Helpful Score: 1
Reviewed by Angela S. for TeensReadToo.com
This novel by reality TV starlet Lauren Conrad chronicles the lives of Jane Roberts and her best friend, Scarlett Harp, as they move to LA and become the stars of a reality TV show. The book, which is based loosely on Conrad's own life, is a little slow in the beginning, but picks up a bit once Jane and Scarlett are discovered at a club by a TV producer.
From that point on the two, though a little hesitant at first, decide to audition for the show and their lives change drastically.
While Jane takes to the cameras being around easily, Scarlett is not so excited and wonders what she got herself into. Throw into the mix two other cast members, Gaby, a total ditz, and Madison, a total witch with a nice girl facade, and things get even more complicated.
When Jane starts dating Jesse, who happens to be the best friend of her friend-slash-major crush, Braden, things spiral out of control quickly and the jealousy of someone Jane thought she could trust ruins her life in an instant.
With lots of run-of-the-mill Hollywood cliches (blondes, drugs, cosmetic surgery, etc), L.A. CANDY almost fails to deliver an original storyline. In addition, in pretty much every single chapter, Jane and her friends are drinking (usually vodka soda for Jane) making it seem to the unknowing person who has never been to LA that you can't have any fun in Tinseltown without being drunk.
It is a quick and light read that would be great for the beach or a day when you don't need any actual depth in what you're reading. However, the ending is a cliffhanger and leaves you wanting to know what happens to Jane next.
This novel by reality TV starlet Lauren Conrad chronicles the lives of Jane Roberts and her best friend, Scarlett Harp, as they move to LA and become the stars of a reality TV show. The book, which is based loosely on Conrad's own life, is a little slow in the beginning, but picks up a bit once Jane and Scarlett are discovered at a club by a TV producer.
From that point on the two, though a little hesitant at first, decide to audition for the show and their lives change drastically.
While Jane takes to the cameras being around easily, Scarlett is not so excited and wonders what she got herself into. Throw into the mix two other cast members, Gaby, a total ditz, and Madison, a total witch with a nice girl facade, and things get even more complicated.
When Jane starts dating Jesse, who happens to be the best friend of her friend-slash-major crush, Braden, things spiral out of control quickly and the jealousy of someone Jane thought she could trust ruins her life in an instant.
With lots of run-of-the-mill Hollywood cliches (blondes, drugs, cosmetic surgery, etc), L.A. CANDY almost fails to deliver an original storyline. In addition, in pretty much every single chapter, Jane and her friends are drinking (usually vodka soda for Jane) making it seem to the unknowing person who has never been to LA that you can't have any fun in Tinseltown without being drunk.
It is a quick and light read that would be great for the beach or a day when you don't need any actual depth in what you're reading. However, the ending is a cliffhanger and leaves you wanting to know what happens to Jane next.
Helpful Score: 1
I wanted to read this book because I'm a big fan of "The Hills." Out of three hundred and some pages, I wasn't interested until the last 40 pages or so. The ending left me wanting more, but it has a very slow and boring beginning. I'm hoping the second one is more interesting throughout the entire book.
Helpful Score: 1
A good read. Lauren Conrad actually has a flair for writing. Chic Lit...but more for young adults.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a very light read or a good beach read. I was actually expecting more by all the hype it's received. I own the second one in the series and I've been holding off reading it just because I don't think it's worth the time...
L.A. Candy starts out excrutiatingly slow. Honestly, I never even cared about what was happening to any of the characters until the last 30 pages. Why did I stick with it? Because the e-book version was 209 pages. I can read 209 pages of anything. The negative points: 1.) The product placements scattered throughout the book. I swear Ms. Conrad must have scored some kind of an endorsement deal by meantioning clubs, restaurants, stores you name it. It's pretty common in the beginning of the book but drops off drastically after that. 2.) The use of internet/Text speech. I get that this book is catered to the 17+ age demographic but I actually found it annoying reading acronyms such as BFF & WTF in a book. 3.) The characters seem to do a 180 degree turn in personality about 1/4 of the way through. It was confusing to have them change that quickly, that soon in the book.
Other than the negative I did end up liking the book. I was on the fence of whether I would continue on with the series but I think I will give the next one a shot. I will say this in the positive side. I did watch a few episodes of "The Hills" and while you can tell that the show was setup and was toted as "Reality" this book gave an insight into how real a reality show is. The first rule of writing a book is "Write what you know" and clearly Ms. Conrad did that here.
Other than the negative I did end up liking the book. I was on the fence of whether I would continue on with the series but I think I will give the next one a shot. I will say this in the positive side. I did watch a few episodes of "The Hills" and while you can tell that the show was setup and was toted as "Reality" this book gave an insight into how real a reality show is. The first rule of writing a book is "Write what you know" and clearly Ms. Conrad did that here.
silly book but I'm a fan of the Hills and couldn't resist.
I noticed this book is highly WL'd so I thought I'd get it from the library. When I received it I noticed the book is marked from the Youth Adult section. I still decided to read it to find out what all the hype is about. Let's just say now I know why it was tagged YA. But the end of the story left me hanging so guess I'll have to reserve book 2 in the series from the library.
I read this book simply because I could not contain my curiousity. I was a fan of The Hills, but I could not imagine that Lauren Conrad would know how to be a New York Times best selling author. The story seemed to be derived from her own personal experience of being on a reality TV show and having her privacy instantly stripped away from her (she seems to have a lot in common with her character Jane). The beginning was a bit slow, but the end was much better. If L.C. really did write this book, then good for her!
Cannot even get through one chapter. Just go watch The Hills.
This book was fun a young but very closely based on the reality TV series The Hills.
