I was not able to get interested in this book and I did not finish it. The characters and the plot were not able to catch or keep my attention.

Can’t wait to watch the movie that is based on this after reading it! I loved the characters and zoomed through the story because I was excited to see what happened next.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is great. I loved it!

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

This book was received as an ARC from Sutherland House in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

This book was exciting to the max and all the history compiled into this fantastic story was so electrifying. How women came together and stood up for what was right and that was exploiting women as objects and not recognizing them as beautiful human beings that deserve many rights. I also loved the passion and determination Jennifer had throughout the entire competition even being demoralized by the judges and Bob Hope the host of the pageant but not only did that not stop her from competing, she in fact won the competition and started a whole new revolution. She is a great role model for young girls and this book will be great for a history biography project.

We will consider adding this title to our Biography collection at our library. That is why we give this 5 stars.

A memoir by the first person of color who has won the Miss World competition. I am a bit disapointed since i didn't get to learn as many things as i would have wanted about the pageant wold.
Plus, the last part was way more political, and I lost my interest in the book there. If it had been more forcused on beauty pageants, I would have liked it more.
However, thank you to netgalley and the editor for allowing me to read this book!

**I received and voluntarily read an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

For me, the book read more like an article, probably a result of Hosten's journalist background. There was more of a focus on the facts than there was on the emotion. While this isn't a terrible thing, I wanted to feel what she was feeling after winning Miss World as the first POC.

Overall, the book was a nice quick read, and I learned a lot of new information, but I feel as if the idea was better than the execution.

I was not aware of the controversy around this pageant, so this was a bit of a shocking story for me. I thought this book would be more about that competition, and the issues surrounding it, but perhaps I misunderstood the premise. I was not very interested in the author as a person.




I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

I loved this book - what a fascinating woman and a varied career!! I particularly liked the mentions of her, later on, being in lectures where the 1970 Miss World contest was mentioned - induced a good chuckle. Can’t wait to see the film now.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.

Prior to reading the book, I was somewhat familiar with Jennifer Hosten being the first black woman to win Miss World in 1970 but I didn't really know anything else. This was a wonderful book that showcased more information from her pageant days and all the wonderful achievements that she has made during her lifetime. This is a great story told about women's history that I am glad to know more information about.

"Miss World 1970", was an enjoyable read. Ms. Jennifer Hosten' s novel read like we sat together one afternoon and she shared her life stories with me. From her early days of broadcasting to jumping into the 1970 Miss World pageant just for the travel and experience. Ms. Hosten had a rare and exciting life.
The Miss World pageant of 1970 had protesters of the women's rights group and Hosten handled each obstacle with grace and knowledge. Being from Grenada and a women of color she competed against the cookie cutter debutantes and won. (No surprise there with the cover of the book and the movie that is to be released soon). What did surprise me that she continued to serve her country and experienced political corruption and war. Witnessing women's rights in various countries and the various degrees in which women are still fighting for their voices to be heard.
As I mentioned, this read very much like a diary or journal. Complete with random thought thrown in to tie in a complete thought. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found that it read like a conversation with the impeccable Ms. Jennifer Hosten.

3 stars

Thank you Net galley and Sutherland books for supplying me with an early copy to review.

I was not completely aware of the extent of the women's liberation protest that during miss worlds, but I am definitely going to do more research now and I am most excited to watch Misbehaviour.

I did enjoy this book for what it was, it was easy to read bio about the life of Jennifer Hosten during and after her rain as the first POC to win Miss worlds in 1970.

I was just expecting that little bit more from this book but I never got it. I wanted to hear more about what Jennifer felt and her thoughts during her whole experience rather than just explaining the events that took place. She has lived such an interesting and eventful life, I just wanted a bit more of 'her' in if that makes sense.

I found the proportions of this book a bit skewed: "The Craziest Pageant in History and the Rest of My Life." And while there is no denying that it was firstly very impactful for a woman of color to win the Miss World pageant and secondly, she did have an interesting rest of her life, I had wished this autobiography had leaned a bit more in to the former and a bit less into the later. I wanted to know more about the pageant itself - after all, it was advertised as “the craziest”! I now know little more about the behind the scenes of beauty pageants than I did before. But I wanted some tea to be spilled!

One main reason why it felt that way was because the writing lacks real emotion. It is a report about what happened, but seldom are any emotions portrayed, we do not get to know what Jennifer felt about this or that. That keeps a certain distance between us the readers and her, but it also means there was only little critique of pageant culture, no opinions about the protests surrounding the pageant or her historical win (that is was indeed “crazy” one has to piece together by cultural knowledge more than her describing her feelings), the stressful life afterwards, and even the revolution in her country years later. All of that left me wanting emotional depth, with focus on the pageant rather than the life after. Overall, though, I have to say that this is probably an issue of expectations not being met, not of the book itself being bad.

The author accidentally became Miss World in 1970, which I had to know more about. How do you accidentally win a beauty pageant? It turns out that was the tip of the iceberg for that year and the Miss World Pageant. The author does a marvelous job of capturing the events in this memoir and now I cannot wait to see the movie coming out about it!

