Scrumptious.  Full of gossip and drama.  Grab the popcorn and a bottle of red wine…this is the perfect book to lose yourself in.   

 

To me, a great summer read is one that lets you fully forget real life.  Soap operas often get a bad rap.  But nothing allows you to escape reality quite the same way as a dishy storyline portrayed by caddy women and unconscionable men living exorbitant lifestyles.  

 

The soap opera greats (think Dynasty and Desperate Housewives) have tossed the baton to Miller’s trophy wives, and I was there for every over-the-top, drama-filled moment.  

 

Georgia, Brooke, and Erin are divas with secrets.  Their lives look ideal on the outside.  Oh but the cunning and manipulation it takes to keep up those appearances!  The book begins at the end, in a hospital after a car crash.  Georgia is involved.  But who else was there?  And someone’s dead…but who?  Even more important, was it an accident or is this the result of a crime? 

 

Miller’s campy writing style was utterly engaging and worked perfectly for this fast paced drama/mystery.  She doled out clues at exactly the right interval to keep me hanging on for chapter after chapter, until I was reading the last page.  The foreshadowing was meticulously interspersed and the last twist was utterly brilliant.   

 

I’ve seen some criticism of this book’s soap opera-ish nature…particularly the grotesque wealth, the power of privilege, and the unnerving justification of all sins.  But I cut my teeth on the “trials and tribulations” of the Newmans (The Young and the Resless) thanks to *both* of my grandmas.  So I guess this book just felt like an old friend to me.  Somehow things that I abhor in real life can be overlooked for campy entertainment when presented in such an over the top manner.  My recommendation: take this for what it is…pure entertainment.  

 

Thank you Kristin Miller, Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of this book.