Bunny Tales: Behind Closed Doors at the Playboy Mansion

by Izabella St. James

When this beach bunny caught the eye of Hugh Hefner at an L.A. nightclub, Izabella St. James was looking for a fun break from studying for the bar. As the latest Girlfriend of the Playboy founder, her ''break'' lasted two years, but life behind the gates of the Playboy Mansion was anything but fun. Sure there were parties, presents, puppies, and plastic surgery; but there was also a curfew, a strict regimen of who sits where on movie night, limited contact with the outside world, and a sex life that was anything but wild and crazy. While the E! reality show, The Girls Next Door, has been a ratings hit, each of the three Playboy Bunnies in the series has since left the Mansion in newsworthy ways: one is engaged to a football player, and Hugh's ''main'' Girlfriend has finally understood that there would be no fairy-tale marriage and family with the man she literally transformed her life for. Izabella was there to witness how each of these relationships formed, where each Girlfriend fell in the pecking - and bed - order, and when, exactly, the fabled life turned shabby and cheap. From catfights to sneaking in boyfriends, from high-profile guests in the Grotto to the bizarre rituals of the octogenarian at the center of the sexual revolution, Bunny Tales is compulsively readable and endlessly entertaining!

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Autobiography, Biography Memoir, Romance, Sexuality

388 pages, Paperback

First published August 21, 2006

About the author

The author was one of Hugh Hefner's harem of seven 'girlfriends' for several years before becoming an 'actress and model'.

Reviews

[Petra on hiatus, really unwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

RIP Hugh Hefner who provided jobs for the girls. If you just want to read about the sex work these whores Girlfriends had to perform, skip to *

This is the job remuneration package:

Accommodation in the Mansion
24-hour room service and chef services
Freedom of the wine cellar and various drugs
Laundry and cleaning
Luxury car deposit and payments
Valet parking
All spa services, beautician, hair-extensions, nails etc
Clothing allowance for big events of $1,000, mega events $2,000
Plastic surgery - nose, breasts, botox, more by arrangement
$1,000 cash per week (and this was 10 years ago)

These are the hours of work and the duties:

Two nights per week to accompany the Boyfriend to an internationally-famous nightclub in a chauffered limousine after 9 pm
One night per week to watch a film with the Boyfriend
To attend the pool party on Sundays, the four big parties every year and all the red carpet events the Boyfriend fancies
To be photographed with Boyfriend
To be available for social events to accompany the Boyfriend

*The sex duties all the girls have to perform:To go to bed with the Boyfriend and all the other girlfriends after the nightclub two nights a week when said Boyfriend will have taken viagra
To watch porno films on two huge screens with all six other girlfriends and Boyfriend
To perform oral sex on Boyfriend
To get on top and screw (briefly) Boyfriend who prefers to just lie there and have all the others do the work (the author complains he's lousy in bed, but she's paid to be good and he pays so he can just lie there. Being an octogenarian its probably all he can do anyway.)
Girl on girl action occasionally
To watch Holly fake getting excited and monopolising sucking Boyfriend's nipples. Read Holly's own version of this in her book Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny. She,, the same as this author, did not see that she was a sex worker, a whore, unlike Kendra who did.
To watch while Boyfriend always wanks off to porno film with lots of slippery baby oil on his hands

Ok, that's what you all wanted to read, right? That's the only reason I bought the book. I wanted to know exactly what the King of Playboys in his autumn years (well winter really) got up to with his harem.

Upside of the job:
Meeting filmstars and going to their parties
Meeting other rich men who also keep harems and might pay better than the Boyfriend
Getting picture in the media as if a genuine celebrity
Only having to work after 9 pm - no commitments until then

Downside of the job:
Curfew of 9 pm
Not being allowed other boyfriends.

The Boyfriend may call the live-in girls Girlfriends, but everyone else, seeing that job description would call them whores. And so they are. Manipulative, mean-minded, gold-digging whores. What they want is to be a Playmate and have a career established as a nude model. What they want is to be chief nipple-sucker Girlfriend and call the shots while the old man dithers. What they want is to get lots of plastic surgery, be on tv, get more money, more clothes, student loans paid off, boyfriends on the sly and to write nasty books.

Izabella St James certainly did the latter. She totally lacks insight into herself and snobbishly proclaims that with her law degree she's a cut above the strippers like Kendra and the nude models like Emma. She never loses an opportunity to slag off Holly (who is just much clever and more manipulative and much, much colder than everyone else) by that lovely device of damning with faint praise.

The author spends all her time complaining that a $1,000 a week isn't enough cash. That the clothing allowance isn't enough for her to look .. what, trashy? In glitter and leather and see-through outfits she's going to look cheap no matter what it costs. She is pissed off that Hefner won't pay off her student loan, that the valets don't park her car properly, that having a 9 pm curfew screws up having a boyfriend, that having to sit with Hefner in the VIP area of the clubs they go to as part of her duties stops her from hooking up with assorted celebrities. Eventually, unable to knuckle under to Holly's reign as queen B, she makes excuses about wanting to live her own life and leaves - somewhat before the time she'd planned to.

Did she go back to law as she said she would? No. Did she try and get into reality tv? Yes (but she didn't succeed.) Did she instead become that wonderfully euphemistically-named occupation of boob-job blondes in Hollywood, "actress and model". Yes. Did she work for Heidi Fleiss like so many of the other Girlfriends? Hmmm, who knows?

Should you buy this book because it sounds so juicy? Whatever for? I've told you all the interesting bits and the rest is an endless round of name-dropping, complaining and bitching by the despicable author. She attempts to forestall criticism by saying in the afterword, that if you really understand where she was coming from you wouldn't call her a bimbo or a gold-digger. Sweetheart, I do understand and you are.

[Carmen · Rating 1 out of 5]

What was strange to me is that Hef would gladly pay for any plastic surgery, necessary or not, but he would not help me with school loans. I couldn't understand his priorities.

She can't understand his priorities? Are you KIDDING me?

Well. I did not enjoy this book. The first part was okay: St. James talks about living in Poland, moving to Canada, studying for her law degree, and her early boyfriends.

I found it impressive that she spoke four languages and enjoyed her little insights on men, like

Ironically, he liked me too much to have sex with me.... when the man she wanted to be Her First turns her down, or

He didn't know it was my first time because frankly, I was too cool to admit it, and he was too immature to notice. Speaking of the bonehead who actually had first-time sex with her.

But once she moves into the Mansion and decides to fuck up the Bar Exam, she turns into a catty little brat and the book goes rapidly downhill from there. The worst thing is that I think she was actually one of the more even-tempered women in the house.

How many episodes of Girls Next Door have you seen, Carmen?

Zero. I don't have cable and never have.

