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Skinnydipping    by Bethenny Frankel Amazon.com order for
Skinnydipping
by Bethenny Frankel
Order:  USA  Can
Touchstone, 2012 (2012)
Hardcover, Softcover, CD, e-Book
* *   Reviewed by Kelly Thunstrom

Bethenny Frankel has, in the past few years, become a one-woman enterprise machine. She started off in the media eye as one of the Real Housewives of New York. Then she left to get her own show, Bethenny Getting Married, which quickly evolved into Bethenny Ever After. Along the way, she has written bestselling self-help books and began the Skinnygirl brand.

She has certainly not had the easiest of lives, with lots of family troubles well-documented in her therapy sessions on her TV show. However, she always seems to pick herself up by the bootstraps and dust herself off. Her latest venture, the fictional Skinnydipping, hits very close to home and dives right into what we've come to expect from Bethenny ... too much information.

This is the story of Faith Brightstone (AKA Bethenny Frankel), who leaves college on the day of her graduation to become an actress in Los Angeles. She moves in with her estranged father, a famous horse trainer, and gets a job as a production assistant on a famous TV show. She, of course, then does what every main character does in generic chick lit ... goes out drinking every night, sleeps with a multitude of men, finds out that the guy she really likes is married, blah, blah, blah.

Five years later, she is back home, trying desperately to get her muffin business off the ground. She is soon spotted by producers of an upcoming reality show, Domestic Goddess, and is deemed worthy to compete. If she wins, she'll get a TV show in the Martha Stewart style. The second half of Skinnydipping is all about the drama of filming the show. Will Faith win? Will she find true love? Will she finally get her life together?

Skinnydipping is entertaining and is the perfect book for that beach getaway. The characters, however, are forgettable, and I had to remind myself of the cast of characters practically daily. But Bethenny doesn't really need to worry, as her fans will follow her no matter what she does.

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