“There is no in between. That’s not life, and that’s not how people should love, with only part of their souls or just when it’s easy and pretty. Love is ugly, it’s painful, it’s full of sorrow, long days, terror filled nights. Love asks for everything and nothing all at once. I love the only way a person should love. With every part of me that’s tethered to this universe”

It’s a jungle out there! Wow! Just Wow! What a uniquely, thrilling, lusciously dramatic, romantic and suspenseful read! Based on true stories and events, we felt like voyeurs, enjoying a ‘behind the scenes’ look into the mired world of the fashion industry, through the eyes of three very different, formidable yet achingly vulnerable best friends. With twenty years in the fashion industry, Zoe, Everlee and Brittany, have secrets…many, many secrets and we were dying to hear all of them. Starting with the death of their best friend Danica.

“…this city has a way of hurting you in ways I don’t think most cities do. Like you said, New York is a living, breathing thing, isn’t it? A monster if you let it be. Or a savior. An escape. It can be whatever you want it to be, and I came here thinking it would be this great adventure. And it was, but everything has a cost, you know?”
“What was your cost?”

The gripping synopsis gives you all you need to know about this story and its various players and it’s a story that’s best enjoyed completely spoiler free. As we closed the last page, we felt as though we knew each of the characters intimately, experiencing the myriad of emotions felt by the characters, desperate to uncover their pasts and devour the secrets they slowly shared with us.

‘Love wasn’t cut and dried, and if you couldn’t fight for something, that meant a person didn’t deserve to have it in the first place…….
He’d fight for the rest of his life to deserve her.’

Kathy Ireland and Rachel Van Dyken make an incredible and exciting writing partnership bringing swoony romance, unrequited love, political and celebrity scandals and buried secrets between all characters. Secrets that bubble to the surface and threaten to explode in the weeks leading up to New York Fashion Week. Oh gosh, it was all so DELICIOUS! We couldn’t get enough!

“Sometimes, men have no choice but to become monsters to protect those they love from the darkness.”

Kathy Ireland and RVD strikingly captured the passion of these women, their strength, their camaraderie and the hurt and the take downs that marred their confidence. Yes, they were beautiful and had the world at their feet, yet they were crippled by insecurity in an industry brimming with predators and people prepared to tear you down. Their resilience was a credit to them.

It’s not just the women who held us spellbound, there were two unbelievably gorgeous men who completely stole our hearts. The sweet and swoony Dr Oliver Desmond (the way Oliver leans against a door frame…talk about swoooon) and the mysteriously mouth-watering devil in a dark suit, Dane Saldino, whose cloak and dagger antics had us on the edge of the seat. His love for his sister Danica, and her friends, his ingrained protectiveness towards these women made our hearts swoon! We would LOVE a Dane Saldino spinoff! Prepare to fall hard and fast for these guys!

‘…..when you loved Dane, you loved the good and the bad. You loved the man and the monster. ‘

We were completely enthralled by Fashion Jungle from start to finish! Our inquisitive minds were teased, our romantic hearts were tantalised, and our venturesome ways were satiated in this story of friendship and love against a backdrop of lies and betrayal. Clever, poignant inventive storytelling with a real life feeling woven between the pages ensured we enjoyed every single moment!

‘He’d save here because he was selfish. Because he saw, he fell, he wanted.’

What a great book! It's a little "Project Runway" and a little "Sopranos" mixed in with some mystery and romance. The fact that this book is based on real life events is freaking sad and so scary, but the fact that real life is sad and scary is part of what makes this book so good! This is a story of survival and friendship. It's about love and loss and staying true to yourself. It's about the decisions you make that shape the rest of your life. It's about second chances. After reading this book, you'll never look at the world of fashion and modeling the same way. And that's probably a good thing!

