La Fortune de Cassia

by Penny Vincenzi

The latest dramatic bestseller by Overlook's most popular author Penny Vincenzi there are over 500,000 copies of Penny's books in print in the U.S., and millions more worldwide!A mysterious, tragic accident in the 1950s. An inexplicable suicide twenty years later. What was the strange link between the two and Caroline Hunterton's long-buried past? A secret which could not be kept forever, especially from her two daughters, Chloe and Fleur. Fate had separated the sisters in time and distance but bound them in mutual hatred until journalist Magnus Phillips decided to tell the story that would tear their lives apart.Moving from wartime Suffolk to 1950s Hollywood, from glitzy Madison Avenue to London's theatrical aristocracy and the machinations of checkbook publishing, An Outrageous Affair explores the extraordinary, sometimes fatal, consequences of truth sure to please Penny's legions of readers.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Romance, Historical Fiction, Mystery, British Literature, Womens Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Penny was nine years old when she embarked on her storytelling career. She wrote her own magazine called “Stories”, which she copied out three times on carbon paper and sold for two pence at school. So began a career in writing which has seen 7 million copies sold, and 17 bestselling novels.

After secretarial college, Penny worked as a junior secretary at Vogue and Tatler magazines, before moving to the Daily Mirror as personal assistant to Marje Proops, Britain's legendary agony aunt.
Marje encouraged her to write, and she became fashion editor and beauty writer at the Mirror, working for the women's editor in what was irreverently known as the "fragrant department". Penny’s journalistic career as a celebrated writer and columnist spanned several decades working for many of the leading newspapers and magazines of the time.
She once asked bestselling British author Jilly Cooper for advice on writing a novel while interviewing her for a magazine profile. Jilly put Penny in touch with her own agent, who promptly auctioned off her (then unwritten) first novel. It was quickly snapped up and the rest, as they say, is history.
Penny died in 2018. She was the proud and much-loved mother of four equally proud daughters, and grandmother to nine grandchildren.

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my third Penny Vincenzi book and like the others I adored this.

It's a doorstopper at just over 800 pages. I loved every page.

We meet Caroline as a young child and stay with her right the way through to her life as a grandmother. We are there when she loses her virginity, her first pregnancy, her first love, her first loss.

Her daughters, Fleur and Caroline, opposite sides of the world but equally similar. The complex relationships between mothers, daughters, siblings.

Split between Suffolk UK and Hollywood this is a book of two sides told within the unpublished The Tinsel Underneath manuscript.

Vincenzi is fantastic at a family saga. Weaving old and new money, the glitz and the grit in one seamless tale.

Five stars.

[Les · Rating 2 out of 5]

Leslie Did you read a 600+ page book just so you could write a scathing review of it?
Yes I did other Leslie - Yes I did (h/t Archer)



This is another Penny V book filled with loathsome, unpleasant, unlikable and annoying characters

We begin during WW2 where a neurotic girl named Caroline sleeps with an American GI named Brendan and falls pregnant. Then he ships out and isn't heard from so she puts the baby up for adoption. And eventually marries another loathsome creature. And has 3 appalling children.

When Brendan returns from the war he takes the daughter and goes to America where he pursues his dream of being an actor while his mother and sisters care for the girl name Fleur.

Fleur is simply a hideous person who can't understand normal thinking. He father dies when she is 12 and she blames everyone but him. Now If I could travel into the book after I slapped this spoiled brat silly I would explain to her that there is ONE person responsible for her father's death and that is her father. He could have stayed in NY and gotten a real job to support his daughter; he could have been a firefighter or a policeman or sold shoes or worked in a factory or worked on the docks he could have used the GI bill to go to college and get a degree in accounting or business but no he wanted to be an actor. And he left her and his mother and sisters in NY and went to the land of fruits and nuts. And made a bunch of bad decisions and died. Because he was an irresponsible person.

Fleur has a 1/2 sister who is equally pathetic and spineless and whiny

Utterly there is no one in this book I will pull out of the path of a speeding taxi.