But anyway, like I was saying, once she moves into the house it becomes name-dropping, backstabbing other women, getting plastic surgery, and listing all the ways her life with Hugh Hefner was completely pathetic.

I don't have any problem with tricking. The problem is St. James pretends that this isn't what she's doing. I'm completely baffled. She's living with a man and six other women. She has 'sex' with the man - who is 60+ years her senior - even though she has NO sexual attraction to him. (Sex is in quotes because apparently Hefner can't come unless he's masturbating while watching the women make out. He 'fucks' the women but doesn't come. 'Fucks' is in quotes because apparently he just lies there on his back and the women do all the work. I mean, he is 80 in this book.) She gets $1,000 a week for this. He pays for her plastic surgery, rent, food, and clothes. The "Girlfriends" give him extra 'sex' if they want favors or special treats. She insists on calling this a "boyfriend-girlfriend" relationship. Um... it's not. I don't care if she has sex with a guy for money. But she seems to be completely unable to admit that this is what she's doing. And she shames other women for doing EXACTLY the same thing.

What makes it even more baffling is that St. James and the other women kick a 'Girlfriend' out at one point in the book because she had made pornography in the past. Hugh Hefner runs a porn kingdom. I'm just... I don't... I'm just not getting this.

And St. James also later disparages the women who went from being "Playmates of the Year" to being high-end prostitutes. I mean... what. *confused face* I'm unclear as to what exactly she thinks they'll be doing after 'leaving' the Mansion and how exactly she expects them to earn their living. It's okay to sell yourself to Hefner but you'd better not do it for other men? I mean, WTF?


I also completely DO NOT GET the obsession with Hugh Hefner, Playboy, and the 'Girlfriends.' I mean, I DO NOT UNDERSTAND IT. So, a rich old man enjoys 'fucking' women 60 years younger than him. He pays women to have sex with him. Women who are repulsed by him but want his money. What is so exciting or interesting about that? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The women find him physically very repulsive and go to great lengths to avoid actually having sex with him ("we had periods that lasted months," St. James states) but do it because they like getting $1,000 a week plus room and board and access to celebrities.

This is extremely boring to me. I can't believe St. James would throw away an exciting life practicing law (not even joking here) in order to spend two almost sexless years pretending to enjoy some geriatric limpdick touching her and having a 9pm curfew. This isn't some tale of debauchery and wild living. It's super tame. Hefner wants to sit around with the women and watch old movies. He is very much an old man - chicken soup every day, old movies, and not much energy. He sounds like a grandpa. All his activities she describes in this book are grandpa activities. At one point a 'Girlfriend' notices she is getting acne on one side of her face. It's because she's always sitting on his left side when he eats pizza and he spits when he talks.

He pops a Viagra twice a week in order to "perform" (if you can call what he does 'performing') and surrounds himself with lookalike blondes whom he has zero interest in getting to know as people. St. James estimates that in her two years at the Mansion she spent about 15 minutes one-on-one with Hefner.


Tl;dr - I just... no. This book has no interest to me. I was mildly interested at the beginning when St. James is talking about her past, but once she fucks up the Bar, the book becomes extremely boring. I was really disappointed by St. James lack of awareness and her slut-shaming of other women who were doing exactly what she was doing. It was bizarre. She talks about Hefner being clueless all the time, and she's either clueless or she's outright lying. Either way, I'm not interested.

Pass on this one.

I'm dreading Madison's book because I think it's going to be worse.

[HeavyReader · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know what I was thinking when I picked up this book!

Well, I guess I thought it would be full of sex.

It isn't.

The author is so snobbish and full of herself. She perpetually reminds the reader, that unlike the other girlfriends of Hugh Hefner (there were five to seven during the the time the events in this book took place), she graduated from law school. However, for someone who thinks she is so smart and well educated, she seems to have missed learning simple, basic grammar rules. (She constantly writes, "Jason and I" and "Hef and I" when the correct construction is "Jason and me" or "Hef and me." That's a really common mistake of pretentious people.)

She also grew up in communist Poland and writes about how harsh the conditions were there during her childhood, only to then tell the reader that because of the positions her parents held, she lived in a larger aparment and got to leave the country on holiday and didn't have to wait in long lines before making purchases. So she was basically a spoiled brat of the bourgeois who lived above other regular folks. She doesn't change much as an adult.

As I read this book, I took to saying, "Oh you poor thing!" aloud whenever she made some complete spoiled brat statment. I said it a lot.

I'd say only read this book if you want to torture yourself or if you really want to know what it's like to have sex with Hugh Hefner.

[Margitte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Izzabella St. James wanted to take a break for a month or two from her grueling academic work. Three months at the most. She stayed two years. Then tried to figure it out for herself why she did it. This memoir was an unintended result. Or so she claimed.

Holly Madison in her book Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny ripped the mean girls apart in no uncertain terms. In one of her interviews she said that she wrote her book to take back control of her own story.

So, gossip monger that I am, and with the question left hanging after finishing her memoir: Why would she want to 'take back her story'?, I had to figure out who these unnamed mean girls were. The sleuth was on. The internet. Oh, dearie me, as though Hugh Hefner was so important to claim a few days of my life in reading about him, right?

Well, actually, he was, indeed. Methodist-sufferer that he was in his upbringing, he decided in the 1950s to start his own men's magazine, and the rest was history. Apart from upending his suffocating religious cart, he got a few additional million nickers in equally millions of knots, when he openly, on television, socialized with black people. So, yes, unscrupulous Hugh Hefner changed the face of America forever. At least, he was one of the forerunners, and became one of the icons of social change. BIG TIME!

It did not take long to strike gold. This memoir of Izzabella St. James popped up. Published 2006. Holly's book was published in 2015. I checked Youtube. Yes, Izzabella was indeed one of the c(r)at-pack against Holly, and this memoir got Holly up in arms. So Holly took over her own story. Izzabella wrote Bunny Tales. Holly responded with Rabbit Hole. The nails were out. Both bestsellers.

So by the way, somewhere around the 1970s, my grandmother congregated all the elders in the extended family and announced the arrival of the Antichrist when the Beatles declared their music mightier than the Bible. My much older sisters, tearfully was forced to burn all their Beatle LPs. It happened all over the world. The Beatles lost the battle in our extended family, for sure. Ouma was the formidable matriarch. Nobody went against her wishes. My sisters would years later relate the story to me. I reckon the Playboy would have gone the same route if it wasn't already banned in our country. I'm unsure when it was unbanned, since it never graced our shops, until the 1990s, or our home - well, until this day.

Izzabella St. James in this memoir, starts of with this quote to introduce Hugh Hefner to her readers:

“ Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”—Jack Kerouac

She introduces her background as an only child to the reader to establish herself as a highly intelligent Polish immigrant, who grew up in Canada, studied at the prestigious McGill University in Montreal, and ventured down to California to do a law degree at Pepperdine in Malibu. She graduated but never completed the bar exams though.

