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Not All Diamonds and Rosé by Dave Quinn Book Review


Reasons For Reading This Book:

As I mentioned in a previous book review, I am a huge fan of reality TV, specifically The Real Housewives franchise. Not All Diamonds and Rosé by Dave Quinn has been on my to read list since it was published and I saw all the talk about it on social media. I knew it was a long book and I never really had the time to commit to it until now. I checked it out from the library and took it with me while I traveled for work.

Content of the Book:

This book details the creation and evolution of Bravo's Real Housewives franchise. Told through oral responses by the wives, producers, and network executives we learn all that it took to build and sustain the franchise that spans eight cities, hundreds of cast members, and millions of loyal fans. Learn all the dirt on the franchise that started in a gated community in Orange County. 

What I Liked About the Book:

I 100% agree with Dave Quinn's choice to section the book by city and also go in chronological order. It was extremely helpful to have the premier dates at the beginning of each section. I liked that each time a new person's oral response was going to be included a description of their role or how they came to be involved in the show/franchise was given first. Also each time a wive or exec would leave the show a reason and final thoughts by them were provided. This book included so many resources that really made it a history like book. There is a timeline on the inside of the cover with dates, captions and pictures. There is also a list of cast and production with a detail of their involvement. There are two colored picture sections and lastly a tagline section at the end of the book. The inclusion of these elements signifies that this is a history style book. The flow of conversation in this book was very seamless. I can tell that the interviewer did an excellent job of asking everyone involved the same questions making the compilation of their responses flow like a conversation or retelling of the event/incident. Even through there are so many voices we hear from in this book it is really easy to follow the different topics being discussed. As a fan of a show you want more detail then what you got in the original airing of the show. The inclusion of Andy Cohen's and producers intake on the events provided that extra detail you didn't get the first time around. As someone who is fairly new watching the franchise it was very entertaining and worthwhile to read about events and issues that I have only heard mentioned and never actually watched. Something that was missing for me in a different Housewives book that I read was lots of details about casting and cast changes. Because so many producers and execs were involved in this book, I really got to learn all that I wanted to about casting. This book satisfied that want. Overall I liked this book more than I disliked it. 

What I Disliked About the Book: 

I read this book in quite a short period of time so there was not much time for me to forget what I had perviously read. I found that there were a couple of instances where entire paragraphs were repeated. In all of the cases they made sense why they were repeated but it was still annoying to have to reread a response when you already read it especially in such a long book. This is a very long book that requires commitment. In hard cover this book is 465 pages. It hurts me to have to mention this but I did find a number of errors in this book. For example, each time a new cast member was introduced into the dialogue they had housewife written next to their name. There were a couple of instances where this was not included. I also found grammatical errors. I do not know if this is because a grammatical error was made in the interviewers response or if the errors were missed in editing. I can recall at least a few grammatical errors. 

Would I Recommend This Book?

Because this book is very dense and a time commitment, I would only recommend it to die-heart Housewives fans. Personally I do not think that those who are not fans of the show and franchise would at all enjoy or appreciate all that this book has to offer. I also want to stress how long this book is With that being said, if you are a Housewives fan with lots of time to read I say go for it, you will not be disappointment. I think this is the perfect travel/beach read. I read most of it while I was traveling and stuck at the airport for hours.

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