Good points: incredibly readable. I finished it in 2 days. Easy style, no big words, no groundbreaking prose. Bad points: The storyline is not full of profound realizations or revelations. She's a sex worker who gets roped into being in a harem. Why only 2 stars: the whole time I keep thinking about the horrible conditions the royal family has imposed on their country's men and women. This girl is complaining because her paying-me-20-grand-for-sex-for-a-few-months "boyfriend" is ignoring her. I get it...she's 18 and young and dumb and all that. However, I just shook my head and tried to (but couldn't) muster any empathy for her. The only real person in the book was Fiona and her exit from the book was cheer-worthy. I hope that dame is out there living a good life and doing something noteworthy with her loot. If she had written this memoir from a compare and contrast standpoint between her opulent lifestyle and the political situation her boyfriend was doing at "work," now that would have been a book! This was merely a reality tv show in a book format. Interesting to a point but not my favorite of the genre by far. This was the only book somewhere where I was for a day, so I read it. If it were a novel, I would say that the main character didn't have convincing motivation for her behaviour. As it's not a novel, I can't tell whether Lauren just isn't that great at explaining herself or whether it is an empathy failure on my part. She says she learned from her experiences, but it was never clear to me what or how.Its interest lies solely in a behind the scenes gossipy look at this scene in Brunei. Even then, Lauren is weirdly coy about some things - e.g. when you're writing a book about how you joined a harem, why hold back on just telling me how much money you spent on designer dresses on your personal all expenses paid shopping trip?
What do You think about Haremmeisje (2010)?
This was an interesting memoir, but I feel like she stretched her material a bit.
—ForeverGrace
Just had to know what life is like in a harem. Pretty interesting I must say.
—jovszkie17
while the story itself is a bit unsavory, she does write beautifully.
—321nelson