Well, Hugh Hefner interfered, her high profile sugardaddy , although all these girls insist on being called girlfriends, not concubines, geishas, some folks even go further and call them prostitutes.

Whatever, I seriously wonder what happened to this gifted girl's IQ. Truth be told, I can't get over it. And I'm sure neither can her parents. If she, prior to this new adventure, did the same research into Hugh Hefner's life, as she did for this memoir, she would have ran very fast in the opposite direction. She did not.

This comment totally did it.

"What was strange to me is that Hef would gladly pay for any plastic surgery, necessary or not, but he would not help me with school loans. I couldn’t understand his priorities.

First off, it was pretty clear that they were seriously taken advantage of. In various interviews and documentaries on Youtube, it was stated that Playboy gradually throughout the past decades lost its social relevance, and a lot of money. The whole enterprise was/is in serious decline. After handing over the reigns of the enterprise to his daughter, Hugh Hefner's lavish lifestyle was reigned in. He even had to pay abhorrent rent for the rooms occupied in the mansions to the Playboy company. His own bedroom cost him $25 000 per month. I'm sure there was some tax incentives in this. Every room came with a hefty rent tag. No maintenance were ever done inside the mansions. The outside and gardens were kept in pristine condition.

The girls were used for marketing purposes, with Hugh Hefner as the main face of the company. All their expenses to serve this purpose, were covered, i.e. medical, plastic surgery, cars(leased, not bought), accommodation, food, clothes, pets, and a weekly allowance of $1000. They were not allowed to save any of it. When they visited their parents, they lost the allowance for that period that they were gone.

He kept the brand alive and severely restricted the movement and freedom (as well as compensation) of his 'girlfriends'.

Secondly If Izzabella was so smart, she (again) would have done her homework better, and rather got herself another sugar daddy with much more money, with much less restrictions on her personal freedom and privacy. She should have realized that many more 'educated' girls did exactly that. Many of the young women in the sugar daddy industry are indeed successful lawyers, professionals, and university graduates. She claimed in the book that after the spell in the golden bunny cage, she did not complete the bar exams, because her reputation as one of Hugh's girlfriends would have prevented her from being allowed to practice as a lawyer. Duhhh. She knew this before she became famous as a ...whatever.

Thirdly, by moving into the mansions, she cancelled every social score she ever had, and which her parents, through many hardships provided for her. Yet again, she insisted on being of a much higher class as all the other girls. Uhuh. Dream on, dear woman. She does not mention in the book that her other nemesis, Bridget Marquart, held her Master's Degree in Communications from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. Bridget is also the only one who did not grab onto spin-off deals and produce a memoir. She did end up with her own Youtube channel in which she chases ghosts. Mind-boggling. Kendra Wilkinson, by far the most popular of the The Girls Next Door wrote her own memoirs. The first one was Sliding Into Home .

The girls, The Blonde Boob Brigade, were treated with careful social distancing by all the celebrities and other society kingpins at the mansion parties. They were highly entertaining, but not equals.

Unlike Holly, Izzabella writes a sober tale and rejects victimhood, although she does rip the setup apart. Bad living conditions, dilapidated mansions, frivolous extravagance, dire financial compensation. Yet, she stayed two years. And she still admires Hugh Hefner.

Izzabella: "The Girlfriends are there to feed other people’s fantasies. Hef doesn’t want a real relationship. Hef is giving people what they want and expect from him. I think his happiness is not derived from the relationships, but from the attention and publicity the relationships bring him.

... I think Hef values women because they made his magazine and brought him the money and fame. He values them for the pleasure they can bring him. But he doesn’t really value a woman for all that she is, all that she can be or is trying to become. He is not interested in strength or independence. He just wants girls to look pretty, sit beside him, and smile. He says Playboy brought sexual liberation for women because it told the world that nice girls like to have sex too. Hef likes to talk about how Playboy gave women freedom, freed them to be sexual. I think he means that it made it easier for guys to get laid. ...

...Hef remains the company mascot: he continues to vigorously sell the magazine and the lifestyle associated with it by using his own life as the example. Those who see him on television making appearances to promote the magazine and his image as the ultimate playboy see a witty, gracious man. But only a few people get to see the other sides of Hef, the sides that living at the Playboy Mansion for two years slowly revealed to me: insecure and egotistical, controlling but naïve. ...

...Hef is a complex individual. There is the businessman, the creative genius, the man who is an icon and has been voted one of the most influential people of the century. There is the hopeless romantic, who is very charming and witty and still knows how to woo a girl; an eccentric hermit who is stuck in his ways; and a Peter Pan who refuses to grow up. But the bottom line is that I do, and always will, care about Hef.


The writing of the memoirs financially compensated for the experience, in which the girls were just kicked out when they rebelled against Holly's reign, or Playboy's financial restrictions. I am of the opinion that these memoirs would not have been written if these girls were treated fairly in being paid properly for their services as the marketing agents and models that they actually were.

From Chapter 8: THE BOOTY

The amount it costs to take seven Girlfriends to the movies and treat them to popcorn and snacks? $100. The monthly cost of hair color for seven blondes at a Beverly Hills Salon? $10,000. The yearly amount spent on silicone implants at a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon’s office? $70,000. The publicity you and your company get by having seven young blonde busty Girlfriends? Priceless. Having seven young blonde Girlfriends didn’t come cheap, but most men in Hef’s position spend that on one girlfriend, or an ex-wife, so he was getting a pretty good deal.

She never negotiated a better deal for herself or any of the other girls. She should not claim to be lawyer material. She did not even negotiate a better outcome with herself for herself!

Holly made it a point in her memoir, Down The Rabitt Hole, to reveal the under current in the mansions in which one of the 'mean girls' was acting as an agent for the highly controversial madam Heidi Fleiss's upscale prostitution ring in Los Angeles. Some of the 'girlfriends' and potential Playmates residing in another house on the property, were recruited to fly to Turkey to service wealthy Arabian clients. Izzabella does not mention it in this memoir at all, but this 'girlfriend' must have been one of Izzabella's mean girl group. It created quite an uproar behind the closed doors of the Playboy empire.

This affair resulted in all the passports of potential 'girlfriends' being checked for Turkey stamps. Anyone who refused, was not considered as a Playmate, or a 'Girlfriend'.

So yes, the book was well written and presented. It was just unconvincing. Her claim that it was her way of explaining and coming to terms with her decisions did not cut it for me. The only way she can turn the tables on the whole wide world and her experience, is to complete her bar exams. She should do it for her parents and herself.

