cover image Luxury

Luxury

Jessica Ruston. Headline, $10.95 trade paper (544p) ISBN 978-0-7553-4852-7

Privilege, decadence, and feuding luxury hotel empires form the backdrop for Ruston's fiction debut. The trans-Atlantic, filthy rich Barnes family is helmed by ruthless industry titan Logan, and Maryanne, a "power wife" with a nasty addiction to painkillers. A huge, dark secret revolves around their son, Charlie, while daughter Lucia has diminished her standing as Daddy's little princess after her arrest for public sex (over the hood of Bugatti Veyron, no less). Nicolo Flores, a dark figure from Logan's past, resurfaces, driven to right an old wrong, and threatens the Barnes monopoly. The novel offers plenty of intrigue, and Ruston handles the many intricate plot lines and her large cast with aplomb. If Ruston (Heroines: The Bold, the Bad, and the Beautiful) occasionally slips into clich%C3%A9 with her over-the-top characters, dialogue, and plot, it's understandable. Readers will likely devour this spicy plot. (Sept.)