Killer Affair by Rebecca Chance
| Killer Affair by Rebecca Chance | |
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| Category: Women's Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Karen Grace
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| Summary: A story of jealously and revenge satirically centred in the world of reality TV, makes for a very entertaining, ironically realistic, humorous and readable bonkbuster but disappointingly the storyline was also unexpectedly predictable. | |
| Buy? No | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 544 | Date: July 2017 |
| Publisher: Pan | |
| External links: [www.rebeccachanceauthor.com Author's website] | |
| ISBN: 978-1447282914 | |
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Rebecca Chance's much anticipated and praised latest novel is definitely worth a 'chance' but for me it was a very mixed read. The cover blurb describes it as 'irresistibly readable' and 'a glittering page-turner' which it most certainly was, starting with a famed but as yet unidentified woman on a revengeful warpath against a second glamorous mystery woman. The story then restarts from the beginning setting the scene, characters and events that will eventually lead up to the revengeful opening act. It's not until the end of the book that this mystery betrayal is fully revealed which is what kept me hooked throughout what is quite a long book.
The book satirically centres around the life and times of Lexy O'Brien a reality TV star, who has captialised on her fake boobs, charismatic personality and brief appearance as a TV contestant, to carve out a celebrity and media career for herself complete with footballer husband and two spoilt (but very funny) children. The book's other main character is unpublished writer Caroline Evans, who becomes increasingly and psychotically jealous of Lexy's life as she shadows her to write the star's autobiography.
I loved the author's tongue-in-cheek exploration of today's reality-obsessed culture where just about anyone can go from everyday person to celebrity overnight with the right amount of heavily staged scandal and romance. Throughout the book features fictional characters and situations that are seemingly very familiar, such as Deacon the ex five-piece boy-bander with famously shoulder-length hair, Silantra the star of a hugely popular American TV show documenting her life and that of her two sisters and rapper husband or the very famous reality star who staged an affair between her boyfriend and her best friend and the well-known female actress caught out faking her pregnancy. Each one had me second-guessing whether it had been based on a real tabloid headline or not and if so which celebrity.
On the flip side though the storyline was fairly predictable and clichéd right from the off and disappointingly didn't deliver the shocking twist that I was expecting and hoping for, instead turning out exactly like it looked it was going to all along. This book was packed with hedonistic sex scenes but I did feel that a couple of the sexploits were too much and just there to shock as they didn't really bear any relevance to the eventual storyline (or perhaps I'm just a bit prudish but as a Jilly Cooper fan I like to think not). I also found it quite hard to like or identify with either of the lead female characters, probably because they were both very similar fame-seeking, self-obsessed, overtly sexual women, so without that emotional connection to either character I almost didn't care how things worked out.
Overall, this book was a very entertaining, satirically humorous and readable bonkbuster but unfortunately it ultimately left me disappointed with its unexpected predictably. Other books you might enjoy are Revenge Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger for its humorous look at the media industry or Fifty Shades Of Grey by EL James for the ultimate bonkbuster.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Killer Affair by Rebecca Chance at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Killer Affair by Rebecca Chance at Amazon.com.
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