But she’s always wondered what could have happened if she had stayed in Hollywood and pursued the acting career she loved.

Ness only agreed to come back when she found out that Hayes wouldn’t be there. He is making major films now, and his schedule wasn’t open for the Ocean Views reboot. It’s not until she shows up for for the first table reading of the script that she finds out that the plans have changed. Hayes will be appearing in the first episode, and now he’s sitting in the seat next to her, his arm grazing hers with the same crazy chemistry they had all those years ago.

The show is set to be filmed on an island, and the cast is heading to the island on a boat together, accompanied by a young production assistant, Tyler. They’re a little dubious that they’re in a boar while the network bosses are taking a plane, but there are drinks and snacks for them on the boat. The boat ride will be short, so they go ahead and climb aboard despite the dark clouds heading their way. Tyler drives the boat while the cast can relax and drink, but as the water gets choppy, he’s knocked over and Ness takes over the wheel. They lose the navigation and the radio on the boat, and then their map gets blown away in the wind. Ness, with the help of Hayes, finds an island and heads towards it.

She hits the beach with the boat, but at least they can get onto land. They tie up the boat and head inland to try to find shelter. What they find is a castle, filled with gothic furnishings and little else. There are no inhabitants, no food, no power, and the probability of random critters having taken up residence. The group grab some mattresses from the bedrooms and put them all together in the living room, so they can stick together. They pool their resources and scavenge the food and drinks left from the boat. Once the storm blows over and they’ve all gotten some sleep, things will look better. Right?

Maybe not. The next day, things don’t look much better. They are able to figure out where they are, but the boat has gone missing, and there is no way for them to get from where they are to where they need to be. They were supposed to start filming that morning. Instead, they are making a list of their meager resources and wondering how long they’ll be able to survive before they’re rescued.

As the days tick by, the facades slip away and true feelings come out. These are exactly the type of emotional discussions that Ness had been hoping to avoid, and now they’re locked together on this small island and there is nowhere else to run. Insect bites, sunburn, hunger, frustration, desperation—all this and more plague the castaways as they try not to be killed or kill each other as they try to live long enough to do their jobs. But how much can they put up with before they crack for real?

Not How I Pictured It is a frothy look at Hollywood and it’s penchant for rebooting popular television shows and creates a situation infused with enough drama for a blockbuster thriller. The locked-room mystery of not knowing exactly how they came to be stranded on the island paired with the need to survive life on a deserted island makes for a cracking drama about perseverance, forgiveness, and hope.

I really enjoyed Not How I Pictured It and didn’t want to put it down. I liked Ness a lot and wanted to root for her, but this was also a lot of drama, and I also wanted to take a long, hot shower, grab some snacks, and take a long nap. This story is stress upon stress upon stress, but these characters dug deep and found out what they needed to not only survive the island but to thrive once they could get back to safety. This is a fun, compelling read.

Egalleys for Not How I Pictured It were provided by Kensington Books through NetGalley, with many thanks, but I liked it so much I bought it.