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My Reality (2012)

by Melissa Rycroft Strickland(Favorite Author)

3.52 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1451631634 (ISBN13: 9781451631630)

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

Gallery Books

review 1: Melissa really does have a great story to tell - there have been hundreds of contestants on The Bachelor, and Melissa has probably turned her stint on the show into one of the biggest successes, with two appearances on Dancing with the Stars, acting as a correspondent for shows like GMA and Entertainment Tonight, and having her own reality show about her life with her family.I really wanted to read this because I was interested about more details on her time with The Bachelor, but that's not really what this book is about. I know contestants sign a confidentiality agreement, so that's probably why she is pretty vague about her time on the show.Instead, the majority of her book is really about her on-and-off relationship with boyfriend Tye, who is now her husband. Their rel... moreationship was initially unhealthy and very one-sided, with her desperate for his love and him only giving her the time of day when it suited him.When she gets back from The Bachelor, all of a sudden Tye has a change of heart and she has to fight him off while she tries to make her TV-made engagement with Jason work. When Jason dumps her on national TV, Tye is there for her and all of a sudden Melissa is a mini celebrity.Melissa has a very likable personality, but she doesn't come off as very likable in the first chapters of the book. I was very embarrassed reading about her behavior during her relationship with Tye, and he seems like a total jerk. It's hard to understand why she even loved him in the first place, and why she took him back later on.I feel that of Melissa, Jason, and Molly, Melissa definitely is the one who benefited from that whole scandal of him dumping her for Molly, so I don't really feel sorry for her about it anymore. Especially since she admits she still loved Tye the whole time and never really loved Jason. Yet, she still seems a little bitter about what happened, and gets a little hypocritical at two points when talking about Jason:First, she criticizes him for being excited about going on Ellen and Jimmy Kimmel to promote The Bachelor before it aired, and notes that those types of things didn't impress her. Yet half of her book goes on to show how much she embraced the chance to be a celebrity and she details people she met, shows she went on, paparazzi following her, etc. Thus it seems like that kind of stuff DOES impress her, so her criticizing him in retrospect about that is just ironic.Secondly, she makes a big statement about how she cherished her private life, and she wants to keep her career on TV and her private life at home. She talks about how she's sure what Jason and Molly went through after putting their relationship on TV (note: she was on the exact same show as them and did the same thing as them) made them stronger, but she would never want to put her relationship to that test.But this past spring she and her husband and daughter had a reality show about their lives, so I'm confused about this change of heart?I don't dislike Melissa at all, I think she's a beautiful girl with an outgoing personality which is perfect for TV, and more power to her for embracing the opportunities an undesirable situation provided. I just think that she was a little hypocritical at points, not that I expect her to be open-minded when it comes to Jason/Molly. Also, this "love story" with her husband was kind of sad and worrisome - they've been married for three years now and have a daughter, but the beginning of their relationship was very unhealthy, and it seems they rushed into an engagement and marriage after her Bachelor and DWTS stints. Just wasn't very romantic.All that said, this was a very fast and easy read and did provide some insight to everything she went through leading up to and after The Bachelor. It was for the most part interesting to read.
review 2: I've been a Melissa Rycroft fan for a while. The Bachelor used to be my guilty pleasure (until I realized that it gave me more anger than pleasure), and DWTS still is. I think she's is adorable.I found her back story engaging and interesting, but only because I've been seeing her public persona for a few years now.Her writing style was shockingly similar to my 12-year-old's (who, for a 12-year-old, is a great writer, but still...). For sure, this ain't literature, and there's NO reason to read this unless you are already a fan. It's more like reading a 300-page People Magazine article. less

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