Unapologetic thrills with oodles of flash.
All plotlines lead to Vegas in this latest installment of Collins' saga of the irrepressible and seemingly immortal Lucky Santangelo.
Lucky is convening her family at The Keys, her lavish hotel/casino/condo empire in Las Vegas. The occasion is the 18th birthday of Max, her daughter with latest husband (and soul mate) Lennie. Son Bobby, wildly successful as a nightclub impresario and heir to the fortune of his late father, a Greek shipping magnate, frets about introducing his girlfriend Denver, a prosecuting attorney, to his family for the first time. The family reunion, however glitzy, is only a setup for Collins’ trademark seamy subplots. The author excels at portraying villains her fans love to hate, and in this outing she does not disappoint. Billionaire Armand Jordan, son of King Emir of the fictitious Gulf state Akramshar, is not merely a misogynist but a rapist. Although he has a wife and family back in Akramshar, he prefers to hire elite call girls and debase them in the vilest ways possible. Armand’s most recent obsession is his drive to possess Las Vegas’ most opulent real estate: The Keys. Undeterred by Lucky’s outraged refusal to sell, Armand goes to Vegas determined to change her mind, but his ex-showgirl mother Peggy, whom he detests, insists on tagging along. Before joining King Emir’s harem, Peggy had an unforgettable one-night stand with Gino, Lucky’s father, in his mafia kingpin days. Could Gino, now in his 90s, actually be Armand’s father? Max eagerly sheds her virginity with movie star Billy Melina. Max and Billy may be star-crossed lovers, but will Lucky approve? Especially since Billy is embroiled in a messy divorce battle with Lucky’s best friend? All of the thrills swirl around Lucky, now more matriarchal figurehead (albeit one still endowed with raven hair, silken skin and an unflagging libido) than major player. Still, when Lucky’s precious Keys is threatened, her street-fighter instincts resurface, sparking the novel’s over-the-top but enjoyable climax.
Unapologetic thrills with oodles of flash.Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-312-56746-0
Page Count: 528
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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