young adult book review & giveaway: L.A. Candy by Lauren Conrad

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L.A. Candy
I readily admit I have an odd fascination with Lauren Conrad. It's not terribly odd, I suppose, as her success is due to many people being fascinated by her. I find her inspiring, which I don't say about many twenty-four year olds. She grew up on television in perhaps the most mature way possible. We've seen her laugh, cry, have her heart broken and be betrayed. We've never really seen her lose her cool (the rant against Heidi was deserved and rather tame, given the situation) or fall down drunk. She's done a remarkable job of maintaining close friendships and some sense of a life when she was thrust into a spotlight at 17. Yes, she chose the show, but would any 17-year-old anticipate the career trajectory based on one decision? She plays by her rules; she walked away when she was ready. As I often point out to those who mock my fascination with Ms. Conrad, she has the best grammar of any celebrities I follow on Twitter. 

Given my fascination, I was excited to read her loosely autobiographical first novel, L.A. Candy. The novel started off rather slowly for me, but once Jane, our heroine, and her feisty best friend, Scarlett, were picked to be on a new reality tv show, the story picked up. It was fun to guess which characters and traits were based on real people, but it seemed most characters were combinations of reality and imagination. The behind the scenes look at how reality works was absolutely fascinating. I watched The Hills become clearly less real over the seasons, but it was still enjoyable to watch. It was fascinating to see these characters react to the sudden change in their lives.

L.A. Candy is not a great work of literature, but it was a delightfully fun read. It's the first in the series, and I'm looking forward to reading Sweet Little Lies, the second installment, soon. I recommend it to fans of young adult novels and fans of The Hills.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5 stars)
Pages: 352 pages
Release date: It just came out in paperback
Source: I bought it, and Miss Remmers won. Check out her blog!

Comments

  1. AndiMarch 5, 2010 at 8:23 PM

    And I had to look up Lauren Conrad to know who the heck she is! I feel so out of the loop. Practically loopless!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 17, 2010 at 2:18 PM

    I wouldn't mind reading this.

    nycole
    knycks1@aol.com

    ReplyDelete

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