Tori Spelling gets stronger with latest book

Spelling It Like It Is

Author: Tori Spelling

Publisher: Gallery Books

Genre: Memoir

From her rocky relationship with her mother to falling in love with actor Dean McDermott while they were married to other people, Tori Spelling has no problem sharing the intimate details of her life in her books.

Her anecdotal style of storytelling, humor and “every girl” demeanor have made her a best-selling author.

In her sixth book, “Spelling It Like It Is,” the actress sticks to the formula of her previous memoirs and goes behind the scenes of recent life events, including the birth of her third and fourth children, born 10 months apart.

However, readers will notice something different this time around: Spelling seems to have developed more of a backbone.

In previous books, she wrote about worrying what people think of her. Now, she seems to have more bite. Spelling reflects on a time she had to take vocal lessons for a TV holiday movie and ran into Katie Holmes. She made an effort to be friendly but says she found Holmes to be “plastic. In a perfectly polite way.” (She says she later felt sorry for Holmes because she seemed to be “miserable” after her divorce from Tom Cruise.)

Spelling also pulls back the curtain on her now canceled reality show “Tori & Dean.” She shares how cameras crossed the line to film the birth of her third baby and how she re-enacted taking a pregnancy test for the cameras.

So many celebrities are rehearsed, controlled and repetitive that it can be difficult to get a genuine comment from a star. Spelling doesn’t hold back. She’s real - and it’s appreciated.

AP