Once again I read a book based on a Patrons love for it. Not so much THIS particular book was the patron interested in, mostly the author. Now, if many of my followers remember, I am a Librarian. I pretty much have heard of every author, popular or unpopular I have heard of them. So of course I have heard of Jackie Collins as it usually passes my desk every so often...by women of course, and all giddy to read it. I have heard that Jackie Collins write romance novels. ROMANCE novels. Not really my cup of Tall Caramel Macchiato Whole Milk. One time, this lady patron asked me if we had a certain Jackie Collins book she was looking for. As I was searching I wondered EXACTLY what kind of books did Jackie Collins write. It felt like I just asked a Harvard student in History class give me the lecture on History, FROM DAY ONE!!! I couldn't get this lady to...um....how can I say this delicately....TO SHUT UP!!! She kept going on, and on and on and I'm like "Okay..wow. Looks like I'll have to read it. Hear's your book it's all checked out...the doors are...no sweetie the doors are over there. (Don't let them hit ya on the way out)!"But with all that talk guess what I did?! That's right I checked out the First book in the Lucky Santangelo series: Chances. And I gotta tell ya.....this book is very and I mean VERY different than the kind of books I read!!As I opened the first few pages of Chances with my Caramel Macchiato sitting beside me, I get engrossed into the life of a Gangster named Gino Santangelo from when he was boy living on the streets trying to make a living sees the light of day as a Gangster and makes a living at it. People come and go in Gino's life and he is trying to make the best of things...some good some bad. Making "offers they can't refuse" is the name of the game and Gino does a pretty bang up job doing so. Making friends along the way while making enemies that could cost him dearly, and has. Fast forward many years later, we see his daughter Lucky trying to make the best of things and loving every minute of it. The power of course is so juicy the she can't let it go when dearest Daddy comes back from a vacation. How can Gino back away from his own operation, even if it is in the hands of his daughter? How can he let go of the past that has haunted him over the years and just become old like everyone else? Not Gino Santangelo. But when things start going south for Gino, he has to rely on his daughter Lucky to make things right.I got kind of lost a few times, for the book kept going back and forth from the past to the present. But after a while, I got used to it and noticed it actually helped the story line a lot. It broaden your horizon on what was going on to the main characters and many of the main characters that were mentioned you as the reader didn't realize how much of a role they played in Santangelo's family all those many years ago. They talk about New York being a big city and all but when Jackie Collins put together these main characters, it's actually a small city where everyone knows everybody and has ran across each others path far too many times. A great read, if you are into the whole "Godfather" affect and really into romance. Romance that isn't like Jill Shalvis or Debbie Macomber, no I mean the part that goes "Oohhh awww faster, FASTER!!! Thank goodness that's over with! Leave the money on the table on your way out. See you next week." We've got hookers, gangsters, crooked politicians, booze, drugs you name it and it's all tidied up in this first book of eight!!-Miss Kelsey's Review
Reviewed by AngieBook provided by GetRedPR for reviewReview originally posted at Romancing the BookWhen I heard that Chances had been re-released, I practically begged Jen to let me read it for the tenth time so that I could review it.The first time I read Chances I was a naive seventeen year old girl who sat there with huge eyes thumbing the pages as fast as my teenage eyes could read the page. It remains one of my absolute favorite novels of all time.Chances is about mob family extraordinaire the Santangelos. Father Gino and daughter Lucky are so much alike that they can barely be in the same room with each other, let alone the same state. Dario, Lucky’s brother, wants nothing to do with his father nor his sister, whom he is so completely sure is out to get him.Chances flips back and forth from modern day to the past; from Gino to Lucky to Carrie…you may not remember all the players names, but you sure as hell will remember where they came from and who they are by the end of the book.Lucky is the type of woman some women want to emulate, but others look at with disdain and hidden longing. She is tough, gritty, ballsy, and brutally blunt. Lucky isn’t afraid t go after what she wants.Gino tugs at your heart strings from the very beginning. The mom in me wanted to cuddle him after reading about the piss poor parents he had, and the woman in me wondered if he really is as good a lover as everyone says he is.Carrie’s story is heart-wrenching, there’s no doubt about that, but she isn’t afraid to pull herself up by her bootstraps and make the best out of what she’s been handed in her life.Steven…yeah, for the longest time I just wanted to slap him. If ever there was a male who irritates me more than my own husband does, it’d be Steven. Oh wait, Dario is pretty annoying as well. Costa has his moments, but he’s a good friend to Gino, who didn’t deserve him at all.I enjoyed reading about the Mob from Collins’s point of view; in fact I found it downright fascinating. But that’s what one can expect from her time and time again.One of these days I’ll own all of the books in the Santangelo Family series and spend a month lost in their world. On second thought, it may take me two months to read them all…there’s quite a few books {8 in total at the time this review was written} and at least a few thousand pages between them all.Take a chance on Chances…you won’t be disappointed.Warning: This book is not for the faint of heart. There is lots of graphic sexual encounters both hetero and homosexual in nature. There’s also graphic language, violence, etc. etc. This book also contains subjects that may be triggering to some {rape, incest}.
