The Santangelos by Jackie Collins

The Santangelos by Jackie Collins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A vicious hit, a vengeful enemy, a drug addled Colombian club owner and a sex crazed Italian family... the ever powerful Lucky Santangelo has to deal with them all.

Meanwhile Max - her teenage daughter - is becoming the 'it' girl in Europe's modeling world. And her Kennedyesque son, Bobby, is being set up for a murder he didn't commit. But Lucky can deal. Always strong and unpredictable, with her husband Lennie by her side, she lives up to the family motto -Never f**k with a Santangelo.

Lucky rules ...the Santangelos always come out on top. The Santangelos is an epic family saga filled with love, lust, revenge and passion.

This is the first Jackie Collins book I have read in years I think Hollywood Wives was the last one. I guess you get what you expect from this novel; she has followed her tried and tested formula and sticks with it.

Lots of characters but plenty of explanation of who they are and what's happened in previous books if you are a first time reader so you don't feel you get lost with so much going on, although I expect that this could be tedious if you have read all the other books in the Santangelos series.

This novel starts off with the prologue setting the scene for the background to the story; the killing of the king of Akramshar's son Armand sets in motion a course of events that have consequences for the Santangelo family that the matriarch Lucky must deal with. As expected there are sub plots taking place that eventually tie the characters together along the way.

As with her previous novels The Santangelos was pretty predictable and honestly a little bit too long in parts but the storyline moved along and the characters intertwined nicely. Not a great work of fiction but I am sure for Jackie Collins devotees it will be a success. Good holiday reading and escapism but lacked depth for me and credibility; it seems as if Jackie Collins world has not really moved on from the 1980's brand of mafia style violence and male dominance albeit that I expect in dynasties this may still be true but I felt she labored the point.

I won't give any of the plot line away as it would be unfair for fans and first time readers but there were no real surprises in the book, no unexpected twists to spice it up a bit but overall an acceptable if not memorable read. I would give this a 3 star rating.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this exchange for an honest review.