RoseMarie Terenzio

Review: Fairy Tale Interrupted by Rosemarie Terenzio.

I thought the book was interesting and fascinating. Rosemarie tells her story of what life around one famous couple in the world is really like. I feel she was honest and straight forward about her perception of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. She spent many hours with John when working with him as his assistant on his magazine, “George”. Her fringe benefit was being a friend to both of them. She clearly admired and loved them both and she shows their human weaknesses as well.

The book was Rosemarie’s memoir about her own growth being accepted, befriended, and having a career that boosted her confidence and awareness of how much secrecy there is when working with someone who needed privacy. She also had to deal with certain issues in their personal life at times because she was a friend to both John and Carolyn. Rosemarie went from a blue-collar girl from the Bronx’s of New York to a loyal, candor, with relentless work ethics, involved in politics, dealing with the paparazzi, secretly making the arrangements for his wedding to Carolyn to feeling like someone special.

Rosemarie writes about how John was moody and had a temper some days but she was never afraid to speak her own mind when she thought he was wrong. I think that’s why John and Carolyn liked Rosemarie so much. Her story goes on with the everyday issues of working with John and her many spending spree’s with Carolyn. Rosemarie was so sure she would have a long friendship with the famous couple. She admits she was living a fairy tale life and loved the opportunity to work with someone like John. She saw a great future for herself and a great bond with John and Carolyn as friends.

Than one day Rosemarie Terenzio’s world came crashing down around her. On July 16, 1999 John Jr. and Carolyn Kennedy tragically fell to their death in John’s small plane.
Her friends, her career, and her lavish and comfortable life were gone. Slowly she noticed the behavior and attitude of people she was connected to by friendships or through work was diminishing. She had to start a whole new life without John F. Kennedy Jr. standing beside her. Even his name on her resume was a catch-22.…..… (mere)

I hesitated to read this book because of some of the reviews I've read - I'm glad I ignored them! This is a memoir written by John Kennedy Jr.'s assistant who worked with him for 5 years before his death in 1999. I guess some people reviewing just don't realize the value of an assistant who takes care of 99.9% of everything in someone's life.

She was the guard at the door, on the phone, coordinated of meetings, meals, shopping, and even sometimes his girlfriend/wife Carolyn Bessette. When she wrote, I could hear his voice speaking the words, could imagine that is how their relationship played out.

I enjoyed the insight from a female perspective/non family member in his life.… (mere)

This memoir follows the life of RoseMarie as she starts to work for JFK Jr. and moves up from being a secretary for his magazine to his personal assistant, dear friend, and large part of his life. Her life as his assistant has a lot of glamorous parts, but her job becomes her life and RoseMarie dealt with a lot of stress daily and resentment from other magazine staffers. His and Carolyn's deaths dealt a huge blow to RoseMarie and left her feeling lost and without purpose.

I'm pretty sure this is the first memoir I've read, and going into it I knew very little about JFK Jr. (like the fact that he started a magazine). That being said, I really enjoyed this book. RoseMarie wrote in a way that made me feel as though I was reading fiction - I wasn't bored and I was very moved by a lot of the situations she wrote about.

However, many times she interrupted a story with another line of thought almost seamlessly, so when she moved back to the original story I felt lost because I'd completely forgotten her first point. The other, minor, detail I found annoying was the handwritten notes she included in her book. There weren't many and it was a great personal touch, but due to the notes being old and the handwriting a little messy, it was almost impossible for me to read them. I wish there had been a typed version as well.… (mere)