Sweet Little Lies by Lauren Conrad
Copyright 2010
Published by HarperCollins Publishers
309 pages

Lauren Conrad’s Sweet Little Lies is the second book in her L.A. Candy series.  Lauren Conrad, as most teen girls will explain to you, began her fame and fortune as a reality TV star on MTV’s Laguna Beach circa 2001.  She appeared along with many other teenagers from her high school. Her reality stardom continued with The Hills, another MTV reality show which followed four friends as they tackled the big city life in Los Angeles.

Some of the tabloid magazines (we promise we ONLY read them in the grocery store checkout lines) mentioned when LC started her book series that she was taking this opportunity to tell the world about the plights she faced as a reality TV star at the mercy of MTV and paparazzi.  We cannot confirm this to be true or false, but we do know the situations and storylines in the L.A. Candy book series are nothing appropriate for teenage girls.  We stated this opinion in our earlier book review of L.A. Candy.  Our opinion of book one follows suit with book two, Sweet Little Lies.

Some situations you can expect to read in Sweet Little Lies:

• One of the four main characters is having an extramarital affair with a married man who pays for her living expenses.
• Another of the four main characters is verbally abused and physically assaulted by her boyfriend.  This same boyfriend is portrayed as one who drinks too much alcohol and does so frequently.
• One of the female lead characters carries on an elaborate charade in order to gain more fame and fortune.  This character tells lie upon lie with little (if any) regard for others.

Our opinion on this book is to keep this book from your teenage girls.  However, if you do find they have read this book or they are very persistent about reading it, it would be a great idea to talk through the book’s plot together as the two of you read it.  Before passing the book on to your teenage daughter, the teenage girls in your youth group, or any teenage female you hope to guide towards the love of Christ during these very confusing years of adolescence, read the book yourself and be prepared to talk through events portrayed in the book.  This will help you, as the spiritual leader, be informed firsthand of the book’s content.  And when you see this book advertised in the “young readers” section of your favorite local bookstore (because that’s where we found it), please consider writing the head of the corporation or bookstore owner about placing it in a more mature section of books to keep Sweet Little Lies or other L.A. Candy books from selling to its target audience - teen girls.

Book three in LC’s book series is titled Sugar and Spice. When released, we will provide another book review so you can be informed as to the situations in the continuing L.A. Candy characters.

Ree Reinhardt is a youth worker at First Baptist Church, McKinney, Texas, and has worked with and ministered to teenagers for almost 11 years.  She graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Georgia and a Masters of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.  Ree has served in a variety of positions within the local church: volunteer youth worker, summer youth intern, full-time youth intern, part-time youth minister, full-time girls' minister, van driver, meal preparer, trash taker-outer, etc.  She currently serves with SAGE's event team and contributes to SAGE's online resources.