Review: The Fame Game series by Lauren Conrad

I finally read this series after wanting to for so many years. I was a huge fan of Lauren Conrad and watched The Hills religiously during high school. I read her L.A. Candy series after I had Samantha. I wasn't a huge fan of the characters in that series and it was basically just The Hills "fan-fiction" per say. It gave an insight on how just how "real" reality shows are.

This series follows two characters from that series. The "main" character of this series is Madison Parker. She was the mean girl in L.A. Candy. She was the fame whore who was betrayed at the end of it because she was keeping her background and past private.

In this series, we are introduced to two new characters and we learn more about Madison's family and that home life. We see her get knocked down and hated, and then eventually loved again. She loses some of her hatred towards people and start to let others in. She is losing that ice block around her heart and actually making friends with her co-stars and caring about them and being there for their events. We also see her fall in love with some one her age who doesn't like being filmed and photographed as often as she does.

The one thing I have a problem with is that we get an epilogue for Madison's character and somewhat Carmen's character, but Lauren Conrad left open Kate's and Gabby's story lines for another potential series if she wanted to write more books.

School Week 25 Photo Diary

I am finally getting this up on time somewhat. I am currently watching the Super Bowl. This school week was very rocky for us. Cayce went to work on Monday morning and came home two hours later sick. He didn't go back to work till Thursday. So for Monday and Tuesday, we had very late starts. I was going to give them Monday off so I could take care of Cayce, but changed my mind at the last minute. Tuesday, I just slept in because it was a very late night with Cayce.

Monday 1/29: We started at 11AM this morning. I was going to give them the day off and I told them we were taking the day off. They started playing with Legos and then I changed my mind and found some Lego challenges for them to do and they had a blast with that.

We started watching a new show again today called Wild Ones. They enjoyed this one as well. We ended the day with reading chapter 5 of A Wrinkle In Time.

Tuesday: No Pictures. Today was the latest start I think we have had this school year. We started at 11:30. We watched more Wild Ones and they seen some new animals in different parts of the world. After Addy worked on Easy Peasy. Ariana did some workbook pages. Sammy did some reading time. Adalyn ended her day with working on a puzzle. Ariana finished with reading Captain Underpants and Sammy finished her day with Easy Peasy.

Wednesday: By today, I was getting fed up of Cayce and I decided to wake up early just to bug him. It didn't and we started school around 9:35. They did their morning work and we finished watching Wild Ones.

Addy worked on some calendar pages. Ariana did typing on Easy Peasy. Samantha worked on her reading. We ended the day reading Chapter 6 of A Wrinkle In Time.

Thursday: We had a 10AM start time. Cayce went back to work and it was very odd. I wanted him back home. We read two chapters of A Wrinkle In Time. After, Sammy did some reading to herself. Ariana worked on some more workbook pages. Addy did Easy Peasy lessons. We finished the day with watching a YouTube video called "The Real Martha Washington".

Friday: NO SCHOOL. I gave the girls the day off to take a mental health day. Cayce brought it up because he noticed that I was feeling really burnt out and I had been really sad all week about everything. I woke Samantha up early because I was planning on a Ghost Adventures marathon, but my amazon fire stick had a different plan.

Saturday: The girls went to a home depot workshop to make up Friday. They made a Valentine's cornhole game and they have been having a blast. Cayce also took them shopping with their tooth money to buy a birthday present for Adalyn. Then they went to a Toys R Us Pokemon event and they socialized with some other kids waiting for the event to start.

Happy Birthday Addy

My baby is 6 years old today. I just can't believe that my baby is growing up so fast. She has learned so much this past year. It's even more shocking to think that she will be graduating Kindergarten in May... I am crying at the thought.

Happy Birthday to my Addy Baby

February TBR

here is my February TBR. The first two books have been on my TBR's for December and January and I am just starting Infamous. I am also in the middle of A Wrinkle In Time. I am ready to get to The Great Gatsby. I want to read 10 Reasons Not To Fall In Love for Valentine's day spirit and How Democracies Die is my next Blogging For Books review copy. 

I will be doing a collective review for the Fame Game series after I finish Infamous.

School Week 24 Photo Diary

This was we didn't do much, but we got a lot of work done it seems. When I look in my planner, I only have a few things written down for each day but those were some long ass days. For example, they worked on these cheetah crafts for a good hour- hour and a half. My children are perfectionists and they have to have their work neat and gorgeous.

Monday 1/22: We started our day at 10:20 with morning work. Then we watched 2 episodes of Wildest Africa which then led to the cheetah crafts below and cheetah roars the rest of the day until bed time.

After they were finally done with their crafts, I had Addy work on Easy Peasy lessons. Ariana did some pages in her workbook. Samantha read to herself, then she ended her day with Easy Peasy lessons.