However, I'm rating this memoir five stars for her guts to write it. To be honest, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Hugh Hefner underestimated the spirit of the last generation of 'girlfriends', which were not allowed to redecorate their decades-old pink-painted walls, mismatching damaged furniture, and dirty white carpeted bedrooms, but could indulge in Barbie dolls and fluffy toys to make him happy. He liked them young and girlish.

To the Playboy Enterprise: Back at you. You deserved what you got. You should have paid them to play. They tried their best to cut the girlfriend expenses by forcing Hugh to reduce the number of girls in his harem. Izzabella and her mean girl-team, were the victims of the company's efforts to save and slice expenses. She did not recognize it, or refrained from mentioning it. What an ending to this whole saga.

RIP to Hugh Hefner and this whole idea. Blessings to Izzabella, for what it's worth. After Heffner's passing, the mansions was sold for a $100 million to a neighbor. The era was forever over. The Playboy company made sure this part of their legacy was done and dusted. Did they just destroyed their biggest asset?

ENTERTAINING. FOR SURE.

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was horrible. I read it because I wanted to know the scoop. Big mistake.

I give the girl credit for telling her story. I shouldn't judge as my writing isn't the best but this is a published book. Did anyone read it first?

First, I think she wants to give everyone a history lesson to prove how smart she is. Then she wants to let you know is isn't about the money. She then complains that Hef won't pay her law school loans. She then lets you know how catty it was but what great memories she has. She can't seem to make up her mind on whether or not she wants to trash the girls or say nice things to them.

My favorite is the end where she has just got done letting the readers knows that she is planning ahead for her future by saving her allowance. She moves out but yet writes Hef a note and asks for money for a fish tank. The fish was Hef's son's. Apparently she is testing Hef to see if they could be friends. Last time I checked she said their relationship wasn't about money.

Don't waste your time. I will give you the details if you really want to know.

[MrsJoseph *grouchy* · Rating 2 out of 5]

http://bookslifewine.com/r-bunny-tales/

Let me start with some honesty: Bunny Tales is not my typical sort of read. I became interested in reading Bunny Tales because I totally used to watch The Girls Next Door which starred Kendra Wilkinson, Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt. When I started watching it, my curiosity was set aflame: like everyone else, I knew about Hugh Hefner and his harem but only vaguely. The Girls Next Door turned the vague idea of Hef's harem into a reality. I've enjoyed harem romances in the past so I was very interested! I started looking around the internet for more information about their lifestyle(s) and learned about a book to be released: Bunny Tales. I read a sample/teaser chapter online - but I think that chapter was edited out (for legal reasons, lol). I was totally grossed out by the chapter I read - in the most delicious way. But I put the book out of my mind and just watched the show.

I didn't think about Bunny Tales or reading any books by/about Hefner's Harem until Holly Madison left the Playboy Mansion and started all types of online shit: her claims that Hef made her suicidal and her mega twitter fights with Kendra Wilkinson. On May 12 [2016], the Kendra On Top star tweeted that Madison had absolutely not 'lived in fear at the Playboy mansion.'

'She wasn't in fear with that d*** in her ass for a paycheck,' Wilkinson - who boasts 7.7M followers - ranted.
'That b**** is in fear now knowing so many of us saw her doing some nasty s***. She's embarrassed and in shame. She was the clean up girl. Hollys job was to get Hef hard again and clean him up with her mouth.'

The cat-fighting [between Kendra and Holly] reminded me of Bunny Tales but I still didn't pick it up. About a month later, it suddenly felt as if I was being given a sign it was time to satisfy my curiosity: a GR friend read Bunny Tales, Sliding Into Home by Kendra and Down the Rabbit Hole by Holly - and she was posting reviews with some great gossip. Then the Shannon Twins [former Playmates and Girlfriends] that supplanted the original "Girls Next Door" girls were on Botched (sad, right?? They are only 24 y/o) to get their noses and boobs fixed after being botched by Hef's surgeon(s).

So I finally bought a copy of Bunny Tales (no library copies available) and reserved copies of Sliding Into Home and Down the Rabbit Hole at my library.

Bunny Tales is FULL of the expected bitchiness, cattiness and whorish-ness I was expecting. I was rather sadden to realize that the teaser chapter I read years ago apparently was edited out of the final copy. In the teaser I read, Izabella went into greater detail about Sex Night with Hef: How all the girls were required to get into a communal bubble bath for photos; how no protection AT ALL was used; how there were multiple pink nighties (almost uniforms!) for the girls to wear after the bath; how Holly would prepare a huge bowl of hot, wet towels for the girls to use to wipe themselves down before/after sex with Hef; how the girls would fake having girl-on-girl sex for Hef; and how after the "orgy" was finished Holly would pour baby oil down her back and then Hef would screw her in the ass. O_O Bunny Tales was published in 2006 - so it seems like Kendra's comments about Holly (above) have some truth!

Izabella tries to maintain the fiction that she was better than the other girls - she was there for the "experience" since [law] school was hard and long work. Izabella wanted to be young and carefree and party - she felt she'd wasted her youth with studying. In truth, I felt that Izabella was no different than the rest of the girls - more intelligent, possibly, but not different.

Izabella often says that she was with Hef because of her interest in Hef as a person and because of the "experience." But when you look at the reasons she gives for her interest in Hef - they all boil down to money: she calls his frequent expenditures on her behalf as Hef simply being "kind, thoughtful, considerate and a gracious host." These include things like: a new computer, allowance for clothes/hair, hosting a party for a friend, etc.

He also won me over with being kind and thoughtful. I had mentioned to Mary, who kept a watch on my studies, that I needed a new computer to take my exam on. She was going to check if there was one available at the office I could borrow. Without waiting for her to find out, I went and bought one on my credit card. When she found out, she called to tell me that Hef wanted to pay for it. I was overjoyed, Not only was it a tremendous help financially, but it was also a very sweet and considerate gesture. Hef continued being very attentive and caring toward me, and I could not help but grow to care about him. I really enjoyed his company.
-pg 57-58

Izabella does have a law degree and her parents have money to support her - she could have utilized that degree and become a licensed attorney - but she was more interested in being considered pretty and having fun on someone else's dime. Just like the rest of the harem. Izabella didn't need to be a part of Hugh Hefner's little Harem but she was seduced by her own greed and laziness.



