Stephanie S. reviewed on 9/27/2015 + 168 more book reviews

The author was John F. Kennedy Jr.'s assistant for the last 5 years of his life, through the launch of George magazine and his marriage to Carolyn Bessette. John comes across as very real and unsuperficial, very pragmatic and accepting of the abnormal and very priviledged life he inherited.

However, about a third of the way into the book it occured to me that the interrupted fairy tale that Ms. Terenzio was writing about was not John's due to his untimely death, but her own. And since I wasn't expecting this, it kind of turned me off.

Her association with John and Carolyn unlocked many fabulous and unlikely doors to her, a working-class Bronx girl. Carolyn took her clothes shopping at the very best designer shops (for $800 skirts!). John gifted her $1,000 to attend the auction of his late mothers jewelry and brought her to The White House Correspondant's Dinner where she got to meet Presiednt Clinton. She tasted and savored a bit of the elite life because of her boss--but was never able to talk about it. John insisted on total privacy and she loyally delivered it, even if it meant that many of her friends and family could not be told about who she worked for and what was going on behind the scenes. So, when John and Carolyn tragically died in the plane crash in 1999, that sort of perk abruply ceased and she was set adrift.

Of course, she grieved for her friends, but still, it came across to me that she lamented almost equally the loss of all that glamour that she'd enjoyed thanks to them. So, I have mixed feeling about this book and why she wrote it. Because now she can dish? Hmmm.

Naively I thought the interrupted fairy tale here was the obvious one: John and Carolyn's lives being cut so short. Not quite, regretfully.

**1/2 Two and a half stars.

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