Wednesday 3 August 2016

Book Review - Killer Diamonds by Rebecca Chance - #20BooksofSummer

Amazon UK
Title:  Killer Diamonds
Author: Rebecca Chance
Format reviewed: Paperback
Source: EDPR
Publisher: Pan
Publication Date: 28th July 2016
Rating: 5 Stars


After decades in the spotlight as an Oscar-winning film star and famous beauty, Vivienne Winter is one of the most recognizable women on the planet. When she decides to auction her multimillion dollar jewellery collection for charity, there's no shortage of people eager to buy a piece of her incredible history.

Young, ambitious Christine Smith is a jewellery expert working for a centuries-old auction house. But in a world of aristocratic snobs, her working-class origins are holding her back. She's desperate to secure the sale of Vivienne Winter's gem collection: it's set to be the biggest auction since Elizabeth Taylor's. However, meeting the Hollywood star is just the first hurdle Christine has to jump.

Vivienne's handsome, spoilt and sexy playboy grandson Angel is the heir to her fortune. The anger and resentment he feels towards his grandmother for selling what he'd counted on as one day being his inheritance sets in motion a series of events with deadly consequences. Angel is totally unscrupulous, and no one will emerge from his plotting unscathed. For it seems that family secrets cut sharper than diamonds . . .

I am delighted to announce that the queen of the bonkbuster is back. This is easily Rebecca Chance back to her best, and a real pleasure to have been able to read this book. I was hooked from the prologue and especially once the story started to get revved up. 

The pace picked up from chapter to chapter, although it did level off during the middle section, while all the finer and key plot points were set up for the adrenalin pumping conclusion. 

The story centres around acclaimed actress Vivienne Winter who is heading into her twilight years and has decided to auction off her extensive jewellery collection for charity. However her grandson Angel isn't too happy about it and is going to plot to stop her. 

Then there is Christine who is a hard working expect for the auction house hoping to secure the rights to the collection, and goes out of her way to meet Vivienne. She is probably the nicest most innocent character in the whole book, and there are times I really felt for what she was going through, and the way the Winter family were treating her. 

There is a chapter quite early in the book where I spent most of it trying to work out whether I needed to be very disturbed by what was doing on, turned on or just plain confused, as we are introduced for the first time to a couple of key players in this tale, and learn just what sort of childhood one of them really had. Even for someone who generally isn't easily shocked at the sexual exploits in these sorts of books, this did make me raise an eyebrow in shock! 

Hearing about Vivienne's career through her gems was very interesting and she has had a colourful life herself, however her career is the single most important thing in her life. We learn about how she "looked" after her child and grand child and it was fascinating to see her solutions to problems.

There is a great deal of sex in the book, some of it more explicit than the rest, but all very enjoyable and well written. Generally the level of detail all over the story is brilliant and I found the whole book to be a gripping pleasure to read. 

Thank you to Sophie at EDPR for this review copy. This was my honest opinion. 

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