So. Speaking of greed...what do you get as a Hugh Hefner "Girlfriend" in exchange for your dignity, self-worth, and sexual performances?
- $1,000 a week cash allowance (in 2006!!)
- $500 - $2,000 clothing/beauty allowance per event
- Free room and board (including 24/7 room service) at the Playboy Mansion
- free plastic surgery (boobs, nose, injections, etc)
- free dentistry (including veneers)
- Free beauty services (hair, nails, lashes, etc)
- "new" car payments (and valet parking)
- laundry/cleaning services
- Access to lots of sexy parties which include lots of celebrities

What do you give as a Hugh Hefner "Girlfriend"?
- Live in the Playboy Mansion
- 9pm curfew
- Not allowed to have a job
- various public events/appearances
- Movie night with Hef (he loves old movies)
- help recruit new girls for Hef
- Go out with Hef 2 nights a week to a club
- have "sex night" two nights a week (club nights) which are "orgies"
- have sex with Hef while he's slicked up in baby oil
- Get reoccurring yeast infections from baby oil and having sex with a guy who has multiple partners
- absence of condoms
- multiple [girl] sex partners

I couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it.



Izabella spent a lot of time complaining that she wasn't getting more from Hef: her carpet was dirty, her room was small, the provided furniture used; the Mansion is run down and smells; Hef wouldn't pay for her school loans; Hef wouldn't buy her a brand new luxury car (only payments); she couldn't go out and flirt with other boys; the other girls got her into trouble, etc. Izabella was also very put out by the ex-Girlfriends - apparently their previous bad behavior caused the restrictions of brand new luxury cars, the 9pm curfew and a lot of other things that Izabella complained she never received but should have.

Izabella also spent a lot of time putting the other girls down - I think this is to help her feel better about herself and her actions. I do feel that - although she's intelligent and has her law degree - Izabella has never and will never practice because she has stuck a piece of dynamite into her career and reputation.

If you stayed long enough, then you could get everything you wanted; for example, Emma got her breasts and her nose done, her veneers, and Hef paid for her green card, which cost thousands, and all of that adds up to a lot of money. She was really good at getting things from Hef by being extra affectionate and using baby talk. I just couldn't do that; when i needed or wanted something, I simply explained myself in a logical manner.
-pg 110

As you get to the end of the mildly interesting drama that is Bunny Tales, Izabella's complaints kick into high gear. In the two years Izabella was at the Mansion, Holly managed to become the #1 Girlfriend and Bridget has moved in - forming a tight team. According to Izabella, this is when the money started getting tight. Suddenly there was less money being given out for the event bonuses (clothes, etc) - which Izabella blames on Holly [and Bridget] being jealous and talking to Hef. The girls could see the writing on the wall and finally started saving money. This is the point in Bunny Tales that Izabella starts yammering about her "pride." Her pride seemed awfully attached to $$$.

And that's when it came to me: what the hell was I doing? I visualized my apartment; it was no mansion but it was five times bigger than my room, it was cleaner, quieter, had nice furniture, and I could actually make my own breakfast. It was time to stop complaining like a spoiled brat and start living my own life once again. This set up was still perfect for people who are lazy and satisfied living off of fame of another, but that was not me, it never had been. I had a ton of fun and fantastic experiences, but that seem to be over. It was time to move on and let someone new move in and enjoy the temporary Bliss of the Playboy Mansion.
-pg 222-223

Izabella's final complaints? Hef not making sure the Girlfriends were taken care of if they left - but Hef was paying each girl $48,000 a year plus room & board! Plus any and all beauty treatments. Plus plastic surgery (Izabella got her boobs and nose done). Plus car payments. Plus bonus money (for clothing) for special events. WTF else is he supposed to do for you???? Where the fuck did all your money go???

...Hef never asked if you had any money when he kicked you out or you were leaving by choice. He did not ask a girl if she had enough money to make a deposit on an apartment, if she was going to be okay, or if she needed money to get started. Even the maids got severance pay when they got laid off. Hef's Girlfriends get nothing. When you told him you were leaving or if he told you that you should leave, you were out of his sight and out his concern.
-pg 228-229

The best parts of Bunny Tales - for me - were the different view point of Holly, Bridget and Kendra.
- Of Holly: She was desperate and eager to be part of Hef's harem. She remade herself from the bottom up in order to be the epitome of Hef's dreams. She started an aggressive sexual relationship with Hef the moment she could and was always jealous of any attention given to other women [by Hef]. Holly's #1 goal was to become Mrs. Hugh Hefner and would stop at nothing to achieve this.

- Of Bridget: She was sneaky and manipulative at all times - and married. Her only goal was to become a Playmate and/or other media related stardom. Bridget is blamed for Izabella's final fight with Hef - she says Bridget set her up by falsely accusing Izabella of starting a fight.

- Of Kendra: At 18, Kendra was the youngest Girlfriend, ever (later the Shannon Twins were also 18). She made a point to be seen by Hef. She was groomed by Holly and Bridget in their plan to get rid of the other Girlfriends. Izabella promised they [Holly & Bridget] would hate Kendra later because of her youth, beauty and her outgoing personality.



All in all, I'll only refer to Bunny Tales again when I write my reviews for the rest of the books by Hef's harem. It was mildly interesting and very easy to read. The bitchy comments were hilarious, however.

[Xanthi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not well written, with several flaws such as typos and grammatical errors. It makes me wonder if the editors just skimmed this effort?
The author is hard to like and sympathize with. There is a strong element of self-entitlement and lack of inner realization. She seems to, on the one hand, understand that she is a part of the Playboy brand promotional engine, and yet also clings onto the idea that she is one of Hef's girlfriends, and so gets frustrated and disappointed when she doesn't get what she wants or thinks she is entitled to. The simple truth is, she was an employee - one with some pretty strange rules and duties - but an employee, nonetheless. Her boss (Hef) did not owe it to her to pay for her student loans and to think he did, was laughable. He is a business man. Promotion and making more money is what he is about - not charity. But then, she would have realized that if she got it straight in her head that she was an employee and not a 'girlfriend'.
I do like that she was quite blunt about Hef - how he lived his life, how he treated others, his foibles, etc. (He definately comes across as a sleazy old rich guy, with no taste, no style and no grace - but that was not be expected.) But her sneering at one of the former Girlfriends (Stacy), over her fetish preferences, was very closed minded and referring to her as a 'freak' was pretty poor form.
On the one hand, she wants to keep asserting how smart and educated she is, and how she should not be judged for the choices she has made in her life (ie abandon her studies and her goal of becoming a lawyer to become someone who is 'employed' based on her looks) and yet then looks down her nose at others. I am not all that surprised that her 2 years of living a superficial lifestyle has led her to turn away from a path of meaning, and towards something more vacuous.

