This is a tale of a relationship that left the author hurt and humiliated. Hopefully the lesson of being with someone who dominates your life and selfishly absorbs time and talent is learned to avoid at all costs in the future.

Basically, after a lot of self agrandizement and listing of her accomplishments, of which there are many, her relationship with Melania left her bruised and abused. Moral of the story, simply because you are talented does not absorb you from craving attention by a woman in power who consistantly used the author was a lesson hopefully used to never repeatedly walk down the lane with a narrcissist.

One Star ( )

# Melania and Me

”He who augments his wealth by interest and increase gathers it for him who is kind to the poor.“
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭28‬:‭8‬ ‭RSV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/2020/pro.28.8.RSV

W is for wisdom in choosing the right relationships to bring happiness and joy. Not fakery and a better than thou spirit. I felt both women used each other for their own gain and benefit. Except one was private about it. The other one? Wrote a book and complained about it. Not wisdom. At all.

E is for empathetic discernment. Empathize with others emotionally. Yet take some time to step back and assess whether getting into the issue is worth getting involved into or if your time would best be spent elsewhere focusing on your own health and worthiness. Just because you are friends with someone does not mean that you have to getting dragged into their entire world without any compensation or thank you or acknowledgment of services rendered. I felt that the author-bless her heart-did not use empathetic discernment before getting involved with the world she was involved in and when she got spat out cruelly and then used and mistreated and castigated without even a ‘Thank you for all your help’ from not a single person in that world it showed that no one really gave a shit about her and her needs and they were only milking her like a cow for their benefit and sending her away to the butcher when they were done with her to be blamed for everything that went down. Which again was not empathy. It is shitty. It was finessing.

A is for always being mindful. Being mindful of what you say. Being mindful of how you say it. Being mindful of who you say it to. The author learned this the most painful and difficult way. However what I gleamed from this was that absolutely no one could be trusted enough to stand by her side and give her themselves one hundred and ten percent like she did. The fault also laid with her in that she was a bit needy and went overboard when it was not needed. If she had boundaries from the beginning and did. To blurt everything out to those around her then I believe her friend would have trusted her more and treated her with more care and value than just tossing her away like a rag. Those who know do not tell. The wise know but do not tell. I feel very uncomfortable reading about these conversations between Mrs. T- and Mrs. W- because I felt that it should have remained private between the two.

Personally this book should have never been published as I believe it is a deep invasion of privacy to Mrs. T-. No matter what she still deserves to be treated with respect and decorum and love no matter what happened with her spouse. She is her own person. She should never be defined by the actions, words, and habits of her husband and those around her. ( )

I was more interested in this than I expected. Even got used to SWW's voice, and perhaps, against my usual rule, it's ok that she reads her own book. The style of the book is very much like she is telling us a long story over lunch, the type of lunches she has with Melanie. Her own story as the organiser of the Met Gala was also pretty amazing. Accurate or not, I do appreciate knowing more about the mysterious Melania who seems as unusual a personality as her unlikeable husband. ( )

This book is proof that you can reach your 40’s and not know how to properly judge human beings. Melania Trump was practically screaming, “I will use you until you have nothing left, and then I will discard you,” and this woman kept going back for more.

On top of that, this book is full of martyr moments where she’s sacrificing her health, family, finances and putting herself in legal jeopardy, and she still wants to cling on to the myth of Melania, as empty a vessel as her horrible husband. But it comes off as whining instead of building her up. Stephanie is the person in the horror movie who you are yelling at to not go back into the house. She just can’t help it, maybe she’s just not that bright.

She finally, after 14 years of emoji laden ‘friendship,’ understood that when someone tells you what they are, believe them.

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What a bizarre tale of self-destruction... And for what? To be close to "royalty", or "to help" her "friend" Melania??? With absolutely no financial compensation? Are we to understand that a smart lady like the author, with impeccable event organizing credentials, is that naive?...

"Our first full month in the White House was like living inside an emotional washing machine that only made you feel dirtier with every rinse."

The above quote says it all... Ms. Winston Wolkoff tries her best to justify her staying in that environment (things like "protecting" her "friend" Melania from the Trump family - especially from Ivanka - etc....), but Melania emerges in this account as a practical, calculating person quite capable to protect herself, who knows exactly what she is in for, and who has her priorities all figured out. As per this book, in many aspects, Melania and Trump are truly worth each other...

It's not surprising to find the emerging Trump administration a total chaos. The surprise is how deceived Ms. Winston Wolkoff was in her emotions towards Melania, who values her luxuries more than anything and who would much rather spend time at a spa - at her own admission - according to the author, than go campaigning for her husband or attend some political function.

In hindsight, the author herself doesn't feel that it was worth it, what with her huge health problem in the midst of it all, as well as her anguish about her son's extreme food allergies - all that had to be put aside for the sake of Trump inauguration and later - for the sake of making something great out of Melania... One can't help but doubt the naive nature that Stephanie W. W. claims to have had through all of this...

The book left me with an unpleasant feeling. In structure, it is a hectic, all-over-the-place narrative, too detailed, especially describing the author's great skills in arranging events (!), with the desire to prove her great self-worth, and also the depiction of constant scheming and suspicion and lack of trust among everybody around her... Why did she go on in an environment like that?... A million dollar question.

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