Then there are the lazy errors in one scene set in 1972 a British character mentions Starsky and Hutch, unless she's also a companion of DR Who she couldn't have seen it as the show didn't premier in the US until 30 Apr. 1975

The same character has a baby monitor which is highly unlikely because after a failed launch in 1937 they weren't widely available until the 1980s

I wouldn't recommend this is anyone unless you have low blood pressure and need a drug free way to elevate it. Also Kindle chucking was often considered

And Fleur's career which is in advertising seems to have been lifted directly from Mad Men

[Jody · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing makes me more crazy than when an author takes 624 pages in tiny typeface to say what could have been written in 200 pages or less. By page 300, I was completely bored, yet too far into the book to give up. Vincenzi does have the gift of dangling a tantalizing conflict to make you keep reading, but by page 500, I didn't really care anymore. I just wanted it to be over. My advice? Don't bother. The end did not justify the long meandering means of this book.

[Merty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finally finished this book that seemed like it was taking forever
t o get to the end. But the ending was very rewarding.
It certainly was a soap opera but Penny V. kept it all in stride and
interesting each time I picked up the book.
One certainly has to be in the mood for this type of book, as it
is very wordy but the characters kept it all interesting in that I wanted to find out where this was all taking me to the end.
I will definately read another P.V. book!

[Psirene · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book tedious to read. I have enjoyed Vincenzi's trilogy and other novels but this book was trashier and led to disapointment. The scandal referred to in the title is hinted at through out the novel but only emergeds in detail at the end. The novel is the story of Caroline and her daughters Chloe and Fleur and the men that they love. The only likeable characters are three men that play supporting roles in the dramatic lives of the women characters, Jack, Caroline's groom, Ruebin, Fleur's finacee and Joe, Caroline's partenr.

[Melissa Kayden · Rating 2 out of 5]

I generally love Vincenzi's books, but this one was not one of my favorites. It seemed to me that she was trying to make the story more involved than it needed to be to be good. I didn't really find any of the characters likable - not even the protaganists. I was pretty disappointed by this one, but will continue reading her books since I have loved the others.

[Helen Carolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are times when all a gal wants is a bonkbuster that's not to taxing on the mind and thankfully Ms Vincenzi always delivers. Here two sisters living miles apart are horrified to learn of each others existence. Enjoyable read.

[Lisa D · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Outrageous Affair is classic Vincenzi. Hard to put down with great characters, strong women, gripping plot and lots of romance.

[Afroditi Gagatsi (booklover_and_more) · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I love this author, I found this book a bit tiring and way longer than it should be. I just didn't see the the point in the book being so long and didn't find the characters believable.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is supposed to be a page-turning family saga but by about page 100 I didn't care about any of the characters or where the story was going. So I have abandoned it. There doesn't seem to be a Goodreads category for that.

[Bookread2day · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although Penny Vincenzi writes very long novels, I always manage to read them untill the end. It may take me a long time to read one of her books but I really love her stories. I have read many of her books.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish the author would write shorter books. In my view this book could have been 400 pages rather than 700. The story was stretched so much I started to lose focus. Luckily the last 50 pages picked up pace to a great ending.

[Chris Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this 815 page book in very short time. Saga of Caroline, her family including Fleur her illegitimate daughter, and their relationships over 30 years. Truth explained in last page. Great read.

[Ruth Harwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh yes, typical Vincenzi magic is cast over the post WWII era, confusions, misunderstandings and criminal acts, or as near to as to be, all bring this books together into a tour de force stretching both sides of the US and back to London in dramatic style, with the flair she brings to all her books.
Every character has their faults and redeeming qualities, not often, or always, the ones you think are the 'bad guys' are in reality such, meaning for half the book you may feel one way about a character, then all that's turned on its head, and you're wondering why people's actions often seem so bad when all they're doing is keeping secrets.
All her books are about secrets and lies, and the nature of humanity and how we, as people, make snap judgements and regret them later. The human condition is a complicated one, and no-one captures this quite like Vincenzi - I'm doing a re-read of her books,those I've read, and those I haven't, this being the latter, and marvelling at how she captures the human condition so much more in focus than almost any writer I know. Though there may be others as talented, and as clever, I just have yet to discover, but none compare to the first, eh?!!!!