[Eva-Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really think some people are being a bit harsh in their judgement of Ms. St. James.
I finished the book this morning and while I did find it extremely easy to read I got no sense of bratiness, dishonesty, of her being a goldigger, etc. I got that she's a sweet, complex girl who happened to be offered a chance most people will never see, and took that chance. Not only did she take it but she learned from it, made some new friends, and had A LOT of fun.
Her wanting Hef to pay some bills doesn't make her a golddigger to me. Hef wants to pay for bigger boobies and veneers on teeth so the girlfriends look perfect but he can't help out a little when it comes to real life? And then, on top of that, makes the girls not work? So, in the end, he presents this opportunity to girls, some of whom can't take it because they have proir (real life) obligations? That makes no sense. Izabella St. James didn't go knocking on the Mansion gates, Hef wanted her. I'd have expected it to and if that makes me a golddigger than so be it.
The reader is only getting one side to this story (I would absolutely LOVE to read Kimberely's memoir! The wife is who I want!) and like someone else mentioned, that does need to be rememebered. At the same time, until proven to be lies, I'm taking what she says as being true, at least for the most part. I believe Hef is a cheapskate. I guess he has to be or else his empire would already be gone. Then again, he could always have "downsized" his troupe in the first place. He does seem like a weak man also about certain things.
I can totally believe the girls are catty as hell and I can also believe that some girls were there not to get as much money or fame as possible, but for the experience. Taking the money and fame along the way doesn't mean they signed up for that reason and that reason alone.
I read her 'thanks given' part first and did get the impression there that she thought she was more important than us little people. She thanked her dog poopy cleaners and maids in general and thanked everyone else by name which didn't sit well with me. Then I actually read her life story and totally, 100% changed my mind.
I loved how she gave the slight history of Poland and her moves when she was a child. I liked hearing the little bit about her family. I enjoyed learning the little things about the Mansion that I didn't know before, like that Hef doesn't own it and how he has to pay rent for the bedrooms, etc.
As much as I liked the book I really hope she doesn't do a sequel. The last sentence in the book is this: But that's a whole other story. Yeah, she had some interesting experiences that most people never have but that only goes so far. One book is enough.

[Glenda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Where do I begin? I have read other books about life at the Playboy mansion but this was by far the most boring and I didn't care for Izabella's attitude. There was a lot of name dropping and the way she wrote the book it was almost like she was complaining but hello, you CHOSE this life. She complained about the weekly allowance, the curfews, etc.. Instead of whining about how your allowance didn't cover paying for your student loans and an apartment that you didn't live in perhaps you should have just stayed in school. I get that when people are young they don't always make the best choices and mistakes will be made but on the other hand you have to own them.

I was also totally disgusted to learn that the Playboy Mansion carpets are covered in animal shit and piss, dogs would piss up against the curtains, nothing glamourous about that. She also says that "what was strange was that Hef would gladly pay for any cosmetic surgery, necessary or not, but would not help me with school loans. I couldn't understand his priorities." Really honey? And you were in law school? His priorities were boobs and getting laid. Period. And the fact that she NEVER saw Hef use condoms, he would wipe off with a wet towel in between girls, and yet she still had sex with him, ewwwwwww. Enough said.

[Ashley626 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book because I was, like most people, curious about Hugh Hefner. Does he sleep with his girlfriends? What kind of relationship is that? Is it really a party everyday? Well... I got a little bit of what I was looking for, but mostly I was just disgusted. St. James spent most of the book complaining about how Hefner wouldn't pay for this or that. When she wasn't complaining about how Hefner spent HIS money, she was bad mouthing the other girls. Allegedly, she has a law degree from Pepperdine. I find this hard to believe since the book was riddled with spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. I don't claim to be Miss Grammar, but the mistakes were THAT obvious THAT often. As far as I can tell, Ms. St. James views this book as revenge on Hefner (over what, I have no idea) and is a very, very bitter and spiteful woman.

[Ashley Goodwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so honest and that's what I loved about it! You can tell the "Girls Next Door" show is somewhat scripted and this chick tells graphic details about living in the playboy mansion. I thought it was a good mindless read if you've ever wondered what really goes on with Hef and all those girlfriends!

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure how accurate all of the stories in this book are, but it is very entertaining. Part of it reads like a cheesy porn and the rest reads like the rantings of a bitter woman.
If you like to watch The Girls Next Door or are just curious about the inner workings of the Playboy mansion, this book is a good read.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a slight obsession with Hef and his girls so this worked for me. An interesting view on what things were like when Hef had 8 girlfriends. kinda catty though...I don't like how she talks crap about Bridget.

[Britten Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book should have been called “my life as a massive hypocrite”.

Basically, Izabella goes on about not being a gold digger, or with Hugh for the money, and then complains about all the times he didn’t give her enough money.

She goes on about Holly not really being in love with Hugh but then was clearly not in love with Hugh.

This book was just eye roll after eye roll for me.

[Angela Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yikes. This was a tough ride.

Sometimes you read "celebrity" memoirs and they're great - relatable, funny, down-to-earth. That is not the case for this one.

Celebrities come in all shapes and sizes and rises to fame, Izabella's is that she had a relationship with Hugh Hefner. But this comes into contention with the author herself many times throughout the memoir - at times she refers to Hef as her boyfriend - as someone who should treat her as though she is in a relationship with him instead of an employee. But at other times she very clearly reminds us that she wasn't REALLY dating Mr. Hefner. Confusing, no? It seems to be a relationship when it suits her and helps her prove her points and then a job when she wants to belittle the man.

I'm not necessarily a fan of Mr. Hefner. After reading Holly Madison's book I feel he definitely didn't treat her or other girlfriends well. However, I'm unsure how you can embarass him, discuss his sexual appetite and "prowess" in mocking ways, make it seem as though he is an easily manipulated idiot. Instead, it seems to me that he, himself, can be quite calculating and seems to have built a huge company from the ground up. And all the while, she thanks him and the very secretaries she bashes. She also thanked her fellow girlfriends while thoroughly dragging, even the two she considered her best friends, through the mud.

She holds herself in high esteem because of her education but is contradictory and judgmental throughout much of the book. So much name dropping - of truly random celebrities. I wonder how the people she actually mentions by name like Tony Curtis and Nicolas Cage feel about her claims? I was astonished at just how many people "checked her out" or wanted to pursue her.

Unfortunately this just seemed like a way for a very narcissistic person to attempt to highlight all her "best" qualities (her education, her looks, apparently her ability to attract men at the blink of an eye) and to badmouth those she didn't get along with. I really disliked her mean commentary on Bridget. If you don't get along, that's fine, but to mock the way she looks, dresses, even dances - she does this to both Bridget and Holly and it really comes off as jealousy.

