While there was a lot of interesting information in this one, so much of it was out of date since I read it two years after publication. Totally my fault. That being said, the author jumped around so much that I found a lot of it hard to follow. I think I'm just not as much of a fan of expose type of books as I thought.

A must for all HW fans! Brian Moylan is THE best source. It was even more enjoyable on audio w/his voice. I enjoyed all the backstory for this wonderful reality gem. Thank you for access to the ARC !

This is a great reality tv/real housewives piece. We’ll researched, independent, and enjoyable. Overall an excellent read for anyone interested in real housewives and reality television,

Non fiction is not my typical genre and I should’ve known that before going into this book. I definitely think the audiobook helped, otherwise I would have given up on it as I had absolutely no interest throughout the book. Not for me personally!

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* lmao im so dumb i had no idea this about the tv show like *that* tv show but it was still surprisingly good, learned a lot lmao

I’ll be honest I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it and not listened to it. That being said super fans of the real housewives franchise will love this insiders look at the series. They will love all the juicy tidbits found in this book! Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for sending me a copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

If you are a fan of the Real Housewives of anything, this is the one book you should read. I loved the author's voice coupled with all the fabulous details about the show. This is one of those books that is juicy and all sorts of fun to read.

If you are a big housewives fan then you will enjoy this one! I loved the behind the scenes, especially when he interviewed producers and casting directors.

A fun listen with an engaging narrator, I enjoyed learning about the Real Housewives world as a complete outsider, having never seen a single episode.

Holy Housewives. Are you a Real Housewives fan? Or maybe just a reality tv fan? Then this is THE novel for you.

Moylan has clearly done his research here as he dives into the history behind how The Real Housewives Franchise began, how it gained popularity, and the criticism behind it. He also discusses reality tv as whole, like what really kicked off the genre and how it’s gained popularity.

One thing I truly appreciated about this book is that you can tell that Moylan is not on Bravo’s payroll for this book. Besides mentioning the multiple cease and desists he received, Moylan isn’t afraid to shy away from criticizing the network and franchises, especially when it comes to their lack of diversity across the franchises.

The Housewives is out now and I highly suggest picking it up now. If you love audio, I listened to it on audio and it was excellent. Moylan reads it, which honestly made it even better.

What a great audiobook and while this may sound crazy, I don't watch The Housewives, but I am not a hater, just not a follower. I don't spend many hours watching tv, so the hours are precious and women fighting for me, isn't how I want to spend those precious moments, BUT I love the celebrity of it all! I love how most of these women are of course rich, but not famous outside of their own circles, but with a little bit of television they become brands themselves and for me it is a great sociology experiment.

Now to the book. it was so fun to listen to while driving, gardening and cleaning the house. I love that the author read the book as I felt as though he added color where he wanted to since it was his own words. I loved the amount of background that was provided and then all the interesting insider stories about the development of the show and then the cities and how the casting really takes place.

This felt more of a research book that just so happens to have the subject of a reality tv show and I thought it was great. I would recommend this one and especially in audio form to accompany any fun activities or even the mundane ones!

Fantastic audiobook!

I’m a lover of reality tv and this book about the housewives franchise was a fun read. Quite a few laugh out loud moments.

If you’re someone whose watched this franchise from the beginning I think you’ll get a kick out of the book for sure and even if you haven’t it still had an interesting look at the people involved in the show and some behind the scenes information I think many of us have wondered about, but didn’t know!

If you can listen to this on audio I would absolutely recommend.

The Housewives is a must-read for any die-hard Real Housewives fan – even if you don’t watch all of the cities. I “only” watch Orange County, Beverly Hills and Salt Lake City. And my summer project is binging RHONY – I just started season six so I have a long way to go. I’m powering through though! Anyway, even though I haven’t watched all of the cities, I still enjoyed this book a lot.

It’s important to know that The Housewives is a behind-the-scenes look at the franchises themselves and to some extent Bravo as a network. There is not much scoop on individual housewives’ personal lives off-camera. However, that didn’t bother me at all. Sure, I love dirt but I’m also fascinated by the inner workings of the shows. Especially since Bravo is notoriously secretive about how Housewives works. This book finally answers everyone’s number one question, “Who pays for the trips??”

