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Adored by Tilly Bagshawe β€” book cover

Adored

by Tilly Bagshawe
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Overview

- British rights for Adored were acquired for a hefty advance in a three-day, six-publisher auction, followed by major sales throughout the world. - Adored will appeal to the same audience that made bestsellers of Plum Sykes's Bergdorf Blondes (Miramax, 4/04), Jackie Collins's Hollywood Divorces (Simon & Schuster, 2003), and Sidney Sheldon's Are You Afraid of the Dark? (William Morrow, 2004). - The fact that a beautiful, accomplished 31-year-old Cambridge University graduate has taken it upon herself to reinvent and revel in such big-canvas story-telling is sure to attract considerable media attention. - Tilly Bagshawe is a freelance journalist and regular contributor to The Sunday Times, Daily Mail, and other major British publications. She lives in Los Angeles and London with her husband and daughter.

Synopsis

- British rights for Adored were acquired for a hefty advance in a three-day, six-publisher auction, followed by major sales throughout the world. - Adored will appeal to the same audience that made bestsellers of Plum Sykes's Bergdorf Blondes (Miramax, 4/04), Jackie Collins's Hollywood Divorces (Simon & Schuster, 2003), and Sidney Sheldon's Are You Afraid of the Dark? (William Morrow, 2004). - The fact that a beautiful, accomplished 31-year-old Cambridge University graduate has taken it upon herself to reinvent and revel in such big-canvas story-telling is sure to attract considerable media attention. - Tilly Bagshawe is a freelance journalist and regular contributor to The Sunday Times, Daily Mail, and other major British publications. She lives in Los Angeles and London with her husband and daughter.

Publishers Weekly

With only one previous audiobook under her belt (Bergdorf Blondes, Hyperion Audio), Walger's sensational narration of Bagshawe's deliciously sinful novel proves she's a budding audio star. Walger (who appears on TV's CSI: NY) throws herself into this adaptation with giddy abandon and palpable enthusiasm. Narrating most of the book with her crisp, confident British accent, she effortless slips into American characters, giving each an individual cadence and personality. Bagshawe's decades-spanning Hollywood tale of glamour, greed, lust and revenge will remind listeners of the sweeping, high-caloric sagas by Jacqueline Susann or Lynda LaPlante. Like those two authors, Bagshawe excels at creating characters who are borderline unsympathetic but always compelling. While the big, juicy beach novel has been trimmed a bit, Jessica Kaye's excellent abridgment keeps the various story lines coherent while never slowing the pace below a gallop. Walger's remarkably adroit characterizations never let the multitude of characters become confusing. The only flaw in this production is that the musical cues sometimes play too loudly, threatening to drown out the narration rather than enhancing it. Simultaneous release with the Warner hardcover (Reviews, May 2). (July) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

Sienna McMahon was born into glamour. The granddaughter of film legend (and ogre) Duke McMahon, she grows up amid Hollywood scandal and opulence. Determined to forge her own identity, she becomes first a successful supermodel, then an actress; but unhappiness and tragedy keep breaking through. Then, in the time-honored tradition of Jackie Collins and Danielle Steel, the love of a good man brings her happiness and fulfillment.

Publishers Weekly

With only one previous audiobook under her belt (Bergdorf Blondes, Hyperion Audio), Walger's sensational narration of Bagshawe's deliciously sinful novel proves she's a budding audio star. Walger (who appears on TV's CSI: NY) throws herself into this adaptation with giddy abandon and palpable enthusiasm. Narrating most of the book with her crisp, confident British accent, she effortless slips into American characters, giving each an individual cadence and personality. Bagshawe's decades-spanning Hollywood tale of glamour, greed, lust and revenge will remind listeners of the sweeping, high-caloric sagas by Jacqueline Susann or Lynda LaPlante. Like those two authors, Bagshawe excels at creating characters who are borderline unsympathetic but always compelling. While the big, juicy beach novel has been trimmed a bit, Jessica Kaye's excellent abridgment keeps the various story lines coherent while never slowing the pace below a gallop. Walger's remarkably adroit characterizations never let the multitude of characters become confusing. The only flaw in this production is that the musical cues sometimes play too loudly, threatening to drown out the narration rather than enhancing it. Simultaneous release with the Warner hardcover (Reviews, May 2). (July) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Gorgeous, smart, and talented Siena McMahon is Hollywood royalty-granddaughter of movie star Duke McMahon and daughter of big-shot Hollywood producer Peter McMahon. Though she yearns to be a movie star like grandpa, daddy wants her to study medicine at Oxford. When Siena does something that essentially seals her fate in her father's eyes, she has no choice but to go her own way. As she matures, Siena makes both brilliant and disastrous decisions in terms of her career, her love life, and the people she keeps in her inner circle, experiencing dizzying levels of happiness and despair. At 500-plus pages, Bagshawe's debut is a hefty slice of escapist cake in the vein of Judith Krantz and Jackie Collins. And although the plot is often predictable, who cares? This cocktail of sex, Hollywood, and a dysfunctional family is simply intoxicating. Public libraries should expect big demand. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 3/15/05.]-Samantha J. Gust, Niagara Univ. Lib., NY Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Bagshawe goes for the glitz in her big, brash, fantastically enjoyable first novel. Siena McMahon doesn't have much in common with the typical chick-lit heroine. She neither stumbles nor bumbles. She craves power, fame and rigorous sex, not chocolate, shoes or another glass of Chardonnay. She doesn't eke out a living on the fringes of glamour; she was born smack in the middle of it. Her story is also a gossipy saga of the Hollywood dynasty that created her. Bagshawe makes a conscious break from Bridget Jones territory to revisit the glittery domain of Jacqueline Susann, Jackie Collins and Danielle Steel. The results are saucily delicious and utterly absorbing. The story begins in the 1970s, before Siena was born, just as legendary movie star and all-around bad guy Duke McMahon is installing his young mistress in the mansion he shares with his wife and their two children. This unorthodox arrangement leads to scandal, an illegitimate child and a lasting legacy of emotional dysfunction. The only daughter of Duke's elder son, Siena spends her early years in a tangle of conflicting loyalties, open hatred and savage betrayals. Her estrangement from her family is more or less complete by the time she's shipped off to an English boarding school. When she returns to Hollywood, she's a supermodel well on her way to becoming a successful actress, but it will take spectacular tragedy and the love of a good man before she's truly reconciled to her past and herself. Hot-tempered, oversensitive and ruthlessly ambitious, Siena is not an easy girl to love, but she's certainly entertaining, and Bagshawe does an excellent job of creating her over-the-top yet believable character. In fact, even the mostminor cast members here have well-defined personalities and real motivations. If her predecessors invested the rich and fabulous with epic grandeur, Bagshawe aims to make them accessible-not ordinary, but vividly human. Should be one of the summer's biggest beach books.

Book Details

Published
July 1, 2005
Publisher
Hachette Book Group
Pages
560
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780446576888

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