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I was worried this would be one of those "redemption" or "how I found myself" stories, given the title and seeing Christine on the show, but Christine has a little gossip girl in her! And it came out as much as one can expect from someone who could suffer real consequences from her family if she shared too much. Not all family knowledge is for public consumption, and she makes that clear in her book, but that doesn't mean she stays silent about her true experiences and feelings.

This wasn't just a recap of the show, and it wasn't quite a post-mortem of the relationship (as much as I wouldn't mind another few seasons of that!). It was a retrospective look, now with the wisdom hindsight brings, at her marriage with Kody and their life together with the other wives. It was what Christine's interviews would have been from those early seasons had she been honest with herself and able to speak freely with viewers.

As much as I would have loved more details, especially about Robyn, I respect that the story Christine shared is solely her own, and she didn't speak for the other wives or share details about them that we didn't already know.

No exciting new revelations, but definitely more than just a rehash/recap or coffee table book. 4.5/5, half point less than perfect because it really did need more detail about Robyn to reach "wow" potential.

The writing was okay, but the plot was subpar, predictable, improbable, and unjust. I'm supposed to believe a mother would go to prison to save a maid, a maid who had already killed other men?

The contrived attempt to make the audience sympathetic to the wife by having her take the maid's place in prison was unnecessary because the child had already made us sympathetic. The wife was such a poorly written character already - the stereotypical "crazy but actually not" woman in every domestic thriller. And now she's a saint taking a prison sentence for a maid she barely knows - and leaving her child to do it.

Seeing the wife be a poor mother when the author was trying to portray her as a good person really took me out of the story and out of the suspension of disbelief.

No stars for plot, but I added a star for decent writing and because I'll read the next in series. While this was disappointing as a standalone, there is potential as a setup for the series.