Title: L.A. Candy
Author: Lauren Conrad
Format: Paperback
Release Date: January 1st, 2010
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages In This Edition: 326
Rating:

/5

On the Cover:
Beyond the Cover:

Summary taken from Goodreads:

"Los Angeles is all about the sweet life: hot clubs, cute guys, designer . . . everything. Nineteen-year-old Jane Roberts can't wait to start living it up. She may be in L.A. for an internship, but Jane plans to play as hard as she works, and has enlisted her BFF Scarlett to join in the fun.
When Jane and Scarlett are approached by a producer who wants them to be on his new series, a "reality version of Sex and the City," they can hardly believe their luck. Their own show? Yes, please!
Soon Jane is TV's hottest star. Fame brings more than she ever imagined possible for a girl from Santa Barbara—free designer clothes, the choicest tables at the most exclusive clubs, invites to Hollywood premieres—and she's lapping up the VIP treatment with her eclectic entourage of new pals. But those same friends who are always up for a wild night are also out for a piece of Jane's spotlight.
In a city filled with people chasing after their dreams, it's not long before Jane wakes up to the reality that everyone wants something from her, and nothing is what it seems to be."

Review:
I really wanted to like this book. Really. It seemed like an awesome, fun, and interesting look into the world of reality TV; something that I didn't know too much about. But this book didn't really meet up with those expectations.

Sure it there was some information relating to reality TV, but most of it seemed about the characters, and the plot itself seemed to suffer as a result. Now normally this wouldn't upset me too badly, a character study that is, because I usually like that kind of thing. But the characters themselves weren't all that great to begin with.

Jane was a girl-next-door type; this fact was even directly stated several times in the book, and though it made "good reality TV", it didn't make for interesting reading material. Her best friend Scarlett is the "amazingly-beautiful-girl-who-happens-to-be-really-really-smart-too" type; a type that personally I'm very tired of. I mean who really wants to read about a person who is basically perfect but who is insecure for no reason finding out that she is indeed perfect? Not me. It's true, they do have flaws, (i.e. Scarlett will sleep with almost anyone yet has commitment issues, Jane can't get over her past relationship.) But it wasn't enough for me.

I didn't even really finish this book. I was about 80 pages away, but I just couldn't do it. It wasn't worthy of one star though, because it had a couple of redeeming qualities. I did enjoy the writing style, and the words didn't seem thoughtless or pointless. The characters, though cookie-cutter, did seem to have their own unique voices that rang true through the page.

Overall, L.A. Candy by Lauren Conrad was a book I wouldn't recommend, but it wasn't totally bad, and it's maybe an okay read if you don't mind cookie-cutter predicable-ness.