Bravo’s extreme concern about keeping everything confidential is one of the reasons this book doesn’t have more scoop on the housewives themselves. The author says that when he told them he was writing this book, instead of helping him like he was hoping, Bravo told all current and past housewives not to talk to him under any circumstances. Luckily, not everyone followed instructions. Also, Brian got plenty of former production staffers to talk to him and they provided some great stories.

I listened to the audiobook, which is read by the author. His delivery is a little stilted but once I got used to his style, I was hooked. He is a super-fan and clearly loves the shows, but he is delightfully snarky about them at the same time. I especially loved the chapter about when he went on a retreat that Vickie Gunvalson (of RHOC) put on in Puerto Vallarta. He whooped it up with Vickie!

Towards the end, he discusses some of the academic research that has been done about the Real Housewives phenomenon. Yes, academics are studying the show and writing serious papers about it! It turns out some benefits of watching it have been found. If you feel at all guilty about being a fan, this book will make you feel better about it. Recommended for Real Housewives fans everywhere.

Brian Moylan created a delicious and escapist story of the super rich housewives in which he does not shy from anything, no matter how touchy or embarrassing a subject. The cat fights and the jewelry are on full display! A Jackie Collins style read all around! The narration was fabulous and made the story even more fun.

15 seasons of Real Housewives! Ladies from different states gather together on a reality show launching books, cocktails, music albums, restaurants and much more.

Narrated by the author, Bryan Moylan who himself is a Real Housewives "Super-fan". The housewives provides inside access to the backstory of the franchise’s creation, who really runs the show and tells us what is true and not true about what has happened throughout the shows’ history. In between most chapters, Brian also provides fun facts or lists such as: How to Write Your Own Tagline or The Sexiest Men of the Real Housewives Universe or the important one for non Real Housewives watchers: Five Essential Episodes for Those Who Have Never Watched Real Housewives.

Overall, this book was well researched and well thought out. It was definitely funny and it filled my eagerness to know about my #1 guilty pleasure.

The writer narrated this book and I did not enjoy the way in which it was done so. I imagined the book would be a more behind the scenes of reality shows in general. Instead the writing focused on specific characters in The Desperate Housewives - a show I have not watched. The history of the show was interesting to listen to though.

This was a fun listen for about half the time, and then it just started feeling very repetitive. maybe I'm not enough of a Housewives fan, but if you're looking for a book in the vein of Andy Cohen's, this isn't quite it. But for the housewives superfan, it may really hit the spot!

So I am going to apparently be in the minority on this one, I didn’t love it. I reread the blurb right after I finished the book because I thought, surely, I read it wrong when I first heard about this book. Nope, blurb is still misleading. Throughout the entire thing I kept thinking, it's ok, all of this info that I don’t care about will be worth it when we get to the juicy details, just hold on…...except, there are no juicy details. You will hear ratings statistics for each show, the history of the Bravo Network, the founding of Reality TV, and then mostly recaps of episodes.

Finally towards the end the author reveals that Bravo found out he was writing this book and put an end to him trying to interview anyone, which I seriously feel for him! I am sad that happened, because if it didn’t we may have gotten an interesting book. But as it is, this is not an interesting book, and it's about one of my favorite topics, so that should tell you something.

Another note, I would 100% skip the audiobook, if you do choose to trudge through this, save your sanity and just read it. Your ears will thank you.

I don't even watch all the real housewives tv shows but this was so great to listen to. I loved the person reading it and learned a lot. Now I'm secretly wondering if I should start rewatching these shows! I've obviously been missing out!

Even if you’re not a fan of the show (which I’m not) it’s a fascinating look into the production world of reality TV and the entertainment industry. I think if you have been a long time fan of the show, you’ll enjoy hearing about how the sausage is made so to speak because while we know that reality TV isn’t necessarily real life, there is still a lot of drama not only on screen but behind the scenes.

While I think Brian’s narration is fine, 9 times out of 10 I’d prefer authors to not read their work.
In this case, I would have enjoyed a different narrator better, but it certainly didn’t stop me from wanting to hear the story.

***Thank you to Macmillan audio for providing me with a copy of the audiobook for free via NetGalley for an unbiased review.