[Holly Beacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading books from my Nan's shelf what with library's being closed at the moment and it really was an outrageous affair! I really enjoyed this book perhaps a little long but I was surprised by how timeless the book was! As this book was written only a few years after I was born sometimes books can seem quite dated and old but this seems quite modern to be honest! I think the story dragged out a tad and it was all wrapped up rather quickly but overall a good read that I really enjoyed picking up everyday.

[Mamadukes · Rating 5 out of 5]

ESCAPISM AT ITS FINEST!

I’ve LOVED all of Ms Vincenzi’s novels since I first discovered her years ago. Her ability to take you back in time and sweep you up in family sagas is most enjoyable. Sometimes I wish I could go back there with her and meet the characters I feel I know intimately and other times I’m SO glad I can’t. If you want to get lost for hours in another place and time, Penny Vicenzi will surely lead you by the hand into a most glorious, salacious way. You won’t be disappointed by this book.

[Maureen Arndt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good story but the over 600 pages could have been cut down to 400. There were so many characters introduced throughout that didn’t really have much to do with the story and at times, there was way too much detail. It was also weird that when the author was talking about Fleur, one of the main characters, she often used English sayings but Fleur grew up in the states and never lived in England. There was also so much infidelity that it became kind of ridiculous at the end. It’s worth reading but be prepared for a long one.

[Sherrie74 · Rating 2 out of 5]

The ending is not worth the journey there. I gave up on 432 .... that is all I could take and it felt like an uphill climb to just get that far. Jumped to appr 100 pgs from end thus missing appr 300 pages .... yes missing 300 PAGES and is still took til the last few pages to figure out ..... YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!! If it had been condensed to 500 pgs it would have been so much a better read. Just way too long and tedious.

[Bianca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book so much. I was genuinely so enthralled in the story and the whole mystery aspect of it. I find it totally surprising that so many people didn’t connect with the characters, because I personally loved them, annoying as some of them may be. Even the bad characters are interesting and have a reason for being introduced. The ending was jaw dropping and so worth the 860 or so pages I read

[Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not finish this book. I DNF'ed somewhere around the 20% mark. I just couldn't get invested in either the story or the characters. Maybe it was just me, I don't know. I felt like all the characters were just kind of flat, one-dimensional. It got to be more of a chore to pick it up than a joy and life is just too short.

[Alison Wales · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely not one of Penny’s best books. I found this to be drawn out and slightly contrived at times. I could happily have put this down and not picked it up again at many points - highly unlike any other book of Penny’s that I have read before. I would only recommend for Penny Vincenzi die hards or avid readers. If neither of those choose something else.

[Wendy Johansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this rather long, juicy novel. What wicked webs those characters wove! Some interesting WWII, old NYC ad agency, and Hollywood heyday history was the basis of the story lines. There was some rather selfish, impractical and unbelievable behavior demonstrated by all the protagonists. Yet, I would read other works by this author.

[Lorna Gilder · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lengthy family saga through the decades involving Hollywood film stars!
Begins in war time Suffolk with Caroline who has a relationship with an American soldier.
Another enjoyable read by this author although quite padded out!

[Deane · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very long book but one I really enjoyed....a lot of characters but each one 'fleshed out' as the story progressed.

Ambition, greed, lies, homosexuality, affairs, adoption, WWII, 1950s to 1970s era, devoted wife, murder, jealousy, etc....

[Karen Diamond · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a complete waste of my time. This book should’ve and could’ve been told in less than 250 pages, but it dragged on for 624. Pages and pages of story lines that dragged on until I was bored to tears.

[Marjan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Een oudje , al eerder gelezen maar wederom
van genoten !

[Andréa Goodall · Rating 3 out of 5]

To long for a boring book.

[Sheila Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A long read with lots of twists and turns Very enjoyable

[Linda Stevens · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the first novel by Penny Vincenzi that I've read. I found it to be long and drawn out. The ending was good but left a lot of loose ends. I won't read another of her novels.

[Chiara · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF@50%
The pacing was so unjust
And there was no emotional connection with me or anything that spoke to me or at least made me sympathize with the character
However her writing style was nice