I am a huge Challenge fan, so I absolutely loved this book! It was so cool to read more about the Challengers and learn a little more about them than you’d get during the show. I would definitely recommend this to friends.

As a huge fan of MTV’s The Challenge this was a fun read. A chapter on each winner talking about the person, their strategies, wins, and life. I would have liked a little bit more, which kept me from giving five stars.

Love MTV’s The Challenge and it was cool to get a behind the scenes look at the reality show. I could read an oral history on this show if I wanted to

The book is definitely for fans of The Challenge and it's likely only for fans of The Challenge. I am a fan of the show,having watching the seasons a ridiculous number of times, and sadly I have to admit that this book left me wanting so much more. With the inclusion of "at Life" in the title, I expected more in depth acknowledgements and revelations.

I did like getting more details from the contestants of the earlier seasons like Cynthia and Landon.

I wanted more photos and behind the scenes details. I would have love to read a book about the other contestants attempts at the big win, but continued to fall short because there is honor in trying.

For readers who are interested in this book, check it out from the library.

—h o w t o w i n…—⁣
Do you have a favorite reality show? ⁣
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Approximately 100 years ago (ok in 1998), some mtv masterminds decided to make a reality show out of other reality shows. It was awesome.⁣
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How to Win at the Challenge and Life profiles winners of MTV’s The Challenge to find out - who are they? How did they win? What strategies made them successful? While not a book I would recommend to a casual or non-fan, this book would be great for any diehards like me. ⁣
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Split into chapters covering each winner from one of the first (Cynthia Roberts, who won the very first season of Road Rules: All-Stars) to more recent winners (like Jordan and Jonna) and multi season winners (like Bananas and CT). The author interviewed countless challengers and weaves her own impressions, the shows history, and champion’s own perspectives together. Super entertaining and a quick read!⁣
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Thank you @mtvbooks and @netgalley for the copy!⁣
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#bookreview

As a long time fan of The Challenge, this book didn't have a ton of surprises in it's content but it was still great to go back and visit some old friends. A definite recommend to any fan of the show.

I can’t lie, I am a super-fan of MTV’s The Challenge (originally known as The Real World Road Rules Challenge) and have watched every season since the beginning, even after I stopped watching The Real World long ago. Should I be embarrassed to admit this, and to admit that I read this book? Maybe. 😂 But I don’t believe in feeling guilty about what other people might call guilty pleasures, so what the heck.

This book is essentially a series of interviews with people who have won The Challenge about their experiences on the show, presented in orderfrom least wins to most wins, though it certainly does not include everyone who has won including some multiple time winners - presumably it’s just whoever agreed to speak to the author. Because each chapter is just a write up of that person’s interview, this doesn’t really read like a book, nor is the writing itself anything special. Instead, it kinda reads more like you’re reading interviews with these people on a fan website. Indeed, the author, in addition to clearly being a Challenge super-fan, apparently has covered The Challenge for years on Entertainment Weekly’s website.

That being said, I did enjoy reading what the players had to say. Definitely a book for super-fans only though. And frankly I would not have spent money on it, but since I got it for free from Netgalley, I was happy to read it.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book feels dirty to me. I have connections in the Challenge world and was told the challengers were not paid for their contribution for the book and was told it was good for "exposure". It feels like a book where the company is making money off the challengers again.

If you're a fan of The Challenge, then I'd say this is a must read. I've been watching for years and look forward to new seasons. This book was a fun little inside look at the experience previous winners had while on the show. Quite a few of my favorite challengers were featured, which made this one a quick read!

One of my favorite reality shows of all time is MTV’s The Challenge. I’ve been a fan of the Real World and Road Rules while growing up for their ground breaking look into people “living together and being real.” So when they faced off in wacky challenges, I was here for the ride!

How to Win to the Challenge and Life is a fan’s guide to the previous winners of the Challenge. In 38 seasons of the show, there have been many multiple winners of the show. The book breaks down each winner and gives a little more background on each contestant. I remember a lot of the players, but I have to Google many names!

I personally loved the book as it reminded me of all the highs and lows of many seasons. But I also really loved the behind the scenes look at the show. I only wish that the author has a section about the several hosts of the show! TJ Lavin is the incredible host for bulk of the show and he’s the best!