What do You think about Chances (1982)?
La copertina del mio libro recita: "Il romanzo che ha fatto di Jackie Collins la rivale di Harold Robbins." Dopo averlo letto mi chiedo: c'è qualcosa di più trash/guilty pleasure di questo capolavoro? La Collins ci racconta la storia di Gino Santangelo, furfantello da quattro soldi che racimola una fortuna e Carrie giovane ragazza cresciuta nella totale povertà e costretta a prostituirsi sin da giovanissima che si trasformerà nella donna più in vista a NY. Il sesso fa da contorno a queste vicende degne di una brillante Soap opera e la Collins condisce tutto con una irresistibile ironia, che smorza i toni più seri e perversi dei personaggi. Oltre a queste vicende, in questo libro nasce anche Lucky Santangelo, una donna con la D maiuscola, forte, intraprendente e assetata di potere; una vera mangia uomini. Certo, Lucky è fantastica, ma anche i personaggi di contorno, le starlettine arrampicatrici sociali, i maniaci, i boss e tanti altri sono difficili da dimenticare, inclusa la figlia del magnate greco e Pippa Sanchez. Una recensione americana che ho letto diceva che leggere "La roulette della vita" è come guardare una stagione del serial Dynasty. Se le esperienze sono simili, spero che qualche distributore pubblichi finalmente i DVD di questa serie.
—Francesco
Damn that was long!!!!It was confusing at times with all of the POV's and jumping from a time years ago until current times (1977). But the background was priceless. Man those times where tough. Being black was extremely bad and being a women wasn't much better. And the sex…very weird reading in the non use of protection time. Only a very few got STD's and AID's wasn't even a blip on the radar yet. The only disease they talked about was the clap - when was the last time ANYONE referred to it as that? I am so amazed with all the unprotected sex that there wasn't a gazillion more babies.Most of the story is typical back and forth mobster stuff. Was the Sopranos based on this story or what? For all the shit Gino pulled he truly was a great husband and father until Maria was murdered.SPOILERS AHEAD....The end is so sad, I still want to cry b/c of Marco. And then her brother. That hurt, they were so close and then they were just nothing. Who is Stevens father? The preppy guy or Gino. The book made it seem like it was Gino but it would be near impossible for him and Carrie to have a green eyed child. If he is Gino's son then it is a good hung Steven and Lucky didn't hook up.
—Ilene
Loved this first book more about Gino Santangelo, Lucky's father, and the storyline reminds me of "The Godfather". I couldn't put the book down, and even though it was written back in 1980, it still holds me spellbound. Since the author has Lucky born in 1950, she would now be approaching 64 years of age in today's world, which is probably why her subsequent books have her children as the main characters. It is still always fun to try to imagine who she is basing her characters on in real life. I probably read this book when it first came out, but it's been fun reliving all these characters again.
—Chris