Brittany, Zoe, Everlee, and Danica... These four ladies have one common bond that ties them together, Fashion Model. The trials, tribulations, and harrowing encounters the ladies experience as they strived to reach the top and then to maintain their status are surprisingly difficult. Each model shares her most vulnerable secrets and you are privy to their behind closed doors lives. The strength that Brittany gains from her faith is inspiring to not only her friends but also to the reader. Although this is a fictional novel, there is a deeper truth that is shared about what young models encounter as they enter this indunstry. Kathy Ireland and Rachel Van Dylan have brought us a book of love, intrigue, friendship, empowerment, and ultimately the strength in having faith. I highly recommend this book.

This is a story of four women Brittany, Zoe, Everlee and Danica who as teenagers dreamed of the glamour and prestige of fashion and modeling but years later, they find out that not all that glitters is gold. They have all reached their present in different ways, have different experiences but each have pasts that they want to remain private and regrets about what they have done and what they should have done.

When one of their inner circle is no longer with them, the rest are struggling to come to terms with the aftermath. They along with Danica’s brother Dane are determined to expose the fashion world for what it truly is but their mission won’t be without its collateral damage.

This is a story of a deep enduring friendship between four strong women who are with each other through all the elation and devastation that life brings. It is a story of love lost and love found filled with intrigue and twists that show once again that things aren’t always as they appear.

When I saw that Fashion Jungle was being co-authored by Kathy Ireland and Rachel Van Dyken, I was instantly intrigued. Ms. Van Dyken is one of my favorite authors so I was interested to see how their collaboration would play out. I have to say I really enjoyed it. A view of the inner workings of the fashion and modeling industry combined with a mystery, domestic abuse and much more kept me turning the pages.. The authors definitely squeezed as much into this book as they could. They were able to shine a spotlight on many important topics.

Fashion Jungle focuses on the lives of three fashion models, Brittany, Everlee and Zoe, who met one another when they were fourteen. One of their friends , Danica, recently died. Each of them is dealing with difficult challenges and each of them has secrets. In addition, the other major character is Dane, Danica's brother who is in love with Everlee. This book shows that you never know what is truly going on in someone's life. Just because things look good from the outside, the interior might be in tatters. So many people envied these women for their fame and fortune as top models, but their lives were anything but wonderful.

Also, I loved the relationship between these women. Their commitment to their friendship was simply amazing. It is a rare thing to find friendships that can endure a lifetime but the ones the authors wrote of in this book were that special kind. The ones where you know they always have your back no matter what.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I read the blurb but this book was so much more than that! I really wasn't sure what I was going to be getting but I knew with red and Kathy Iteland writing it, I'd give it a chance. I mean come on! Lol I'm so glad that I did!

So much love in this book but also behind the scenes. The heartbreaks, the tragedies but the LOVE. Oh the feelings, the love, the friendships that never die.

So much in this book!

3.75 Pulling the Curtain Way Stars
* * * 3/4 Spoiler Free
Every generation has beauty icons they look up to...or are fascinated by. The Original Ones were the Real Movie Stars...Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth, Elizabeth Taylor...the names could go on and on...Then we had the emergence of the models of the '60s that became the faces that stared out at us, Twiggy, Jean Shrimpton, Veruschka, Patti Boyd and so many others...Each decade had their stars, their Supermodels...the '70s brought us Iman, Lauren Hutton, Janice Dickerson, Beverly Johnson...again so many.

Which brings us to Kathy Ireland. She was the Good Girl Next Door of the '80s. She was out there fighting the runways and magazine covers with a pack of amazing women, Cindy Crawford, Christie Brinkley, Paulina Porizkova, Elle Macpherson, Kim Alexis, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, and others.

Kathy Ireland was out there being on the covers little girls dreamed of...Sports Illustrated to Vogue. But Ms. Ireland had something special, a critical eye and support system many did not have. She has been massively successful outside of the modeling industry before it was "The Thing". There is much out there to learn about all of her ventures.

I touch on this only to give a background to how rare it is to have the "Real Deal" about the Fashion Industry during those years and how cutthroat it is. All of the storylines in this book ring true. The fact Ms. Ireland has partnered with the icon Rachel Van Dyken makes this project even more enticing.

