Review: Confessions of a Wild Child by Jackie Collins

Title: Confessions of a Wild Child: Lucky-The Early Years

Author: Jackie Collins

Published: Simon & Schuster Au September 2013

Read an excerpt

Status: Read from October 12 to 14, 2013 — I own a copy {Courtesy the publisher}

My Thoughts:

It has been years since I have read anything by Jackie Collins but I have fond memories of the early books that featured Lucky Santangelo. I think I was maybe eleven when I discovered Chances and was immediately enthralled by the glitz, violence and sex, a heady combination for a young suburban girl half a world away from Las Vegas. Lucky was wild, powerful and rich and I vaguely remember thinking I wanted to be just like her when I grew up. So, when I was offered the chance to read and review Confessions of a Wild Child: Lucky-The Early Years I simply could not resist.

This book begins as Lucky, just shy of fifteen years old, is sent to an exclusive girl’s boarding school with her father, Gino, intent on making his daughter into a lady in preparation for marriage and motherhood. But boarding school gives Lucky an education neither she nor her father expected,

Confessions is written from Lucky’s first person, present tense perspective. It reads as if a teenager wrote it with simple language and breathy dramatic asides “No more little Miss Innocent.”. It didn’t really work for me, the experience is not unlike reading your own teenage diary twenty years or more after the fact, without the rosy glow of nostalgia.

If you have read Chances or Lucky there won’t be any surprises in this book, Lucky’s youthful antics have already been covered there. The plot is shallow with the focus on Lucky discovering the power she wields with her burgeoning sexuality, on her terms. There is plenty of sex, though little that is actually explicit. Lucky is all about ‘Almost’, though friends Liz and Olympia aren’t so discerning. The story ends on the eve of sixteen year old Lucky’s marriage – you’ll have to read Chances to find out what happens next.

I have no idea who the audience for this book might be, I wouldn’t hand this over to a teenager (hypocritical I know) and for fans of the Lucky series, Confessions has nothing new to offer. While it was sort of nice to be reminded of my first experience reading Jackie Collins, Confessions itself was a disappointing read.

Available to Purchase From

Simon & Schuster AU I BoomerangBooks I Booktopia I Amazon Kindle

via Booko

Amazon US I Amazon UK I Book Depository