Evelyn Lozada presents a harmless glance into "The Inner Circle"

When reality star Evelyn Lozada announced that she would be releasing a book there was an overwhelming negative response. When she went on to disclose that the book wouldn’t be a straightforward tell all but instead a novelized version of her experiences as one of the women behind the men of professional sports that sentiment seemed to triple. People just couldn’t seem to believe that Lozada was capable or worthy of entering the publishing industry. But with other reality stars hawking everything from lip gloss to low calorie tequila the idea of her writing a book didn’t really shocks me. Because whether you’re a friend or foe of Lozada’s  you’ve got to admit the Basketball Wives cast member knows how to reach her audience.


Her collaboration with famed celebrity ghost writer Courtney Parker on “The Inner Circle” serves up a heap of the drama that has catapulted Lozada to the forefront of rumor mills nationwide.  The novel reads more like an arc on a scripted soap opera than a basketball wives reunion. With the name calling and bottle launching taking a back seat to the marital and legal woes of its characters it manages to detail the highs and lows of being married to a professional athlete. Though written in the third person the majority of the events are told from the perspective of the novel’s main character Eva. Yes seriously.

Personality traits of several Basketball Wives cast members make cameos. There is the beer swilling “inglehood” Jackie, and the naive young Jai who refuses to believe that her baseball player husband would ever be led astray.

While the content itself is painfully predictable Parker manages to weave Lozada’s personal accounts into fiction enthusiastically if not without flaws. The author’s “Law and Order” background is fully visible as she relays the events surrounding the attack of a supermodel that has been sleeping with one of the wife’s husbands with adequate suspense and flourish. The tales of secret children, same sex extra martial affairs, and rampant searches for loopholes in prenuptial agreements that follow the attack keep the reader engaged. In fact “The Inner Circle” is so well paced that one almost forgets that the “who done it” style page turner is the tale of women whose AT M balances are significantly higher than their self-esteem.

While it certainly won’t be winning a Pulitzer any time soon the first of “The Wives Association” series “The Inner Circle” like many other books is quite amusing and unlike a host of other guilty pleasures completely it’s harmless.