Unrivaled

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)