"L. A. Candy"

Star of The Hills reality TV show and all-round fashion icon, Lauren Conrad, has now released four books and I've been hankering for the chance to taste a little L. A. Candy in the form of her first novel...

I'm a Lauren Conrad admirer, I'll admit it. As shallow as The Hills was as a show, I was smitten with it and Lauren was my favourite. She always seemed so likeable, the perfect friend. So tick, I'm intrigued to read her books.

The problem is, are they really her books? Although I believe she's more than a pretty blonde and capable of writing a novel, with these celebrity books, they frequently have ghost writers churn them out and then the big name takes the credit. There's a good chance that happened here.

This makes me uncomfortable, as a writer, and as a reader. I want to interpret the novel from Lauren's perspective, but I can't know for certain whether she really created these characters, the plot, the scenes. Frustrating!

These elements follow The Hills pretty closely in the book. The main character is clearly a cardboard cut-out of Lauren, although her best friend is definitely different from Heidi Montag. Similarly, there's a Whitney clone who pops up halfway through, which is about when the action starts to pick up.

Sadly, this novel is drab at first. I was able to read part-way through, then put it down and neglect it for days. If it had been brilliant, I would have pulled an all-nighter because I felt compelled to find out what happens. To be fair, it improves later on and there's a nice little cliff-hanger at the end. Read on the beach, a plane or anywhere you need a light distraction. It's not a challenging read and is mildly entertaining.

Borrow from the library, don't buy it.

Rating: 6/10.

Did you find L. A. Candy sweeter than I did?