"Hills" star Lauren Conrad to pen book series

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Lauren Conrad, star of the MTV reality show "The Hills", has signed a book deal for a young adult fiction series based on her own transformation from regular California teen to celebrity darling, HarperCollins Publishers said on Thursday.

Called "L.A. Candy", the three-book series is billed as a work of fiction, but it centers on the story of a young woman who moves to Los Angeles and unexpectedly becomes the star of a reality television show.

Conrad, 22, and her group of young friends, Audrina, Heidi and Whitney, have become Hollywood celebrities and household names in the United States and some 16 other countries, thanks to the popular two-year-old TV show.

"I have always loved books that I could lose myself in, ones that would transport me to another place, but had characters I could relate to," Conrad said in a statement.

The first book is due to be published in the summer of 2009 by HarperCollins.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)