The Fame Game by Lauren Conrad

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: HarperTeen

Pages: 313pgs

The Story

In Hollywood, fame can be found on every corner and behind any door. You just have to know where to look for it. Nineteen-year-old Madison Parker made a name for herself as best frenemy of nice-girl-next-door Jane Roberts on the hot reality show L.A. Candy. Now Madison's ready for her turn in the spotlight and she'll stop at nothing to get it. Sure, she's the star of the new show, but with backstabbing friends and suspicious family members trying to bring her down, Madison has her work cut out for her. Plus, there's a new nice girl in "reality" town - aspiring actress Carmen Price, the daughter of Hollywood royalty - and she's a lot more experienced at playing the fame game . . . When the camera's start rolling, whose star will shine brighter?

Filled with characters both familiar and new, Lauren Conrad's series about the highs and lows of being famous delivers Hollywood gossip and drama at every turn.

The Review

THE FAME GAME is a spin-off series of reality-slash-fashionista-star Lauren Conrad whose debut book series was the L.A. Candy series. Now I haven't read her previous books in a long while now - seems like forever ago since I actually picked up those books and read them - but I was still pretty excited to know that Conrad was writing a spin-off series of L.A. Candy focusing on the bitchy and enemy character Madison whom I was a huge fan of in the other series. However, while I may have liked L.A. Candy, that still didn't mean I was going to love this series as well. So sadly and as much as it pains me to say this, but I was really disappointed in this first installment of this author's new series.

For this new book of Conrad's, the plot alone was pretty much non-existent for me and honestly I couldn't exactly tell you what the storyline was actually about. To get the gist of it, mostly the story is told through several point of views between girl characters seeking fame and having their own career aspirations and other celebrity-like things, and while it's interesting getting those different kinds of perspectives and learning about some of the old and new characters, but really all I wanted was Madison's point-of-view which was all that really mattered to me when I first began reading this book.

In regards to the characters and what they had to offer, I liked them to a certain extent, especially when we slowly get to know each of them individually and what they want from fame in general, but all in all it just wasn't enough for me to really like them, you know? But with that being said, I still managed to love the whole love and hate relationship both with this book and its characters. I mean considering what every character is currently going through in their personal lives and in the lives lived through the public eye, I think the whole point about this book was that you were supposed to have this love and hate thing with them, and since I've watched Lauren Conrad's The Hills TV show previously and seeing the love and hate thing develop between myself and real life people in their own so-called "realities" in the show, I can definitely see the appeal of this love/hate relationship coming across in these books and in their readers. For sure I wasn't a huge fan of the other main characters introduced in THE FAME GAME nor did they seem like my kind of people to aspire to, but I loved Madison most of all and unlike her character seen in the L.A. Candy series, I found that in this book her character was much more fleshed out and developed nicely which was a great change to witness. However when it comes down to it, there was still nothing strong coming out from this book. Not the storyline. Not the characters. But it was still . . . a whole lot of fun to read.

Overall, THE FAME GAME might not be everyone's cup of tea but if you have that secret pleasure of reality TV shows and seeing people's true colours come out or if you were a fan of Conrad's first series L.A. Candy series then I would definitely recommend this series to you! It might be written by a celebrity of a famous reality TV show but she's actually not a bad writer at all. She has this cool edge in her books and knows what happens when fame really takes over your life and everything in it!

The Rating

3/5 stars