Tuesday: No Pictures. We started the day at 9:50 AM. We watched the last episode of season one and the first episode of season 2 of Wildest Africa. After, Addy watched some Super Why. Ariana did some Easy Peasy lessons. Sammy read for an hour to herself and then she went to work on her Easy Peasy lessons. Ariana had some reading time today. Addy finished her day with alphabet coloring pages.

Wednesday: We started our day at 10:20. We once again watched Wildest Africa. We are obsessed with this series of documentaries. After we started reading A Wrinkle In Time because I saw the trailer for the movie the night before and I was intrigued. I read the first two chapters out loud. Then the finished their day with Alphabet coloring pages, Workbook pages, and a writing assignment on Madagascar.

Thursday: Today we had our late start of the week. We started at 11:10AM. I just did not feel like getting out of bed, and today ended up being our most productive day it seems. We watched two more episodes of Wildest Africa. Sammy worked on phonics worksheets. Airy did reading time and Addy did some Easy Peasy lessons.

Near the end of the day, Sammy worked on some spelling sheets. Ariana did Reading Eggs mathseeds and Addy and I read a whole bunch of books. In the pic above, she is holding her two favorites out of the stack we read. We ended the day with watching some YouTube videos on Martha Washington since she was an important figure in the American Revolution.

Friday: We had our early start for the week. I always like having our early start days on Friday because I am ready for the weekend, but they are also our longest days. We started the day with watching two more episodes of Wildest Africa. After, I had them draw their favorite scenes from both episodes. That took a while. Then I realized they had two more episodes to watch and so I decided to say fuck it and we finished Wildest Africa.

After we were done with that, Sammy did some Easy Peasy lessons. Ariana worked on some workbook pages. Addy worked on her Monster High puzzle. We finished our day with reading chapter 4 of A Wrinkle In Time.

January Wrap Up

To start the year off, I have read a total of 9 books. I am currently in the middle of two. Such a good start to the year. Three of the books were from Blogging For Books. I got through two books that were originally on my December TBR. One of the books I am reading now, is my most hated book of the year. I am slowly getting through it to see if anything good happens. I don't like DNF'ing books.

1. The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

2. The Fame Game by Lauren Conrad

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

4. Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary
5. The Heirs by Susan Rieger

6. Long Black Veil by Jennifer Finney Boylan

7. Starstruck by Lauren Conrad

8. Heidi by Joanna Spyri
9. Give Your Child the World by Jamie C. Martin

Review: The Sky Is Yours by Chandler Klang Smith

About The Book: In the burned-out, futuristic city of Empire Island, three young people navigate a crumbling metropolis constantly under threat from a pair of dragons that circle the skies. When violence strikes, reality star Duncan Humphrey Ripple V, the spoiled scion of the metropolis’ last dynasty; Baroness Swan Lenore Dahlberg, his tempestuous, death-obsessed betrothed; and Abby, a feral beauty he discovered tossed out with the trash; are forced to flee everything they’ve ever known. As they wander toward the scalded heart of the city, they face fire, conspiracy, mayhem, unholy drugs, dragon-worshippers, and the monsters lurking inside themselves. In this bombshell of a novel, Chandler Klang Smith has imagined an unimaginable world: scathingly clever and gorgeously strange, The Sky Is Yours is at once faraway and disturbingly familiar, its singular chaos grounded in the universal realities of love, family, and the deeply human desire to survive at all costs.

The Sky Is Yours is incredibly cinematic, bawdy, rollicking, hilarious, and utterly unforgettable, a debut that readers who loved Cloud Atlas, Super Sad True Love Story, and Blade Runner will adore.

My Thoughts: I got this book completely because of the cover. I thought it would be another great dystopian, and yet the first few chapters, I started to hate it. Duncan or "Dunk" our main character is a spoiled man child who believes he is hot shit. I immediately disliked him because in the first chapter, he speaks poorly about women and then jerks off in his flying contraption.

This whole story is demeaning to women. The women are called wenches and being demoralized. Duncan's mother was pretty much a "child bride" type and she dresses like a prostitute as she is called many times in the book. There is a lot of fat shaming towards Swanny who was arranged to be married to Duncan. 

I felt sorry for the character of Abby. She supposedly saves Duncan from when he crashes and she is living on a landfill island. She is mentally unstable and socially awkward and yet, Duncan takes advantage of her and fucks her. She had no idea what sex was and he basically raped her. She probably gave consent but had no idea what the hell was going on. He tells her she is his property now and that just made me sick to my stomach.

There is also no hilarious moments in this book. If you find it funny, then you are probably a male who think women are below you and have no respect for women. I don't know how a female author can write this sort of story in today's world and get praise for it. I will not be reading anything else from this author.

About The Author: CHANDLER KLANG SMITH is a fiction writer from Springfield, Illinois. She graduated from Bennington College and has an MFA from Columbia University. She currently lives in New York City.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.