I love history, but I often find it boring. Women's history is especially interesting to me, and this book sounded right up my alley. (I love pageants and I think it's a really interesting debate as to whether or not they demean women). This book was so interesting. It wasn't at all boring. I wasn't alive for this, nor did I even know anything about it, and I loved getting a look at not only the pageant itself, but the woman that won. This isn't exactly just about the Miss World pageant in 1970. It's also about Hoston's life, and the way she came to enter the pageant.

Her storytelling was so lovely and immersive. It teaches you about something not a lot of people know about, while still be very gripping and interesting to read. Overall I really enjoyed this, and I think the movie will be an interesting watch. This is a truly unique story about what it means to be not only a woman, but a woman of colour, and what it means to be a woman who participates in something most people see as vapid or problematic. I think this is the kind of story that is worth reading, simply because it's unlikely you'll find something similar with these important topics.

***Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***

I wanted to like this more, but I was expecting the story to be more about MIss World and it veered a little.

This was an interesting read that was much different than I thought it would be. I thought this would discuss the pageant and her year as Miss World 1970 but it was so much more. She wrote about the variety of experiences she has been able to have in her life as a function of winning the pageant. For those who believe that pageants are demeaning to women, this is a book that tells the other side.

In 1970, I was 13 years old and the world had many exciting events that would change history and set the stage for so many changes to follow. This story follows the Miss World competition in 1970. There is a short section on how the contestants come to be in this competition, the most publicized in the world. As was the way of so many events in the early 70's, protests and demonstrations would cause newsworthy happenings every day of the competition, yet when Ms Grenada was crowned, the history was forever changed as the first woman of color received worldwide recognition. Winning the contest did not insure a smooth journey through the events Miss World attended. Many times, she found herself wondering why she continued. This was a very good story of a woman's world and the changing times she lived in the name of ambassador. A good read for every young woman who thinks beauty contests are easy and winners are privileged.

Today I had the pleasure of finishing up a book that I received to review--thank you Netgalley, The Sutherland House, and Jennifer Hosten.

Miss World 1970 was described initially described as the story of how Jennifer Hosten accidentally became Miss World. This hook instantly made me want to read the book to figure out just how someone accidentally became Miss World! I read the book in hopes of learning more about the pageantry world and seeing how Miss World panned out in those times. Instead of the book being mainly focused on the 1970 Miss World show and pageant it mainly read like a memoir. Nothing wrong with that but not exactly what I was expecting. Regardless, it was still a pleasant read. 

I love reading about strong, inspirational women and this book was no different. Jennifer Hosten was the first black woman to be crowned Miss World 1970. Within this book she opens the curtain and shows us a little of the behind the scenes, how certain contestants were favorited by the press and how race played a part in her career after having won the title. She also was the first person to win the crown for Grenada. 1970 was the year Grenada ever had someone represent them in the competition as well! 

We follow Jennifer Hosten's life from broadcasting, winning the title at Miss World, and her life in politics and motherhood. It's a short and fast read and one that you will not regret. If anything, this just added one more to my list of inspirational women. Jennifer Hosten's story is truly remarkable. 

The book has been adapted into a film called Misbehaviour which was released earlier this year and starred Keira Knightley and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. In the book, there is a short mention of a riot that took place by a group of feminists during the competition. They were upset at the treatment and over-sexualization of the women in the competition analogizing them to cattle in a cattle market. Miss World 1970 was the last time the competition filmed women with their rears facing the camera because of all the backlash that was received. From the description of the movie, it appears that it focuses mainly on the group of women that protested during the filming of the show.

Now that I've finished reading the book, I can't wait to see how the movie compares. I feel my only difficulty now will be trying to figure out where I can watch it online in the U.S.

1970, what a year! We had President Nixon order an invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War, the first Concorde flight, the Aswan Dam was finished, the voting age was lowered to 18, the Beatles broke up, and finally Miss Grenada was crowned Miss World. This was the first year that Grenada competed, and the stunning Miss Jennifer Hosten pulled off a huge win.
This story is the account of her life from that mainly from moment on, but it’s definitely not a boring, dry history. I became invested from the very beginning and with such a well written story and amazing life, I finished it in one day. Miss Hosten is a gifted storyteller, a wonderful writer, and such an inspiring woman. Her life is one to behold, from a child in Grenada, to announcer, flight attendant, Miss World, mother, diplomat, and now as a psychotherapist. She’s traveled the world, both for her reign as Miss World, and after as a diplomat.
Miss World 1970 isn’t just a piece of fluff either. Within the pages we learn about the controversy surrounding her win, the protests at the event, the coup in Grenada in 1979, and we learn about life in places like rural Canada, Grenada, and also the extreme poverty of places like Bangladesh. We learn not only about the marvelous life of Ms. Hosten, but we learn a history of our world during not only the 1970’s, but all the way up to the present day. Coups, invasions, and hurricanes are all documented.
Ms. Hosten has lived a fascinating life, and this was a wonderful book to read. I definitely recommend this book for fans of autobiographies, world history, and interesting people.
**I received an ARC of this book from the publisher and NetGalley and this is my honest and voluntary review.

I really wanted to enjoy this book. And maybe if i wasn’t expecting it to be more focused on Miss World then maybe I would have. The description leads you to believe there is more focus on the pageant and events around it. I was impressed by the authors varied career throughout her life and her ability to redefine herself.