LA Candy: Conrad rots your teeth with a sweet, summer read

I didn't mean to buy it. In fact, I passed it twice before caving in to its glossy cover and celebrity author. In the end, I just couldn't resist it, the candy hearts on the cover calling to me like demons from Hollywood's underbelly of gossip rags and Kitson boutiques, beckoning to me like I was still the tortured 13 year old of its target demographic. I felt guilty as the clerk swiped my credit card, but there was no turning back - it was done. I was the owner of LA Candy, Lauren Conrad's venture into my literary world.

It took me a few days to finally get down to reading it, to finally crack open its glossy cover. What I found when I did, however, was something mildly surprising: the stuff underneath the image was almost as glossy as the cover itself. While the writing itself lacks literary merit (although who thought it would have any?) and more than once any merit at all, Jane Roberts, the Conrad-esque main character, is believable and even occasionally likable. Fumbling into stardom through a new reality show also entitled "LA Candy", it is easy to understand how Jane feels trapped between all the different spheres of her life - the on camera, off camera, and newly spawned celebrity worlds she inhabits - and even easier to understand how she reacts to the initial offer of the show, with a touch of trepidation and an unbearable amount of giddiness. Jane is the reason to read the book, just like Conrad is (correction: was) the reason to watch the Hills, and as an avid consumer of pop culture, it is easy to gobble up Jane's naivite, lust after her new close-up ready apartment, and envy her club and boy filled nights.

Where LA Candy falls short, instead, is with the believibility of its other characters and settings. While Jane's boss, the icy event planner who likes everything white, white, white, is quirky and a little intriguing, the job and workplace itself feels as fake as jobs on the Hills. Jane, at 19, without any college or work experience under her belt is given a paid internship because of her mother's vague connections to her boss and quickly gets a promotion. Scarlet, LC's, I mean, Jane's, best friend and castmate is too much of a stock character. She is brunette and smart and therefore edgy and mistrusting of the other two girls on "LA Candy," attempting to push her way out of the limelight as the book goes on. Her brain is promoted, but always underscored by her appearance, as if her smarts are only valuable because she is also smokin' hot, like a girl superhero in a comic book.

As far as the connection between Conrad's real life story and that of the fictional LA Candy, a few names give away just how different the two are: MTV is replaced by Pop TV, Smashbox studios becomes Soundbox and Hope, not Whitney, shares a closet office with Jane.

LA Candy is not a raving success, but it is a good summer read, perfect for poolside mornings and afternoons on the beach - the kind of book summer's built on. So, go ahead, take a bite and imagine your glitzy LA life - it can't cause too many cavities.