Royce Rolls by Margaret Stohl Pages: 400
Published by Freeform on April 4, 2017
Genres: Young Adult, contemporary, Humor
Source: ecopy from Publisher
Sixteen-year-old Bentley Royce seems to have it all: an actual Bentley, tuition to a fancy private school, lavish vacations, and everything else that comes along with being an LA starlet.
But after five seasons on her family's reality show, Rolling with the Royces, and a lifetime of dealing with her narcissistic sister, Porsche, media-obsessed mother, Mercedes, and somewhat clueless brother, Maybach, Bentley wants out. Luckily for her, without a hook for season six, cancellation is looming and freedom is nigh.
With their lifestyle on the brink, however, Bentley's family starts to crumble, and one thing becomes startlingly clear--without the show, there is no family. And since Bentley loves her family, she has to do the unthinkable--save the show. But when her future brother-in-law's car goes over a cliff with both Bentley and her sister's fianc inside-on the day of the big made-for-TV wedding, no less-things get real. Really real. Like, not reality show real.
Told in a tongue-in-cheek voice that takes a swipe at all things Hollywood, Royce Rolls is a laugh-out-loud funny romp with an LA noir twist about what it means to grow up with the cameras rolling and what really happens behind the scenes.
Royce Rolls is a young adult humorous contemporary by Margaret Stohl. I loved this book. I found it to be hilarious. It is no secret that I am a HUGE reality tv show junkie. I watch all of it…the good, the bad and the plain old trashy. I love it. And I loved Royce Rolls because it took all of the aspects of reality tv…from the filming and production, to the impact that being a reality tv “star” has on your life, to all of the absurd moments. It all worked for me. This book is pure guilty pleasure fun. Now, I will admit that if you find the whole idea of reality tv awful, and you can’t stand to even think about it…this is probably not going to be the book for you. You might find it superficial and gratuitous, and unnecessarily dramatic…which it is. But to be fair, those are some of the things I love most about reality tv. I found Royce Rolls to be a great time. I loved this book.
Royce Rolls was a blast for me to read about. I loved everything about the set up of the book. I loved the over the top characters, I loved the meddling from production, I loved the footnotes. It all worked for me. I think this book will appeal to a very specific reader. I think you will either love it, like I did, or it will be a complete miss for you. If you like reality tv, this is going to be a hoot and a half for you to read.
I loved Bentley, the main character. I thought she was likable and sweet. She was really easy to root for. I didn’t love all of the characters as much as I loved her, but overall I felt like it was a good ensemble. The real winner with Royce Rolls for me was the writing. I loved all the witty dialogue and the seriously hilarious moments. I thought this was an accurate representation of the reality tv aspect of our society today. Honestly, it felt very on point for me. I also liked that I felt like I was getting a behind the scenes looks at Hollywood and production, which is always really fun.
Bottom line: If you haven’t noticed by now, my theme for this book is fun. Royce Rolls is a really fun read. I think fans of reality tv will enjoy this over the top family, crazy moments and funny disalogue. I had a blast reading Royce Rolls. It was just as much a guilty pleasure as reality tv itself.
Royce Rolls by @MStohl is a must read for fans of reality tv! @Bookbriefs #review & #Giveaway @DisneyHyperion Click To Tweet
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Tour Schedule:
Week One:
4/10/2017- YA and Wine– Blogger Post
4/11/2017- The Mind of a Book Dragon– Review
4/12/2017- Novel Novice– Review
4/13/2017- Page Turners Blog– Blogger Post
4/14/2017- The Best Books Ever– Review
Week Two:
4/17/2017- Book Briefs– Review
4/18/2017- Tales of the Ravenous Reader– Blogger Post
4/19/2017- Seeing Double In Neverland– Review
4/20/2017- Mundie Moms– Review
4/21/2017- The Young Folks– Review
About Margaret Stohl
The #1 New York Times bestselling author Margaret Stohl got her start as thehead of the Dark is Rising fan club in third grade in a highly gifted magnet school in Los Angeles. Going on to study at a creative writing program at UEA Norwich, England, and to write and direct an autobiographical one-act play at Amherst College—where she founded the school’s first women’s literary magazine, Madness This—Margaret knew she was a writer.
After optioning two feature screenplays to Nickelodeon Pictures and Clasky-Csupo, Margaret began a sixteen-year career in videogames, co-founding 7 Studios game developer with her husband Lewis Peterson, and contributing to both Marvel’s Spiderman (ActivisionBlizzard) and Fantastic Four (7 Studios / ActivisonBlizzard) among many other titles—Dune 2000; Command & Conquer Red Alert Retaliation; Pirates of the Caribbean The Curse of Jack Sparrow; to name a few.
When Margaret co-wrote the first of the internationally bestselling Beautiful Creatures novels (published in nearly fifty countries, named Amazon’s top teen book of 2009, short-listed for the ALA’s 2009 Morris award, and released as a feature film from Warner Brothers) on a dare from her three daughters, she fell even more in love with teen culture. Her first sci-fi series, Icons, is now in development as a feature film with Alcon Entertainment. Her Black Widow series from Disney Publishing (Black Widow: Forever Red and Black Widow: Red Vengeance) is a welcome chance to rock a strong female character and to return to her beloved Marvel roots. She is also writing the Mighty Captain Marvel comics.
If asked, Margaret will tell you that the Women of Marvel panel at New York Comicon was the greatest single hour of her life, and that she fangirls all girls who read comics. As a co-founder of YALLFEST, the biggest YA book festival in the country, and its offspring YALLWEST, Margaret believes her readers are her kindred spirits and her tribe.
Margaret lives in Santa Monica with her husband, who builds drones and robots, and her three daughters, who are competitive epee fencers—and who, like Natasha Romanov, have always known how to rescue themselves.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
Sam
I was so excited to see a new book from Stohl, and really happy that it was in my favorite genre, contemporary. I am glad to hear good things from you about it, and am very excited to read it myself.
Sam @ WLABB
Meigan
I am so excited for this! I was initially drawn to the cover, it’s so cute and fun, and had no clue what it was about. I’m so happy to learn it’s not only humorous, but also NA and contemporary. I haven’t found a NA book I’ve liked in quite a while (since Helena Hunting’s Clipped Wings series, actually!), so I’m hoping this book will change all that. Great review, too!
danielle hammelef
Great review! I like to vary my books from emotional and deep to lighter and fun and can’t wait to read this. I bet my daughter would enjoy it too.
TeacherofYA
Sounds like a cute contemporary read! I’m not one for the genre, but I do think this one sounds adorable.