We have all read the stories of how young girls are plucked from families...with the stars and glamour in their eyes and hearts.

Promises are whispered in the ears of parents and caretakers...
We will look out for them...
We will make sure they are protected...
They will eat well and get their rest...
We will take care of them as if they are our Own Children...
The money they will make will change their lives...and yours forever...

During these times, there was little internet, no Twitter, or streaming-only TV and Slick Fashion magazines. Runways in all the big fashion capitals like New York City, Rome, Paris, and all the others were the goals. Advertising Campaigns needing new faces to promote their products had just started to become the Golden Ticket. These were the promises and young girls where blinded by the lights.

We are given the stories and secrets of four 14-year-old girls brought into the business at the same time. They are housed in an apartment that is like a dorm...from hell. It is owned by the model agency where the cost of feeding them, housing them and any other costs happen are charged back to them when they leave...successful or mostly not.

For us who may have followed all of these things back in the day, remember reading and learning about Eileen Ford and her agency. She did exactly that...apartments where she "took care of the girls" like they were her own.

These four girls develop a very special bond and even in death it is not broken. We have stories told from each POV. We also are given a mystery, a long-held love for one of the women and the launching of a new fashion line.

The entire timeline is over the ramp-up to New York Fashion Week. In seventeen days many lives are changed. Secrets are revealed and discoveries between all of them test the bonds.

I was drawn by the authors and subject matter. It has romance but is more of a women's fiction/suspense. There were heavy emotional moments, spiritual ones and reaffirming ones.

The fashion world is a jungle - eat or be eaten. Three friends who got their modeling start together are now 20 years older and wiser than when we met. They are also grieving the loss of the 4th member of their band of friends. Brittany is the good girl, with her Bible ever at her side, hiding a secret from long ago that haunts her to this day. Zoe is the natural leader, but is trying to avoid paying back a debt with a vow of marriage. Everlee has the picture perfect marriage, with cracks hiding below the surface. And Danica is the one they lost, ever the life of the party, her secret might just be the biggest of them all.

I liked these women from the very start, even though I struggled to find the story they were telling together. These women each have their own struggles and secrets weighing them down. As their stories unfolded I found myself pulled into their world, pulled into the mystery of what was really going on in each of their lives.

That ending though! I struggled to connect with the characters and the jungle that is the fashion world, but that ending! As Dane come closer to solving the mystery I found myself guessing what was coming next. Even though he was doing so much to help the women, I sometimes wondered if his secrets made him a character I could trust, which kept me constantly questioning everyone.

This was a bit of a genre shift for Rachel, and though I wasn’t sure it was going to be truly for me, since I am not into fashion or the industry, but once I settled into the characters, it had everything I look for in a good book: compelling backstories, interesting plot twists (with a little bit of suspense), and characters that make me root for them.

<div style="text-align:center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/sIrPAVZ.jpg" width="350" height="101" alt="description"/>
</p></div>

I went into this book completely blind. I had no clue what to expect but I am a fan of RVD so I am like what the heck. The beginning of the book lays the foundation of the characters in the book. All the characters lives are intertwined with one another and the fashion industry in some way. I am not familiar with the life of models or the fashion industry so I really enjoyed how this book gave me insight. I loved the character. On the outside one would think models have it all but it was refreshing to see the struggles that the characters were dealing with. This book had it all jealousy, secrets, lies, and betrayal. There was definitely enough drama to keep the reader engaged. The different perspectives that we get in the book is another great benefit. This book is so different for me but I enjoyed it. If you are looking for a book that is outside of the box, that takes you on a journey this is the book to read.

First I want to start off by saying this book is amazing, but its also heartbreaking and gut wrenching. It is also REAL, and so so beautiful. Its so sad to know that these things are happening in the fashion industry. I think this book is incredibly brave, as are all of the characters in it.

This review has taken me some time to write so I could take some time and appropriately gather my thoughts on it. I’m still not sure I’ve fully done that. To be honest, at times I felt like Fashion Jungle was hard to read. As with most humans, I tend to shy away from things that make me uncomfortable but I’m so glad I kept reading.

