View source for Platinum by Jo Rees

{{infobox 
|title= Platinum
|author= Jo Rees 
|reviewer= Jo Heffer
|genre=Women's Fiction 
|summary= Three very different women living very different lives but they  all have one thing in common - they have been wronged by the same man.  Now they want revenge and will stop at nothing to get it. Eventually they  meet up with each other and become a very strong force to be reckoned with.  Yuri Khordinsky, the man in question, had better start watching out!
|rating=3 
|buy= No
|borrow= Yes
|format= Hardback
|pages=432 
|publisher= Bantam Press
|date= May 2008
|isbn=978-0593058992 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593058992</amazonuk> 
|amazonus=<amazonus>0593058992</amazonus> 
}}

Platinum is a story about three women, all very different from one another, who in ordinary circumstances would have no occasion to meet. Frankie is a young girl working as a stewardess on board a fantastic yacht sailing around the Med. Peaches is LA's most famous 'madam' who spends her time supplying high class prostitutes to the rich and famous and organising the most depraved parties imaginable. Lady Emma Harvey is a British aristocrat and society hostess who supports her husband in his business ventures and lives in a wonderful stately home. They are the most unlikely trio ever to meet, let alone end up working together but that is what happens. As the story unfolds, disaster and tragedy befalls each of the women in turn. They either have the choice to allow these events to finish them or to fight back against whoever is behind them. That man is Yuri Khordinsky, a ruthless Russian businessman, who will stop at nothing to achieve what he desires in both his professional and personal life.

The chapters in the first half of the book focus on each of the women in turn. This means that we keep up with each woman's story in every third chapter. I quite enjoyed switching between the three and found it very easy to keep track with each of their stories. Although some of the ideas were pretty far fetched, all three characters were likeable and interesting to learn about. You could sympathise with their plights and identify with them as women, even if it was hard to actually visualise the lives they led. Although there were many other minor characters as well, we did not really learn that much about them although many were instrumental to the events in the story. There was a wide array of Russian thugs, high class hookers and the British upper class all thrown in for good measure.

It was also interesting to see how the story moved between a number of widely different and sometimes exotic locations - Moscow, Marrakesh, Los Angeles, England, Cannes and the Caribbean and it was enjoyable to visit all these places even if only in one's imagination!

Overall, this was quite an engrossing story but one that did not make the reader work too hard. At times it felt a little unbelieveable but that isn't necessarily a bad thing if you're looking for a bit of escapism. There were times though when I felt that the different stories dragged a bit and I could feel my interest dwindling. It took a long time to get to the heart of the story and it was well over halfway through before we discovered the wrongdoings and the course of action needed to exact revenge. I would have preferred it if more of the story had focused on how the women worked together to gain revenge. This is covered in the latter part of the book but the writer could have gone into much more detail at times. I felt the book was a little imbalanced in the telling of the story.

Jo Rees does tell a good story in this novel, and ties all the different stories together very well. She builds the tension well towards the end so that the reader is quite gripped and wondering how it will all end. The end might be a little predictable, as is a lot of the story, but that does not take away from it being an enjoyable read. It's the sort of book which would make perfect light holiday reading.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.

If you enjoy this type of book, you may well be interested in [[Crystal by Katie Price]].

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