Poor Little Bitch Girl (Santangelo #7) - Jackie Collins

There's Denver Jones, the hotshot attorney working in L.A. and Carolyn Henderson - personal assistant to a powerful and very married Senator in Washington with whom she is having an affair. And then there's Annabelle Maestro - daughter of two movie stars - who has carved out a career for herself in New York as the madame of choice for discerning famous men. The three twenty-something women used to go to high school together in Beverly Hills and Denver and Carolyn have always kept in touch, but Annabelle is out on her own with her cocaine addicted boyfriend Frankie. 

Bobby is Frankie's best friend - Bobby Santangelo Stanislopolous, that is, Kennedy-esque son of Lucky Santangelo and deceased Greek shipping billionaire Dimitri Stanislopolous. Now he owns Mood, the hottest club in New York, but back in the day he went to high school with Denver, Carolyn and Annabelle, and hung out with all three of them. Which means that Bobby knows everyone's secrets - and he has some of his own, too.

What did I think?

I had never read a Jackie Collins book before and I don't really like jumping into an already established series, but I was loaned this book so thought I'd give it a shot (no pun intended with a shooting in the book).

The story centres around 4 main characters; Bobby, Denver, Annabelle and Carolyn.  They all went to same school as youths but weren't all friends.  Denver is a lawyer who was briefly friendly with Annabelle, daughter of two famous movie stars, but is now friends with Carolyn, assistant to a senator.  Bobby is the son of Lucky Santangelo and is in Annabelle's social circle as he is friends with her boyfriend, Frankie.

Unsurprisingly, Annabelle is a spoilt bitch and is the subject of the book's title.  She lands herself in hot water but as it is in LA, if you have enough money you can make anything go away.  I quite liked Denver at first, as she seemed the more normal of the 3 girls until she jumped into bed with anyone who looked at her for longer than 10 seconds.  Carolyn got the short straw; having an affair with a married senator who makes an arrangement with a local gang leader to abduct Carolyn when she gets too attached.  That was quite a gripping part of the story.  Bobby didn't really leave a lasting impression on me.  He seemed a bit weak, most unlike the playboy I expected him to be.  

I really liked the way that Jackie Collins summed it all up in the last chapter by giving a brief 'what happened next' to each character.  I do think that there were too many characters in the book with none of them standing head and shoulders above the rest as a main character.  The murder storyline was predictable and the bitch wasn't even that bitchy so it all felt a bit flat for me.  Perhaps if I had read the first 6 books in the series, I would have enjoyed it more.

My rating:

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