Rich Again by Anna Maxted Review

From Publishers Weekly from Amazon.com

"Popular Brit Maxted (Running in Heels) rewrites Cinderella for a meaner, more cynical age in a biting saga of a filthy-rich family brought to rack and ruin by a soulless psycho intent on settling an old score. Part social commentary, part thriller, Maxted's novel charts the complicated history of rags-to-riches-times-two Jack Kent, a hotel baron who loses a first wife to an early death, watches an adopted daughter nearly marry her own father, stands by as a wastrel biological daughter squanders her life and love, and is saved by a bitchy and deliciously vindictive second wife. It's a rip-roaring tale with a creepy villain bent on wrecking the family: I have spent all of my life thinking, plotting, imagining brilliant, twisted ways to make all of you suffer the same unimaginable hell that I did, he seethes, and the annoying thing is, you all have the presumption to think it coincidence! Though the book could lose a good hundred pages and the hopscotching time line can be confusing, when Maxted finds her groove, the flow is smart, crisp and riveting." 

I received this book for review from Librarything..

I went and read a few reviews about this book when I first knew I was going to get it. After reading more negative reviews than positive, I was a bit apprehensive on whether I really wanted to read it or not, or if I was going to be able to finish it. I stuck with it and I am really glad I did. 

The story is basically about a very dysfunctional family, the only difference between the Kents and other families is that they have money and of course the family members are not the kind of people that I would want in my family, greedy, selfish, not even really caring about each other. Wait,we read about that kind of behavior all the time in the rag magazines, well I don't, but you get what I mean.

At times, I did have a hard time keeping up with the way the characters changed and the time frame that each chapter took place in. The characters?? Well there is Jack, the patriarch of the family who pays no attention to anyone in his family. His first wife dies young and leaves him with an adopted daughter, Claudia to raise.
He meets and 'marries' a woman who is extremely selfish and all about her..they have a marriage that goes from great to violent.Her name is Innocence, whose name should actually be Bitch because that is what she is to all the people in her life. She has a story all of her own on how she got to where she is, all fake of course. Oh yes, she has pink hair and they have a child Emily who is a spoiled not nice person..

To say too much more about the characters would spoil the review of this novel.The cover is definitely misleading, I thought it was going to be a silly girly book. Well, it actually reminded me of an early Judith Kranz, Sidney Sheldon or even a Jackie Collins style story. It has the rich people, the poor people, the snobby people and even a few murders thrown into the mix,and a good amount of sex.

I liked the story and it kept me entertained the whole time I read it.I recommend it to anyone who likes this kind of story,at times xrated,but a very decadent fun read into the lives of a family who has everything, loses everything and then gets everything back, but at a price.

Anna Maxted is a bestselling author based in North London, England. Born in 1969, she is married to fellow author and journalist Phil Robinson and has three young children. She writes female contemporary fiction which is viewed to be at the high end of the chick lit market. Anna Maxted read English Literature at Girton College, Cambridge, before becoming a journalist. She is former Assistant Editor of Cosmopolitan, and has freelanced for most national newspapers and magazines, including the The Independent on Sunday, The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, The Times, Daily Express, FHM, Esquire and Living Etc.As I stated before I received this book from www.LibraryThing.com for review. I did not receive any compensation for my honest review.








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