I have not read the others so it was a little hard for me to follow but not in a way that I couldn't! I think had I read all of the others, I would have been able to follow along more with the many characters. It was great even with that issue though. Dolly never seemed to amaze me. The details were great however it sometimes felt a little unrealistic. I think that there were so many things going on that it sometimes read more like a soap opera to me and that is no fault to the book since it did end up being a TV series! It was perfect in that regard. I liked the relationships that were formed and felt that again even though they were sometimes unrealistic they were intriguing and that in itself is important.