In this utterly compelling novel, two sisters born into privilege find themselves forced to make wrenching life decisions as they struggle with a troubled family legacy and the immense weight of wealth, fame, ambition, and betrayal.

Misfortune's Daughters chronicles the gripping, multigenerational saga of the wealthy Stephanopolis family. Beginning in the Golden Era of Hollywood, the beautiful and talented actress Laura Marlowe meets the young, dashing, and rich shipping magnate Nicholas Stephanopolis. After a whirlwind courtship, the two marry and move to the private Stephanopolis Island in the south of Greece. Yet heartache and tragedy soon find them and extend into the lives of their two very different but willful and ambitious daughters, Venetia and Atlanta. One is a beautiful and favored daughter who's bent on self-destruction; the other is a wallflower who buries herself in books and shies away from her privileged world. But both must confront the legacy and tragedy of the lives of their parents.

Sweeping across almost 60 years and jetting from New York to Paris, Los Angeles, and Greece, Misfortune's Daughters is an irresistible, page-turning tale that reveals the glittering life of show business and the grittiness of the journalistic profession. Drawing on her own knowledge and experience, Collins takes the reader deep inside the exclusive gates of wealth and luxury, exposing dark secrets and forbidden desires as two young women vie to break free from their family's shadow and become independent women in their own right.

Joan Collins has appeared in over 55 films, dozens of television shows, and plays in Hollywood, the West End, and Broadway. Internationally renowned for her role as Alexis Carrington Colby on the cult TV series Dynasty, she has also published three bestselling novels and six lifestyle books, and was recently honored with an OBE (Order of the British Empire) by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II. She has three children, Tara Newley, Sacha Newley, and Katy Kass. She is married to Percy Gibson and they split their time between London and New York.

Two poor little rich girls struggle to find their way in the cruel world of wealth and privilege in this latest potboiler by former Dynasty star Collins (Star Quality, etc.). Born to 1960s Hollywood starlet Laura Marlowe and ruthless, womanizing Greek tycoon Nicholas Stephanopolis, Atlanta and Venetia are as different as, well, Greece and Hollywood. Elder sister Atlanta is every bit her father's daughter-not only is she dark, but she has also inherited his furry arms and facial hair (many young girls from Mediterranean climates suffer from this embarrassing condition). Thus Venetia, the image of her mother with aquamarine eyes and blonde hair, becomes the apple of her father's eye, while Atlanta is thoroughly ignored, especially after Laura's mysterious death. At age 20, Atlanta disappears, only to emerge as a swan after months of cosmetic surgery. She soon begins to enjoy the attentions of men, as well as professional success as a magazine editor, but her father continues to snub her. Meanwhile, Venetia chooses to follow a self-destructive path of alcohol, drugs and promiscuity that causes her to lose her glow. Collins's patented glitz and overheated plotting keep the pages turning, but Venetia's rich-girl misbehavior is tabloid predictable, and some readers may be put off by the endorsement of massive plastic surgery as a cure-all. Agent, Jonathan Lloyd at Curtis Brown (U.K.). (Mar. 2) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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• Literature & Fiction
  • Historical Fiction