Star Quality

Anneli Rufus

This rags-to-riches family saga encompasses several generations of talented mothers and daughters who fight to stay in the limelight while coping with faithless lovers and jealous rivals. Millie, the maid-turned-Broadway-belle, and her Hollywood pinup daughter, Lulu, inhabit rarefied worlds best exemplified in the 80s TV drama Dynasty, in which Collins starred. With her big hair and big jewels, Collins is the living embodiment of these audacious heroines.

From The Critics

This rags-to-riches family saga encompasses several generations of talented mothers and daughters who fight to stay in the limelight while coping with faithless lovers and jealous rivals. Millie, the maid-turned-Broadway-belle, and her Hollywood pinup daughter, Lulu, inhabit rarefied worlds best exemplified in the 80s TV drama Dynasty , in which Collins starred. With her big hair and big jewels, Collins is the living embodiment of these audacious heroines. —Anneli Rufus

Publishers Weekly

Like mother, like daughter, like granddaughter-the notion of history repeating itself functions as both plot frame and theme in Collins's latest novel, a multigenerational saga that spans a century of family triumphs and tragedies set against the backdrop of the ever-changing entertainment industry. Millie McClancey is just a na ve Irish lass when, having been compromised by a roguish nobleman, she takes to England's music hall stages, wowing London and New York. In the 1940s, Millie's illegitimate and far more sophisticated daughter, Vickie, becomes a Hollywood sensation. And Vickie's wild child, Lulu, becomes a supermodel in the '80s before turning to the soaps. Through it all, most of their misfortunes may be attributed to Patsy, an enemy Millie made in her youth, and Patsy's grudge-carrying descendants. Like overteased hairstyles and television programs about oil barons, this benign offering has a pass feel. Derivative of just about everything-Moll Flanders, The Godfather, Funny Girl, Valley of the Dolls-it even has Bugs Bunny gangsters ("Yeah, boss, yeah, good idea"). For readers who make it to the closing curtain of this sprawling camp extravaganza, the ultimate message-while years and fashions may be different, "nothing changes"-will come as no surprise. (Nov.) Forecast: Appearances on the Today show, 20/20, Larry King Live and The View should help Collins cut her usual swath. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Clunky potboiler from the former queen of B-movies and TV soaps, starring the descendants of a humble Irish housemaid who reach the heights of Hollywood stardom.

Young Millie McClancey, orphaned by the 1917 influenza epidemic, takes a job in the London house of a duke—and gets noticed by his dissolute son, who can’t resist her flame-red curls, cerulean eyes, and whatnot. Her ruination begins innocently enough: Tobias Swannell, handsome, swaggering heir to the dukedom and all its properties, loves to hear the sweet young thing sing music-hall airs, but her impromptu concerts lead to significant fooling around on the sofa. Pregnant and disgraced, Millie is cast out by the stern butler, then befriended by an elderly (and fortunately homosexual) theater producer, who puts her on the stage and arranges for someone else to care for her illegitimate daughter. Soon the toast of London and then New York, Millie throws all her energy into her career, warbling away in near-nudity and thrilling audiences that include sexy gangster Marco Novello. Millie’s inevitable slide into drink and depression—and her mysterious death in an explosion—put her daughter Vickie next in line for stardom, aided by Marco. Not getting the role of Scarlett O’Hara is a setback, but pin-up fame during WWII awaits, plus innumerable parts in lousy movies. Much-married Vickie moves on to the perverted grandson of the dissolute duke, not knowing that there’s an incestuous link. Her daughter Lulu, sired by the love of her life (a Gary Cooper clone), becomes a world-famous model known for her sultry sensuality and lesbian affairs. As a child, she accidentally saw the Cooper clone banging away lustily at her naked Mummy, turningher off men forever—except for one hot night with a paid superstud, resulting in a daughter, also Millie, who becomes an overnight rock superstar at 14.

Lots of steam but no real heat, from the ever-shameless Collins (Infamous, 1996, etc.).

Booklist - General Review

“A delicious romp sure to charm fans”