It was beyond amazing to watch as these characters really grew, faced fears and made the hard decisions. I was fully invested in every one of their stories and was rooting for them the whole time.

theres plenty of reviews that will go in depth as to the plot line and give summaries but I’m not going to do that. I like to write how the book made me feel and more importantly if Id recommend it or not. So do I? YES, X1000.

It starts off a little confusing as you get a feel for the where the characters are at and whose who but you will quickly be immersed and captivated in the story. This is not the kind of book I usually tend to read, and if that is also the case for you and you’re thinking about this, give it a chance. I really think you’ll fall in love.

Bravo to RVD and Kathy Ireland on an incredible book. Despite the difficult subject matter this book was epic and fully blew me away. 5 stars well deserved.

Whoa what a story! This is a fiction book about the dark side of the fashion world and how cutthroat it can really be. I hear some of the story is based on true events, and I’d love to know exactly what! It would definitely make for a great movie or TV series.

The book immediately opens up with a bang from the prologue and you’re really trying to figure out what is going on. The story is told by multiple narrators. I did struggle with how many characters there were and keeping them all straight. You get tiny breadcrumbs of information from each, leading to some big reveals. There were a whole lot of secrets and lies. It was dark and twisted. The girls have emotional back stories, which could be a trigger warning for some readers. It hits on many important but hard to read subjects. The ending was exactly what we needed for closure. I’d love more stories from this duo!

* ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

It is a world where you don't know who you can trust and you hold onto whatever you can to keep going. A world of dreams and so many nightmares. Would you survive the jungle?
I love books that give you a behind the scenes look where you may never have a chance to otherwise go. The world of the fashion industry is always a temptation especially for little girls. Kathy Ireland and Rachel Van Dyken give you the peak behind the curtain you have been waiting for. It is definitely not always all glitz and glamour. The story of these girls and a few of those around them is one of hustle, heart, romance and fear. Secrets they keep and secrets kept from them. There is so much packed into theses pages, that it will keep you flipping through to get to the end.
Though this story is written after the girls have been in the industry for a while you get a glimpse of what life is like for the younger girls just starting out, either the flashbacks of their pasts or the secrets and side glances they witness.
I wasn't entirely sure of what to think this book would be like when I first hear about it, but I am so glad I read it.

5+ stars
Holy wow this book. Just finished and hands down it's totally on my top reads list of this year. whoa i have always been a fan of RVD's books but her duo with Kathy knocked this off the charts. This book sucked me right from the beginning and i couldn't put it down. Finished it in one sitting it was jus so damn intriguing. I was truly mesmerized by this story. Fashion Jungle is about four friends and their experience and life in fashion industry. Rachel and Kathy showed it amazingly, all the parts of the industry - good, bad, beautiful and ugly. The writing was astounding and i can't begin to explain how fantastic this book truly is. The duo has taken the readers on an amazing, wild ride full of emotions and everything in between.
And omg talk about Dane damn it i need a guy like that in my life. I think everyone needs someone like him. And the friendship between the girl so real so beautiful. My emotions are all over the place. I smiled, cried, screamed, yelled, cursed and was shocked so many times. And the mystery element kept it all the more interesting till the very end.
Another winner by RVD and Kathy. Highly recommended to EVERYONE!!!!

A well-written story that has lots of mystery, secrets, angst, romance, lost love and found love. This book will draw you in and keep you guessing what each of the main characters secrets are and how they all tie together while they all have their own love story unfolding at the same time. Overall, a highly entertaining read.

Fashion Jungle is sort of a murder mystery sprinkled with some romantic elements. It is angsty, suspenseful, and intense. It’s based on true stories and events and is not for the faint of heart.

The plot is written in multiple points of view, which was a little confusing at times. The first half of the book felt a bit slow to me and didn’t always hold my attention. The second half, however, had me gripping the edge of my seat and reading into the wee hours of the morning.

