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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Lyons Public Library | F COL | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... McMinnville Public Library | Collins, J. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Collins' wildly popular, bold, and unique heroine Lucky Santangelo returns in "Dangerous Kiss", a high-powered tale of lust, raw anger, family, and bitter revenge.
Author Notes
Jackie Collins was born in London, England on October 4, 1937. She appeared in a series of British B movies in the 1950s and made appearances in the 1960s ITC television series Danger Man and The Saint before giving up an acting career. She has since played herself in a few television series including Minder in 1980.
Her first novel, The World Is Full of Married Men, was published in 1968. Since then, she has written more than 30 novels including The Love Killers, Hollywood Husbands, L.A. Connections, Dangerous Kiss, Lethal Seduction, Deadly Embrace, Hollywood Divorces, Drop Dead Beautiful, Poor Little Bitch Girl, Goddess of Vengeance, Confessions of a Wild Child, and The Santangelos. Several of her novels have become successful television miniseries, including Hollywood Wives, Lucky, Chances, and Lady Boss, which she wrote and produced. Big screen successes have been The Stud, The World Is Full of Married Men, and The Bitch. She also wrote an original movie, Yesterday's Hero. She died of breast cancer on September 19, 2015 at the age of 77.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Lucky's backÄand the myriad fans of the Santangelo novels (most recently, Vendetta) will be glued to the page. Once again, Lucky has the weight of the world on her gorgeous shoulders. Again, she triumphs in love and business, with enough violence in her wake to make Mickey Spillane shudder. Daughter of mobster Gino, whose Las Vegas empire was her proving ground in previous novels, Lucky's a chip off the headstrong block. She's Lennie Golden's hot, adoring wife (as long as she doesn't have to make lunch), a doting mom (who frequently packs the kids off for the weekend) and a major Hollywood player as the head of Panther StudiosÄuntil she abruptly decides to sell. Most of her ardor and energy, though, go into troubleshooting for her large, biracial, multinational clan, including her black half-brother, Steven, a handsome lawyer whose actress wife, Mary Lou, is killed during a carjacking (Lennie's at the wheel), and her goddaughter, Brigette, supermodel and ultra-rich Greek shipping heiress who falls prey to a no-account count and is forcibly addicted to heroin while pregnant. As Lennie battles depression, Lucky struggles with the attentions of director Alex Woods, who never lets her forget the night they shared while Lennie was sweating a prequel kidnapping ordeal in an Italian cave. (Collins doesn't shortchange the new reader on back story.) Fierce monogamist Lucky excuses her own slip (she'd thought Lennie was dead) but has a hard time forgiving Lennie when his Sicilian rescuer, bosomy Claudia, appears with a hearing-impaired five-year-old son who's a Lennie look-alike. Claudia conveniently dies saving Lennie's life once more, for Collins shares Lucky's ruthlessness with people in her way. Believable? Not for a minute. Entertaining? Of course. Agent, Morton Janklow. Literary Guild and Doubleday main selections; author tour. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
The fifth in a series featuring sexy Lucky Santangelo (Vendetta, 1997, etc.), the feminist, gun-toting head of Panther Studios. Lucky is a survivor, and she's had a lot to survive. She was only five when she discovered her mother dead in a swimming pool, murdered by her nemesis, the Bonnatti family. And then Lucky's third husband and soulmate, the handsome Hollywood director Lennie Golden, was kidnaped and manacled for six months in a cave in Sicily, rescued from same by the young and lovely Claudia, with whom he had a one-day stand. Lennie had been married previously to the daughter of Lucky's second husband, the Greek shipping magnate Dmitri Stanislopoulos, and Lucky's former step-granddaughter Brigette Stanislopoulos, a ``top supermodel,'' has also had plenty of death and sexual perversion to survive, though she hasn't done it as well as Lucky. When we join up with everyone now, Lucky is 40 but still the smartest, most beautiful woman in Hollywood, and Lennie is directing a film starring Mary Lou, the wife of Lucky's black half-brother Steven'until, on the way from the studio, Mary Lou is murdered in a carjacking. Brigette, meanwhile, is raped and turned into a heroin addict by her vicious Italian husband Carlo, who hopes to steal her inheritance (from her grandfather, the shipping magnate). And Claudia shows up from Sicily with Lennie's illegitimate son, the product of that one-day stand. In the end, Lucky threatens Carlo with castration, shoots a psychopath threatening Lennie, and agrees to raise Lennie's Sicilian son. If you like Collins, this one's a hoot. Well, even if you don't. (Literary Guild Main selection; Doubleday Book Club Main selection; TV and radio satellite tour; author tour)
Booklist Review
Collins returns with another high-glitz, high-drama Hollywood tale. Her unstoppably glamorous yet mercilessly tough heroine, Lucky Santangelo, takes center stage--providing a calm, cool center for the whirlwind of recklessness, murder, and deceit that surrounds her. Her sangfroid, though, may be the product of her Mob ties, of which readers are subtly reminded in regular references to "Santangelo justice," suggesting that Lucky is not only intractable but also dangerous. The action moves along two plotlines. In one, Lucky's supermodel niece is kidnapped and force-fed heroin by a handsome yet treacherous Italian duke. The other involves the car-jacking of Lucky's husband, Lenny Golden, and the subsequent murder of his passenger and sister-in-law, the beloved actress Mary Lou Berkeley. As always with Collins, the writing is a bit banal--but who cares really, with all the fabulous parties, ostentatious wealth, and obnoxious egos on parade? This is a fast-paced story full of suspense and intrigue, as well as the requisite assortment of models, Hollywood celebrities, and European royalty, and it should certainly please Collins' fans, tabloid readers, or those just looking for a bit of escapism on their train ride home. --Catherine Sias
Library Journal Review
The fifth story featuring Lucky Santangelo begins with the powerful Hollywood executive taking a sabbatical from her glamorous job, just as personal tragedies strike. Mary Lou, her actress sister-in-law, is murdered in a robbery attempt while en route to a Hollywood gala honoring Lucky, and Brigette, her supermodel godchild and heiress to the Stanislopoulos shipping fortune, is drugged and raped by the handsome but poor Count Carlo Vittorio Vitti. When Brigette realizes she is pregnant, she confronts Carlo, only to be kidnapped and force-fed heroin. Now, Lucky must use her wealth and power to achieve "Santangelo justice." Soap opera-style changes of scene give a disjointed feel to this audio production, and, although it contains the requisite sex, glamour, and fantastic plot of a Collins novel, the tale is remarkably dull. Despite an excellent narration from the incomparable Barbara Rosenblat, this is an optional purchase for large public libraries. Beth Farrell, Portage Cty. Dist. Lib., Garrettsville, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.