The Pink Dress, Memoir of a Reluctant Beauty Queen

"The memoir is an engaging time capsule of trendsetting southwestern beauty pageantry...A revealing look behind the glamour and illusion of beauty queens."

Kirkus Reviews, June 2024

"The prose is sublime, but it is the multilayered story set in a very descriptive El Paso combined with the Texas beauty pageant world that sets this book apart."

Randi Samuelson-Brown, Award-Winning Author of Fiction and Nonfiction

"I highly recommend the book, which takes the reader on a wild ride through the West and into the behind-the-scenes of beauty pageantry. It is definitely a 5-star book. I devoured it in a day."

EverReady Book Reviews, June 2024

Jane’s story is a tale about second chances, a parable of learning and moving forward...Highly recommended for all those women who as girls imagined what it would be like…

Kimberly Burns, Award-Winning Author of The Mrs. Tabor and The Redemption of Mattie Silks

[The pink dress] embodied a girl’s survival under intense pressure, the arduous journey to womanhood and, in a miraculous last act, became a conduit to forgiveness. A lovely memoir.

Micki Fuhrman, Award-winning Author & Musician, Roundup Magazine, October 2024

"Botkin assembles a penetrating, sensitive story built on a foundation of glitz and glamor, a tribute to a momentous time in her life--and in history--that lingers long after the last page."

Publishers Weekly Booklist, November 2024

"A fascinating, informative, and at times nostalgic memoir...an exceptional and well written read from start to finish."

Midwest Book Review, October 2024

“It’s about time the story of GuyRex (Guyrex) was told, and to have someone like Jane, who was the genesis to the legend of these two incredibly talented men, share it so beautifully is a treat for all. Reading the events of their pageantry has brought back many wonderful memories that truly shaped my adult life as well. If you had the opportunity to be a part of the GuyRex system—that is, if you were a GuyRex Girl—then your life was forever changed for the good.”

Gretchen Polhemus Jensen, Miss USA 1989, former Miss Texas, and former GuyRex Girl

“I remember watching televised beauty pageants with my family when I was a kid in the 1970s and Mama saying, ‘They're all pretty.’ But Jane Little Botkin unveils another view, one that shows how wild, western, chaotic, and sometimes downright ugly things were behind the scenes. The Pink Dress isn’t a beautiful walk down memory lane. It's a wild ride through the turbulent 1970s, West Texas style. Here she is, Janie Botkin, taking the town by storm."

Johnny D. Boggs, ten-time Spur Award winner

“The great meaning of this story and what makes it a page-turner is how Jane came to peace with difficult parents and extraordinary expectations to eventually become a highly successful writer, but perhaps more importantly, a wife, mother, grandmother, and role model. Her story is one that will linger in my mind and make me want to know her. Bravo, Jane, well done.” 

David Crow, best-selling author of The Pale-Faced Lie