The characters were interesting and diverse. I had a hard time relating to many of them. That being said, I adored Brittany and Oliver. They would have made a great romance novel all on their own.

While I’m a huge fan of Rachel Van Dyken, this book had a much different feel than her other books, possibly due to its being co-authored. It wasn’t really my cup of tea but was well written nonetheless.

Fashion Jungle was an interesting book. It deals with four models who got into the business at 14 and now, years later, are mourning the loss of one of their own. Each of them appear to have it all to the outside world, but each of them have their own private struggles. Their dynamics were interesting and each of them seemed to bring something different to their relationships. Zoe was definitely standoffish with Dane and seemed to hold him to a higher standard than he could meet. Everly seemed to be putting blinders on in her marriage to Frederick. Brittany seemed to be stuck in the past and unsure what to do with her personal life. I liked how each of them came to their own conclusions about what they needed to make themselves happy in the present. Each seemed to be stuck on some of the past and looking for a way forward. The plot was interesting and the book did deal with some pretty significant issues. It dealt with them in what I assume is a realistic way that models are treated and used,, especially when they are very young. The ending was satisfying and had me glad that I spent this afternoon reading this book.
I received an ARC from NetGalley for my honest review.

Ladies and gents get ready for an ex-fashion model and a wild imaginative author come together in a way nobody thought was possible. We have a behind the scenes story telling from Kathy Ireland in a world that us girls dream of going through one day yet see a darker side to it. Every little girl in us one day imagines our face in Vogue or walking down the runway in the latest fashion but man Kathy Ireland just blew all that way in this book. Then we have Rachel Van Dyken bringing us her mafia world and the dirtiness with these four girls. Four girls who have seen the good, the bad, the dreams come true showing us through it all it is love and friendship that will make you shine in the runway. Of these four girls my favorite though is Brittany. Mixed with feelings of JFK Kennedy Jr and Caroline romance yet with hope of a second chance and seeing her see that she can have love and normalcy again in her life was beautiful. All in all this is one book, Fashion Jungle that will sweep you off your feet like the latest fashion clothes by two talented ladies, Kathy Ireland and Rachel Van Dyken an awesome duo.

"I received an eBook copy from the publisher for the purpose of an honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own."

WOW! I loved how all of these lives are entwined and that Kathy and Rachel did an excellent job of weaving in the telling of the story as a whole. The book came together very well at how it was written. At the end I had to add "mystery, thriller, suspense" to my shelf for this book. I love that its unexpected and had so much more. I was glad I basically went in blind! I have to say Zoe and Dane story was my favorite couple to read about but also Everley's story was sad. Even though this is a standalone, I can't help but wanting more from these characters. It just felt so real, even though I believe these characters are loosely based on real people. I'm truly impressed!

I received this book at my request and have voluntarily left this unbiased review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

**Received an ARC for an honest review** I'm an avid reader of Rachel Van Dyken's books, her characters and stories just draw you in and they're filled with so much emotion and feeling. However, I have to admit, I was a little hesitant going in to this one when I heard the blurb. I'm not big into fashion. I don't follow it, I'm a comfort girl, hang out in leggings and over sized sweatshirts most of the time, so I really wasn't sure what to expect. Then I read the prologue, and oh Dane. His character alone just sucked me in and I was hooked. This wasn't just a story about the fashion industry, so it doesn't overpower the story. It was a story of a sisterhood brought together by the trials and tribulations and lessons from the fashion industry. It was a love story, it was story of heartbreak and rebirth, it was a murder mystery, it was a discovery of family, it was so much just wrapped up in one book. I was wonderfully surprised and read it in one sitting.

I have enjoyed most of the Rachel Van Dyken books I have read, but unfortunately really struggled to get into this one from the start. I found it confusing at times even trying to figure out which character was telling which part of the story as chapters were not labeled, but the story was told from various viewpoints. In addition, I felt like the story jumped around a lot, which in turn unfortunately caused me to not be as invested or engaged in the story. I think the writing style just wasn't one that works for me and unfortunately could not finish this story.