Choices: To the Hills and Back Again

“It’s such a lesson to never judge a book by the cover, or a celebrity by a tabloid picture,” writes Patridge, formerly of MTV’s reality show The Hills, in this candid debut. Patridge, who had a “simple, family-oriented childhood in Orange County,” traces how her early acting career as a teenager and decision to move to L.A. led to her role on The Hills in 2006. Almost overnight, she writes, the show became a “pop culture phenomenon,” landing Patridge and her costars on the cover of Rolling Stone in 2008. But as the now 36-year-old single mother reveals, life in the spotlight came with its difficulties. As she details the scrutinies she faced coming-of-age on TV, Patridge elucidates the blurred lines between her professional and personal lives that often led to toxic relationships, culminating in a very public divorce in 2017 from the father of her five-year-old daughter. Despite being prone to self-adulation (“I mean, I was homecoming princess—that should tell you all that you need to know”), Patridge owns her mistakes and uses her rocky past to offer helpful tips to other women struggling to do the same. More than just a typical celebrity tell-all, this moving account of self-discovery is sure to charm fans. (July)