Royce Rolls

January 30, 2017
Bentley “Bent” Royce, 16, is the attitude-laden bad-girl daughter of the Royces, a Kardashianesque “famous for being famous” family of reality TV royals. It’s all an act, though, and Bent wants nothing more than to shed her TV persona and go to college. She is thrilled when the head of the studio, Jeff Grunburg, butts heads with Bent’s fame-obsessed mother, Mercedes, and threatens to cancel Rolling with the Royces. But she quickly learns that older sister Porsche’s failing lip gloss collection has wiped out the family’s fortune, and they desperately need season six to keep the family from financial ruin. Stohl (the Icons series) pulls readers into the underbelly of reality TV and the C-list celebrities and wannabes clamoring for a bit of fame. She adroitly weaves together press releases, posts from gossip blogs, tweets, and news articles to add depth and verisimilitude to Bent’s dizzying world. Stohl creates a laugh-out-loud send-up that pulls back the curtain on the unreality of reality TV. Ages 14–up. Agent: Sarah Burnes, Gernert Company.

March 1, 2017
White high school senior Bentley Royce's reality TV world and her family are falling apart. There's no promise of another season for Rolling with the Royces, but can Bent make this one a record-setter and keep her family together?Bent has been a TV star since the age of 12. On the show, she is "Bad Bentley," an unruly teen, but that's not how she identifies herself. The other Royces struggle with their identities as well, unable to differentiate between reality TV and real life. With the help of Mexican corporate head Diego Sanchez and her brown-skinned friend, Venice, she comes up with a plan to create the perfect season. In helping her family, Bent learns who she wants to be. In this sendup of the modern media world, Stohl evolves Bent from a damsel in distress to a leader, even if things don't go as planned. Stohl realistically represents Los Angeles as a diverse community with a large Latino population, though most of the main characters are wealthy and white. Within that primary-cast limitation, this funny, fast-paced read also explores identity, tragedy, and rallying around the people you love. Hilarious, emoji-bedecked footnotes from vapid RWTR-developer "the Dirk" add fizz to the breezy third-person narration: "Reminder: pls destroy this footage. It can never surface. Ever. Anywhere. ?" A smart, satirical edge separates this Hollywood chick-lit from many others. (Fiction. 12-18)

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April 1, 2017
Gr 9 Up-For most of her life, Bentley Royce has been a character on the set of her family's reality TV show. Her every move is calculated, down to daily outfits and breakfast choices. Though her mother, older sister, and younger brother take their scripted lives in stride, Bentley yearns for something more real, including a college education. When ratings begin to slip and renewal of their show becomes uncertain, Bentley starts working on a plan to transform her life. Things quickly get out of control, ending with Bentley and her sister's fiance reportedly missing after the car they were in is found at the bottom of a ravine the night of the rehearsal dinner. The search for them takes Bentley's family away from their structured schedules and forces them to reevaluate their lives. The author uses the depths to which the actors and network executives will go to maintain fame to make a stark statement about Hollywood culture. While Stohl provides humor and some enjoyable scenes throughout, the narrative becomes weighed down with repetitive reality TV lingo. Production notes and Internet blog posts sprinkled throughout are intriguing but also distract from the plot. VERDICT Some teens may get a kick out of the superficial activities that fill up this book, but others will lose interest quickly. A disappointing read.-Karin Greenberg, Queens College, NY

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2017
Grades 9-12 Imagine Keeping Up with the Kardashians as a satirical novel. Reality TV show Rolling with the Royces stars media-obsessed mother Mercedes; egotistical older sister Porsche, who has her own product line; gay, gambling-obsessed younger brother Bach; and troubled middle child Bentley, almost 17. With the show on the verge of cancellation, Porsche stuns the family by announcing she'll secure renewal by marrying Whitey, son of a record label producer. Following a mysterious man's advice to Play the game you want to play. Use the cards you have, Bentley devises her own scheme to get the series renewed. Cleverly written as if Bentley's notebook is the basis for the novel, this is complete with snarky production notes at the bottom of the pages. The plot isn't overly subtlereaders will figure out what's happening before the show's audience doesbut it's still fun, full of jabs at Hollywood stardom (and at Stohl's other books). Anyone who ridicules celebrity TV shows while secretly watching them will get a kick out of this.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2017
Bentley Royce and her family star in a TV show ` la Keeping Up with the Kardashians. The book opens with Bentley and her sister Porsche's fianci presumed dead from a car crash; the remainder relates the events that got them there. The humor often falls flat, but fans of "reality" TV franchises may be fascinated by the details that suggest they're anything but real.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)