Unrivaled No Spoiler Book Review

by Unknown - Saturday, September 24, 2016

Unrivaled by Alyson Noel is the frst book in the Beautiful Idols series, set in LA. Following the lives of the desperate and ambitious Layla, Aster and Tommy, it's fast paced, edgy and unique. Keep reading for more of my thoughts on the book!

This was also part of another one of my blog posts

About the book.

Book: Unrivaled

Series: Beautiful Idols

Author: Alyson Noël

Pages: 420

Publisher: Haper Collins

Published on: 10 May 2016

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis: Everyone wants to be someone.

Layla Harrison wants to leave her beach-bum days for digs behind a reporter’s desk. Aster Amirpour wants to scream at the next casting director who tells her “we need ethnic but not your kind of ethnic.” Tommy Phillips dreams of buying a twelve-string guitar and using it to shred his way back into his famous absentee dad’s life.

But Madison Brooks took destiny and made it her bitch a long time ago.

She’s Hollywood’s hottest starlet, and the things she did to become the name on everyone’s lips are merely a stain on the pavement, ground beneath her Louboutin heel.

That is, until Layla, Aster, and Tommy find themselves with a VIP invite to the glamorous and gritty world of Los Angeles’s nightlife and lured into a high-stakes competition where Madison Brooks is the target. Just as their hopes begin to gleam like stars through the California smog, Madison Brooks goes missing. . . . And all of their hopes are blacked out in the haze of their lies.

Unrivaled is #1 New York Times bestselling author Alyson Noël’s first book in a thrilling suspense trilogy about how our most desperate dreams can become our darkest nightmares. (source)

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery

Recommended for: Anyone 14+.

My thoughts.

{ S U M M A R Y }

Unrivaled is a book about Hollywood, set in Los Angles and follows three main characters, Layla, Aster and Tommy as they try and make it big. However, things start to change for them when Ira, the owner of the Unrivaled nightclubs offers them a place in a competition where the winner gets a huge cash prize.

{ C O V E R }

THE COVER OF THIS BOOK OMG!!!! Can we all just please take a moment? It’s so ridiculously drop dead gorgeous and I absolutely, absolutely love it! The gold and the black represents the book really well and I feel the cover designer hit it spot on!

{ W R I T I N G }

I quite liked Noel’s writing. It was enjoyable to read and had a good flow to it. The story was told in third person with alternating perspectives between mainly four characters and I quite liked how they each had their share of the story. It also meant I got to know the characters a little better and I felt the writing worked with the book fairly well.

{ I D E A }

The idea of this book was pretty cool! I haven’t read many books like this where it’s about nightclubs, the dark and gritty underbelly of famous cities and the struggle to reach the top. I thought it was an excellent book in terms of idea because it was so unique and well written.

I could feel the struggle and the lust for fame and fortune the characters felt. I could feel the desperation of those who were already famous to stay famous.

It was such an accurate portrayal of the club scene and the not-so-glamorous parts of the city.

{ P L O T }

The plot started off slow and I feel it didn’t really hit the sweet spot because while it was interesting, it didn’t go to intriguing for me. There wasn’t enough suspense or intrigue as I had hoped there would be and I feel if there had been, this book would really be top notch.

However, the book is mostly built on the plot and I felt it was quite accurate for the book. The power of the book lies more in the idea and the plot rather than the characters. (That segued nicely because we’re now talking about characters!)

{ C H A R A C T E R S }

Unfortunately, due to the story being written in third person and not too much background on the characters, I didn’t really connect with them or feel for them. There wasn’t much of a connection I had with the characters but that’s probably because I’ve never been in a similar situation.

However, I don’t feel like Noel really wanted to focus on the characters too much in the story anyway because most suspense and thriller books focus on their plot and idea (as mentioned above) so I’m not too fussed.

The characters nonetheless, were well written and you could see their personality traits such as ambition or desperation really shine through.

{ F I N A L L Y }

I didn't love this book but I didn't hate it either. The idea and the writing were pretty good however, the plot let it down for me a little. But not much! And overall, it's a pretty enjoyable read!