Not worth the read unfortunately. There isn't anything we haven't heard before regarding the Playboy Mansion and lifestyle.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

My wife was surprised to learn that I'm reading this book. I guess she was also a bit concerned, but no, I'm not scheming for Hef's lifestyle. In fact, if this book achieves anything it is dispelling the fantasy of glamorous life of Hugh Hefner. I didn't like his choice of Girlfriends before just because I'm really not into Barbie blondies, but now I actually feel a bit sad about him. Maybe that's the life he wants, so I'm not judging, but to me it doesn't look like a fantasy, more like a domestic nightmare.
So, back to my story, my wife asked if I like this book and I said "No" (see my 2 star rating), "Then why are you reading it?". The answer is a bit complicated. First, life is so diverse and this is my way to experience that diversity. I can't (and sometimes don't want to) possibly try anything, but I can read about it. Second, most men at least initially are fascinated by Hef's fantasy. Third... third reason is a mean one. Izabella St James is my new measure of shallowness. It's always useful to have some kind of anchor, a known value that you can use to compare other people with it. She is my anchor of shallowness. It's a tingling mix of funny and painful to read how she refers to herself as a lawyer despite the fact that she never passed the bar exam and never worked as a practicing lawyer. It's fascinating to realize that total amount of 'benefits' she received for living with Hef is actually less than I earn as a software developer.
Bottom line it's not a great book, but it brings a distinct pleasure of saying 'Oh honey...' with that chiding manner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh_Honey) pretty much on every page.

[Liralen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mildly amusing, but definitely lacking in self-awareness on the part of the author.

It's a hard book to take seriously. Leaving aside the fact that it's poorly organised and even more poorly written, the author simply isn't sympathetic. The book is full of name-dropping, excuses, and complaining about money; although the author's self-professed actions are no different than those of the rest of the "Girlfriends", she constantly puts down the others.

The author is in a relatively unique position - how many people can say that they lived in the Playboy Mansion? - and her writings could have made for very interesting social commentary. Unfortunately, her book is little more than self-indulgence.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Quick and Dirty. The juciest part is the explanation of how they all have sex. Otherwise, it was poorly written and edited. The author wants to be intellectual, but comes off as superficial and petty.

[Billy · Rating 2 out of 5]

pretty sorry

This was quite UN edited, and Izabella came across a hypocritical spoiled brat who contradicted herself over and over. Oh well, I forced myself to get through it all, but it was not easy

[Sammi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, ok I know this isn’t exactly literary fiction but I have a weakness for Playboy memoirs! It’s my Achilles heel - I know they’re trash but I still have to read them - all of them...

PLUS this one is the O.G. Playboy tell-all by bad girl Izabella St. James, the one that ALL of the other playboy memoirs talk sh*t about for talking sh*t about them in this book. So yes, it is iconic and infamous in this little subculture of reading.

One thing that disappoints me and really makes me roll my eyes is how all these Playboy bunnies make a huge effort to try to force upon us that they’re REALLYYYY SMARRTTT “like, really smart” . I don’t doubt it… we all know that slutty girls can be smart too - work hard, play hard is a real thing and it’s commendable. WE KNOW it is a great career move to become a playboy bunny and that the benefits (most likely) outweighed the work involved. I have 0 doubts that it made these ladies rich and famous and a 1-2 year commitment had beneficial live-long impacts (including free breast implants & other surgeries).

Just don’t try to force your smart-ness upon us, just embrace the fact that you embraced this experience and don’t make excuses or sound desperate in your desire to be “different”, “smart” or “savvy” it’s fine - we’re all here for the shameful playboy shenanigans not to understand your political science degree or hear about your scholarships.

Also, I love that Izabella said she stopped sleeping with Hef after "a few times" & he didn't care because he liked her for her brain... SURE JAN she was there for two years & it's part of her "job" description so yeah... For more details on that please take a look at Petra's review & be sure to unclick all the spoiler buttons.

I've read both this one & Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny which include many overlapping events & let me just say they're both so differently stated. Both these girls have the ego the size of Jupiter & I don't trust either of them (but yes I'm eating this sh*t up).

Anyways - was Izabella a spoiled brat with a huge ego who elaborated and/or changed the truth in order to make herself seem better? Yes. Was it 500% entertaining? Yes. Were there also spelling/grammer mistakes & too many repeating sentences through out? YES. Will I be reading any/all playboy memoirs in the future? Yes. Do I question her timing and motivations? Absolutely - this was released around the time that "Girls Next Door" started on E & she even says in the book that SHE wanted a reality TV show when she was in the house.

[Heather V ~The Other Heather~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Updated in September 2017 upon the death of Hef: Man, there was so much I didn't know about Hugh Hefner's terrible treatment of women when I read this six years ago. That knowledge would absolutely have coloured my thoughts as I took in this book. I mean, I always knew he was a creep, but I wasn't fully aware of the lengths to which he went, including regularly drugging his parade of partners with pills (often quaaludes) he charmingly called "thigh openers." Eugh. Shades of Cosby.

It's probably because of sanitized accounts such as this one that I never appreciated how abusive Hefner's relationships often were. No doubt the authors of the many accounts written while he was alive were either under some degree of NDA or other contract, or they at least feared legal and professional retribution from a man with as much far-reaching power as he had; maybe now that he's dead we'll hear more of the truth.
___
Original review, 2011:

As complete and utter fluff goes, you won't find an easier or quicker read than this one. As someone who has never been particularly fascinated by the mystique surrounding the Playboy Mansion, its brand, its leading man or its girls, I still found myself interested in every chapter of Izabella's book. It's hard not to be. She's led an interesting life, and she pulls no punches as she dishes the dirt on Hef's bedroom skills (they're not great), the other women (not altogether friendly with one another, surprise!), celebrities who've graced the Mansion grounds over the years, what really happens in the Grotto, and so much more. Is she likable? Not especially. But it doesn't make a significant difference in whether you can get something out of seeing what's behind those big, forbidding mansion doors.

Most of the stuff I found interest-piquing had nothing to do with sex. I'll never think of that mansion the same way now that I know the halls are regularly caked in dog excrement, for example. And the "bedtime rituals," while obviously sexual, will stay with me more because of the power plays than whose hands went where.
"Mental floss" is a good term for this read. Fun, scandalous, and voyeuristic to the hilt. Worth a browse.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our narrator is a Polish-Canadian emigre who quickly establishes she's no dummy, with a law degree - but then threw it all away to become a bunny girl. Our first question has to be: "Why?" She says it was to maximise her experience of life. It's easy to conclude that she did it for the free plastic surgery and car and the weekly allowance and the constant stream of celebrity-packed parties, but even she admits that she would have made more money as a law graduate, and the whole fantasy became stale very quickly as she learned that life in the Playboy mansion carries its costs: a strict daily timetable, a 9pm curfew, no personal freedom, no job, or any real outside interests. Then there was living with the tension of the girls ruthlessly backstabbing each other in their attempts to garner Hugh Hefner's favour. There were few surprises in the tale, not even when it got to the sordid level of Hefner's own sexual technique; after all, he is over 80 years old.

