Gilbert is an excellent writer and seems to have an engaging personality. At first, I was caught up in the drama of her life, but her almost-fiction-like adventures began to strain my credulity. Wherever she goes, she immediately and conveniently becomes best friends with a group of exciting, fascinating, extraordinary people who all seem to become almost more interested in her quests than in their own. I have no doubt that the crux of her adventures is based on things that really occurred, but I can't help but wonder how much exaggeration, florid expansion of truth, and hyperbole were added on to achieve the goal of best-sellerdom. I lost interest halfway on because I just could maintain belief in the authenticity of this story.