Thank you so much to @atriabooks @mtvbooks @syndeybucksbaum @the challenge for my gifted ebook.

If you watch the show, who is your favorite player? My personal favorite is CT. He’s absolutely hysterical, loves to cause drama, had the sweetest romance with Diem, and has the second best Boston accent I know! (My husband’s is my #1) However, I also love Johnny Bananas (hence the photo) and Wes, Mark, MJ, Nany, Jonna, and many others. I look forward to this show every week!

This is a fantastic read for fans of The Challenge like myself. I often say that The Challenge is the best show on TV so I will eagerly consume any literature that deep dives into the show or players. How to Win at The Challenge and Life does just that - we go from winner to winner and get to know more about their motivations, challenges, successes, and mindset. A fascinating ride for anyone who knows them! The only person I was really missing and hoped to hear from was TJ.

Highly recommend for fans of the Challenge! You will feel like an insider and a bigger fan after reading this one.

How to Win at The Challenge and Life is out now! Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the ARC.

I AM A HUGE THE CHALLENGE FAN!

I've watched almost every season and know almost every freaking detail about everything that has happened. This book was a great read. This had great interviews and details and it was fun going down memory lane while reading this.

thank you much nethgalley for the e-arc of this book.

How to Win at The Challenge and Life was a great to read about some notable players from The Challenge. However, it was disappointing that there were some of the fan favorite missing that I would have liked to have been included. Four stars.

I’ve been a fan of The Challenge all the way back to the Real World/Road Rules days. In fact, I’ve watched the show long enough now to watch many of the cast members grow up, have families, and venture into acting, their own businesses, etc.

How to Win at the Challenge and Life is an inside look at past Challenge winners… how did they come to be on the show, their attitudes, what they learned, and how it’s changed them. What you see on tv is often an edited version, and I loved getting the full story of some of the elimination challenges I remember the most. Bananas backpack anyone?

Overall, I loved this insider’s perspective to one of my longstanding favorite tv shows and the people I root for and even those I love to hate!

Thanks to @netgalley for the complimentary copy. The review expresses my own personal opinions.

This is a Non-Fiction book. This book is about the main people on the TV Show The Challenge. I have watched the Challenge for years. I really enjoyed learning more about some of my favorite people that have been on the Challenge. I do not think this is going to be for everyone, and I really feel you need to like the Challenge TV show to really enjoy this book. I felt the writing in this book was very good. I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher (MTV Books) or author (Sydney Bucksbaum) via NetGalley, so I can give an honest review about how I feel about this book. I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

I'm a huge fan of The Challenge, probably one of the few who watched it back in the early seasons. Really enjoyed this deep dive into former Champions, especially some of my old school favorites. I remember when it was just the Real World team versus the Road Rules team. Fun trip down memory lane!

Thanks for the eARC and the chance to catch up on one of my favorite shows!

Enjoyed this book about the Challenge. I have been watching the show for about 10 years so many I was familiar with but many others predated me. I missed some major players, Wes in particular who so influenced many seasons, Kaycee a more recent winner, Tori , Diem who showed up what courage grit were all about and others who maybe didn't win but affected the show alot. If you are a fan, you will probably enjoy this book.

No real new information for hardcore fans, but it's interesting to hear the Champs themselves give perspective on their wins and how the dealt with the difficulties of The Challenge. A quick fun read for fans new and old.

This is a book for Challenge superfans and not the casual viewer. If you love The Challenge -- and reading detailed accounts of individual challenges and eliminations -- you will love this. If you've only seen an episode or two, this is not for you. (As a Challenge superfan myself, I thought it was very fun and interesting and I loved reading the interviews with past and present contestants.)

To me this felt like just a bunch of clips that could've been included in a bio of each champion that was included. As a long time fan of The Challenge there was not much new information included in this. I also feel like quite a few big names in The Challenge were left out of this book and lots of champions from the All-Stars seasons were included.

I did enjoy some of the information about some of the OG champs because their original seasons were so long ago.

Being a big fan of The Challenge I really wanted to enjoy this one, but it just wasn't for me.