Unrivaled

by Alyson Noël Narrated by Kyla Garcia

Overview

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Alyson Noël comes the first book in the Beautiful Idols series. With mystery and*suspense, fans of Sara Shepard, Kimberly McCreight and E. Lockhart will love Unrivaled.

Everyone wants to be someone. Layla Harrison wants to be a reporter. Aster Amirpour wants to be an actress. Tommy Phillips wants to be a guitar hero.

But Madison Brooks took destiny and made it her own 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 world of Los Angeles's nightlife and lured into a 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.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

02/22/2016
Noël (the Immortals series) sets this first book in her Beautiful Idols series in the glitzy, elitist, and seamy Los Angeles nightclub scene. Eighteen-year-olds Layla, Tommy, and Aster are thrown together after signing up for a contest competing to promote clubs owned by a powerful Hollywood mogul. The girl they all desperately want in their clubs: starlet Madison Brooks, a former small-town girl with a mysterious past. Layla has journalistic dreams, Tommy hopes to make it as a musician, and Aster is Persian royalty who wants to be a Hollywood starlet herself. Noël cycles among the stories of Layla, Tommy, Aster, and Madison in a gossipy, third-person narrative that makes for addictive reading yet does little to endear these characters to readers. Noël gives a bit of sincerity and naïveté to each, most of all Tommy, but competitive, money-hungry superficiality and backstabbing dominate. Noël seems to be interested in exploring the lengths to which people will go to get ahead, but the novel has little to say about it beyond the splashy, lurid repercussions of her characters’ actions. Ages 14–up. Agent: Bill Contardi, Brandt & Hochman. (May)

Anna Todd

Unrivaled is addictive! With a killer cliffhanger and twists around every corner, I couldn’t stop reading this novel. Now I’m impatiently waiting for the second book in the Beautiful Idols series.

Kimberly Derting

Pulling back the curtain on Hollywood’s nightclub scene, Alyson Noel’s Unrivaled has it all-glamour, passion, scandal, and even a missing starlet. This book is exactly what YA needs. More please!

#1 New York Times Bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout

Unrivaled reveals the dark, grittier side of fame and leaves the reader caught in a web of suspense and lies.

Jamie McGuire

Unrivaled will have you hooked from the very first page. Everything from the glitzy setting to the suspenseful plot is pure gold.

Kami Garcia

If you love Pretty Little Liars, you’ll love this sexy teen drama set against the backdrop of the glamorous LA club scene—where every choice poses a threat and nothing is what is seems.

Margaret Stohl

This glitzy, suspenseful, shamelessly addictive read offers an all-access pass to the glimmering world of Hollywood celebrity, where fame is a game, dark secrets are currency, and love doesn’t come without a high price.

Cecily von Ziegesar

Not all of LA’s beautiful people lead beautiful lives. Alyson Noel shows us with the details of an observant insider what they’re really up to, late into the night. Like a good celebrity, Unrivaled is mysterious and compelling and so gorgeous you won’t be able to look away.

Booklist

...Readers looking for a breezy, glamorous look into L.A.’s underworld, this is the page-turner for the job.

School Library Journal

05/01/2016
Gr 10 Up—What do you get when you mix highly attractive teenagers, dreams of fame, secrets, lies, and a nightclub promotions contest? You get a page-turner reminiscent of reality TV: an addictive combination of Survivor and The Apprentice, set in L.A. This series opener intersects the stories of three teens, each in hot pursuit of fame in a chosen industry and willing to test the limits of morality to get it. Aster (an aspiring actress), Layla (an aspiring journalist), and Tommy (an aspiring musician) are determined to win the nightclub promotions contest orchestrated by Ira Redmon, a calculating businessman whose bottom line is amassing profits. The nightclub that generates the most wealth wins, and in L.A., celebrity appearances are a sure path to profits. When one of Hollywood's hottest couples, RyMad (Ryan and Madison) begin visiting Ira's nightclubs, Layla, Aster, and Tommy are thrust into a cutthroat competition that hinges on getting Madison Brooks to visit their nightclub. When Madison suddenly goes missing, Layla, Aster, and Tommy become suspects in the case. This is a suspenseful, scandalous, and consumable novel that is sure to gain instant fandom and leave readers eagerly awaiting the next installment. VERDICT A must-have selection for older teens.—Tamela Chambers, Chicago Public Schools, IL

Kirkus Reviews

2016-03-02
Three fame-hungry teens vie for a prize they can win by running nightclubs for an unprincipled mogul, while a young A-list star tries to avoid them. Layla dreams of going to journalism school, Tommy wants to be a famous musician, and Aster intends to become a famous actress. All three join a competition run by Ira, who wants to promote his string of nightclubs in Los Angeles. The three will try to increase traffic in their assigned clubs especially by attracting celebrities. Meanwhile, 18-year-old Madison, a real celebrity, wants to get out of her relationship with her official boyfriend, Ryan, whose TV series is on the verge of cancellation. Machinations and romantic entanglements ensue. When things blow up and Madison disappears, the teens must scramble to find out what's going on. Noël aims for the celebrity-hungry chick-lit crowd and scores. Given that her characters tend to be struggling (unsuccessfully) with their already-thin morals, they are interesting if not always likable. With the exception of Iranian Aster, all the principals are white. While the plotting and intrigue keep things moving, the story's basic premise—of adolescents promoting nightclubs—seems absurd. The cliffhanger ending sets up Volume 2 of this easy-reading and almost defiantly shallow series. Chick-lit gold. (Chick lit. 12-18)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170006489
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/10/2016
Series:	Beautiful Idols Series , #1
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

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