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Summary
Summary
Bard of the Middle Ages: The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer
Author Notes
Tilly Bagshawe is an international bestselling author. Born in 1973, Tilly attended Cambridge University before becoming a freelance journalist and author.
Tilly is the author of Adored, Friends and Rivals, Scandalous, Fame, Flawless, Do Not Disturb, and Showdown. She is also the author of Angel of the Dark, Mistress of the Gamen After the Darkness and The Tides of Memory based on the notes of renowned author Sidney Sheldon.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Glamour, fashion, gossip, scheming-they're all here in a page-turning debut starring Siena McMahon, feisty granddaughter of Hollywood movie legend Duke McMahon. In the tradition of Jackie Collins and Danielle Steel, Bagshawe strews Sienna's path to stardom with bumps aplenty. Family trouble began before Siena was born, when Duke decided his mistress should move in with his wife and kids, but Siena, born in 1981, had a pretty cushy childhood as a granddaughter of the wife-at least until she finds her beloved grandfather dead in the family's Hollywood manse. Siena's father, jealous of the attention Duke lavished on Siena, cows his wife into packing their outspoken 10-year-old to an English boarding school, and when Siena later defies her father's plans for her (Oxford med school) to become a supermodel (and thus kick-start an acting career) he disinherits her. Bagshawe nimbly captures Siena's fierce ambition, and like her glam novel predecessors, she keeps the pages flying with steamy sex and keen behind-the-scenes takes on the fashion, movie and television businesses. Secondary characters, such as British director wannabe Max De Seville, Sienna's on again/off again love interest, shine almost as brightly as Siena, and Bagshawe nips in an entertaining side plot about Max's half-brother's struggle to keep his 16th-century Cotswold farm from the hands of a dodgy Cockney developer. This is one of those big, juicy summer beach reads-not too deep, just wildly entertaining. Agent, Luke Janklow. Major ad/promo. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Bagshawe goes for the glitz in her big, brash, fantastically enjoyable first novel. Siena McMahon doesn't have much in common with the typical chick-lit heroine. She neither stumbles nor bumbles. She craves power, fame and rigorous sex, not chocolate, shoes or another glass of Chardonnay. She doesn't eke out a living on the fringes of glamour; she was born smack in the middle of it. Her story is also a gossipy saga of the Hollywood dynasty that created her. Bagshawe makes a conscious break from Bridget Jones territory to revisit the glittery domain of Jacqueline Susann, Jackie Collins and Danielle Steel. The results are saucily delicious and utterly absorbing. The story begins in the 1970s, before Siena was born, just as legendary movie star and all-around bad guy Duke McMahon is installing his young mistress in the mansion he shares with his wife and their two children. This unorthodox arrangement leads to scandal, an illegitimate child and a lasting legacy of emotional dysfunction. The only daughter of Duke's elder son, Siena spends her early years in a tangle of conflicting loyalties, open hatred and savage betrayals. Her estrangement from her family is more or less complete by the time she's shipped off to an English boarding school. When she returns to Hollywood, she's a supermodel well on her way to becoming a successful actress, but it will take spectacular tragedy and the love of a good man before she's truly reconciled to her past and herself. Hot-tempered, oversensitive and ruthlessly ambitious, Siena is not an easy girl to love, but she's certainly entertaining, and Bagshawe does an excellent job of creating her over-the-top yet believable character. In fact, even the most minor cast members here have well-defined personalities and real motivations. If her predecessors invested the rich and fabulous with epic grandeur, Bagshawe aims to make them accessible--not ordinary, but vividly human. Should be one of the summer's biggest beach books. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Bagshawe set out to write a book that broke free from the chick-lit mold. She succeeded in producing an epic romance with ultraglamorous characters--no Bridget Jones here. The book opens with the story of philandering movie star Duke; his coolly detached wife, Minnie; and their decidedly untraditional home--Duke's mistress shares quarters with his true family. After Duke's death, Bagshawe follows the lives of his granddaughter, Siena, and his illegitimate son, Hunter. The two have reunited just as they're both becoming Hollywood stars. But when Hunter's best friend, Max, betrays Siena, their refashioned family is split once again. Siena then becomes involved with a hotshot producer until a violent incident leaves her forever changed. Although the lengthy novel could have done with some judicious editing, the Hollywood setting and the volatile relationships will keep readers enthralled. Recommend it to fans of Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts. --Aleksandra Kostovski Copyright 2005 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Gorgeous, smart, and talented Siena McMahon is Hollywood royalty-granddaughter of movie star Duke McMahon and daughter of big-shot Hollywood producer Peter McMahon. Though she yearns to be a movie star like grandpa, daddy wants her to study medicine at Oxford. When Siena does something that essentially seals her fate in her father's eyes, she has no choice but to go her own way. As she matures, Siena makes both brilliant and disastrous decisions in terms of her career, her love life, and the people she keeps in her inner circle, experiencing dizzying levels of happiness and despair. At 500-plus pages, Bagshawe's debut is a hefty slice of escapist cake in the vein of Judith Krantz and Jackie Collins. And although the plot is often predictable, who cares? This cocktail of sex, Hollywood, and a dysfunctional family is simply intoxicating. Public libraries should expect big demand. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 3/15/05.]-Samantha J. Gust, Niagara Univ. Lib., NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.