Choices: To the Hills and Back Again

In this memoir, Patridge, star of the foundational mid-2000s MTV reality show The Hills, dishes on her years on camera, her romantic entanglements with Justin Bobby and Ryan Cabrera, and her new life as a single mother. But the book’s real focus is her troubled relationship with BMX athlete Corey Bohan. Patridge provides a cursory background of her privileged pre-Hills childhood, culminating in being discovered by an MTV producer at her apartment complex’s pool and immediately cast in the spin-off of Laguna Beach. She dispenses some behind-the-scenes tales, name-drops frequently, and acknowledges the many perks that come with fame (free trips, industry insider access at clubs, partying with princes), while largely glossing over the downsides of celebrity; she briefly mentions a stalker and intrusive paparazzi. Her success takes a backseat to her all-consuming relationship with the controlling and verbally abusive Bohan. Despite his continued infidelities, a pregnant Patridge agrees to marry him, leading to a headline-making implosion. She ends her book by urging women to learn from her mistakes, find their power, and value themselves.