Chick Lit Books

Meet Chloe, the main heroine of The Truth About Diamonds. Although Nicole Richie is actually telling the story in first-person narrative, the book is about Chloe. At the beginning of the novel, Chloe is not yet famous, except for the fact that she has grown up in a priveledged family, is addicted to drugs (namely Xanax and some uppers), and hangs out in clubs regularly. She is one of those people that everyone is drawn to. She has style, but has a bad habit of hanging out with guys who are bad for her. One day she is approached by Simone Westlake, a gorgeous socialite who is famous for being famous. Simone, who is clearly portrayed as Paris Hilton, is vicious, stuck-up and manipulative. She quickly sucks Chloe into her inner circle and arranges for her and Chloe to do a reality commercial series which portray them as best friends, and spokesmodles for a cosmetic line.

Chloe decides to go into rehab, and is instantly loved and adored by her fans. But things begin spiralling out of control quickly; people from her past show up at the wrong times; there are rumors that she is back to her drug lifestyle; Simone shows her truly wicked side by doing all she can to take the spotlight, and in the process gets fired from the reality series. Through it all Chloe prevails as a realistic and likeable heroine, however.

First off, this book surprised me, because I thought I would probably hate it. But I didn’t. Granted, the story and characters were a bit plastic and unrealistic. But the writing overall wasn’t bad, and the story stayed consistent and interesting throughout. I thought it was fascinating how Nicole Richie managed to bring characters into the novel who were clearly based on real-life people, but twist the events around enough so that nobody could sue. (I’m personally dying to know who Chloe’s friend “Carrie” was supposed to be, the grasping would-be famous it girl). Simone was clearly Paris. That in itself was pretty amusing.

The only gripes I had with this book is that it didn’t always read like a novel. It was kind of “all over the place” and the entire story line could have been summed up in 2 pages.

But overall? This was a decently good read, had interesting and engaging characters and a glamourous but surprisingly touching plot. I definitely recommend it to anyone who was a fan of “The Simple Life” or Nicole Richie herself, as clearly the main character Chloe is an alter ego of the actress. Oh, and anyone looking for weight confessions will not find them in this novel.

Rian’s rating: 4/5 Stars