Ostensibly written by an intelligent, educated woman, the writing style is raw and undisciplined, and much of the text comes across like a fourteen-year-old gushing about a sleepover, complete with glaringly obvious spelling and grammatical mistakes, and a ludicrous naivete. For example, when listing "other world-famous homes", she mentions the Taj Mahal, which is of course a mausoleum and was never anybody's residence - although perhaps it's a veiled reference to the dingy interior of much of the supposedly glamorous Playboy Mansion.

Despite its shortcomings, I enjoyed this book, seeing Hefner from the point of view of one of his girls rather than as a businessman or the legendary icon many men wish they could be.

[Ariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I know some people bought it and did not like it, but I did. You're reading about the playboy mansion, so what did you really expect? Of course there's going to be articles about gossip, sex, and alcohol. That is to be expected. (It's a book about the playboy mansion, so anyone saying there was too much gossip, name dropping, girl drama stories, etc. is kind of stupid for buying it then. What did you expect you'd be reading about? haha.)I think that when Izabella talks about Hef she is being honest, and I like that. I liked Kendra's book too, but I feel like she may have sugar coated some things about Hef a tiny bit. It seems like Izabella wasn't afraid to tell the truth, even if what she was saying about Hef or the other Girlfriends wasn't necessary good. She does state that she was not physically attracted to him and did not like having sex with him, and that a few things that he did she felt were unfair. I admire her honesty. She could have just wrote "Hef is wonderful I love him so much" over & over again but she chose to tell he readers the truth. Skip over the first two chapters if you do not want to hear about her childhood in Canada.

[Nicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable in a trashy sort of way. Isabella contradicts herself constantly, one minute claiming to have true and genuine feelings for Hef, then interested in other men and dating them. It's not about the money, yet she's pissed at him for not paying for her study bills. Worried about STD's yet admits she participated several times on "sex nights". (That image of Hef with the flannel is going to scar me for life!). I found her likeable enough, and I'm not overly judgemental - I mean if an old man is going to be so foolish with his money then good luck to the girls, really, but for sure, she was out for what she could get. Reading between the lines, she's kind of catty, but not the worst person in the world. I am glad she got out of there and is leading a happier life. It sounded like a lot to put up with for the money, quite honestly.
Quite a detailed book. It was a fun read.

[Shannon Kirk · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book should have been titled "I dislike Holly Madison" This book was horribly written with many spelling mistakes. she constantly goes off subject in rants about nonsense and every chance she gets to bring up Holly, she does and she bashes her. It's full of contradictions including how much she liked Holly after bashing her in every page of the book.

[Tracy Knauer]

This book SUCKED!! For someone who claims to have so much education this book is written poorly and portrays a spoiled brat!
Hell, I will give you this book if you want it!

[Dez Van Der Voort · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing: 3/5
Knowledge Gained: 4/5
Enjoyment: 4/5

After reading Holly Madison's "down the rabbit hole", I have to give ms. Izabella only a 4 stars. Let's be impartial on the book part. She needs a better editer, or a ghost-writer like Holly, because Holly's book flows well, while there were typos galore and weird sentence structures all over. The knowledge was good, but there was some constant repetitions of complaining about Hef.

In a tell-all book, like this one, is primarily enjoyable because we read dirt on other people. She has loads of dirt on Holly, while Holly has dirt on others. The author was somewhat "true to thine own self", but failed in the end. She strives to prove that she's not a gold-digger looking for a "sugar daddy" (the term came up at least twice in the book) like the other girls. However, she is!

She's a pretty lousy pay-for-play girl in my opinion. She complains that her sugar daddy Hef is too cheap, only $1000 usd per week, and pays in cash, and pays every week physically, reminding her that she's a whore. She complains that Hef pays for all salon activities and plastic surgery, but wouldn't pay for her student loans and her mother's surgery.

She heaps tons of praises on her parents raising her as a great student (law school at pepperdine in CA, did NOT pass the bar), great morals (so she can be a concubine), and cheat on her sugar daddy with her bf outside always waiting for her. uh... she did not change the reader's opinion of her after 200+ pages.

I did get to know a lot about polish history, up until chapter 3 did I realize I wasn't reading "primer on polish history and culture" but "Hef was not my sugar daddy, since I have sex with him twice a week and he pays for most of my bills, even that fish tank after I got out of the mansion and cheated on him tons of times."

A pretty lousy personality ms. Izabella. I like Holly Madison much more, although I do agree with Izabella, that Holly may have extracted parts of Izabella's book. I saw the term "stockholm syndrome" in both books! but Izabella's came out first.

[exorcismemily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bunny Tales was a fun read! I enjoyed reading this book a few months after reading Holly Madison's Down the Rabbit Hole - I liked seeing the other side of some of the stories, and seeing where Holly & Izabella have some of the same stories. Izabella's story is unique because her family had to emigrate from Poland, and she has interesting stories about her childhood. She also has a law degree, and she's very intelligent. I also love that she loves pugs and rescuing dogs. I have both of Kendra Wilkinson's books, so I'll be reading those in the future so I can hear all my Playboy stories.

[Aftan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found Izabella St. James and this book to be an absolute toxic spew of personal agenda, resentment, entitlement and mean girl behavior that made this an absolute train wreck to read. It is obvious the author went into the writing of this book with a massive agenda in mind.

Multiple times they contradict themselves...oh Hef is great but I was so mad at him for not paying off my student tuition. Oh Hef is a great guy but darn him for not buying us shiny new things and everything I feel I deserve.

She then goes on to talk crap about multiple people and create assumptions about their motives without any fact to back up her claims.

Save yourself the time and money.

[Bunny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did I really not review this when I read it? That's odd.

I found this at a library sale, and snatched it up. I was a big fan of The Girls Next Door, I got into it despite my best attempts not to. It was a secret not-really-shame, until I discovered that The Best Friend loved it, too.

When Holly Madison's book came out, I got a whole new perspective on life in the mansion. So, needless to say, the story of mansion life from a former girlfriend who wasn't on the show made me even more intrigued.

In Holly's book, she doesn't go light on the previous girlfriends, the "mean girls" of the house. And it doesn't take you long, once you get into this book, to figure out that Izabella is definitely one of those said mean girls. And she really doesn't even try to deny it.

Since reading this book, I've found countless interviews done by her online, and she is just trash. She goes out of her way to prove that she's one of the bitches talked about in Holly's book, smearing her name from one side to the other. What I find most interesting about this is, based on the extensive research done by this ONTD user, Izabella doesn't even warrant her own featured story.

Sounds to me like someone's bitter she didn't get talked about more.

She's definitely bitter, based on this book's whole premise. She wrote it after GND's first airing happened, which tells me she didn't want to be left out the limelight.

Eye rolls. Over and over.

Also, she's a lawyer. If you missed that when she mentioned it 800 times.