View source for To Touch the Stars by Jessica Ruston

{{infobox1
|title=To Touch the Stars
|author=Jessica Ruston
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=A good story which will keep you reading to the very last page.  A great escapist read.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=544
|publisher=Headline Review
|date=February 2011
|isbn=978-0755370320
|website=http://www.jessicaruston.com
|cover=0755370325
|aznuk=0755370325
|aznus=0755370325
}}

Cavalley's creates the most luxurious hats in the world along with a host of other items without which the rich cannot survive.  At the company's head is Violet Cavalley, now celebrating her sixtieth birthday with her family about her.  She looks as though she could go on forever, but Violet and one or two others know differently.  There are a few other people who know that Violet isn't who she says she is and that he background wouldn't stand a lot of close examination.  From the villa in Capri, to the London homes of the family and the private jet, it's all good living, but there are plenty of secrets which are going to be aired.

Initially I thought this was going to be a straight 'who gets the money when she's gone' story but there's a lot more to it than that.  Against all the odds it looks as though the family genuinely love their mother and there's more concern about her than about the succession.  But Violet has lived a strange life and it's not just one of the children who would like to know a little bit more about their parentage.  Add into this a few dark figures appearing from the past and the family is in for a difficult few months.

It's not great literature.  It's not a book you're going to struggle to read and then feel virtuous when you get to the end of it.  It's a book you're going to struggle to put down and then you'll feel guilty about all that time which has somehow disappeared.  Try and arrange a good excuse – a long flight, or a cold wet winter's day would do just fine – and you've got the perfect piece of escapist reading.  It'll grab hold of you and even when you think you can see how it's all going to end there are still some twists in store for you.

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

For more escapist fiction we can recommend [[Beautiful Creatures by Lulu Taylor]] and [[Hothouse Flower by Lucinda Riley]].

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