Beauty (Louise Bagshawe)
£3.30
FROM THE BESTSELLING LOUISE BAGSHAWE, NOW WRITING AS LOUISE MENSCH comes BEAUTY, a novel of glitz, glamour, power and business. ‘A classic of the genre’ Daily Express
Blend it. Sculpt it. Shape it. Use it…
There isn’t a woman on earth who doesn’t have her beauty secrets. But for Dina Kane, beauty is more than just business. It’s power. And it is the secret. She’s dragged herself up from poverty to Park Avenue. She’s rolled with the punches. And she’s learned how to win.
Now someone is out to destroy her, and all she’s built. They’ve underestimated Dina Kane. She’s staying at the top – and she’s happy to wait for the perfect moment to exact her revenge…
Read more
Additional information
| Publisher | Review (16 Jan. 2014) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 1632 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Not Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 434 pages |
by Ellen F
When I found out last year that there was a new novel being released by LM, I was ecstatic! It had been a while since I’d read anything by her and I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into another one of her brilliant books. I read this in February 2014 and as I’m bringing my blog up to date, I thought I’d repost last years review.
I devoured the first five chapters the night that I downloaded it onto my Kindle. I couldn’t wait. No Beauty sleep for me that night haha
We start off with a bit of Dina Kane’s background. She was born in a small suburb, her father a construction worker, her mother a bit of a social climber, her brother the apple of their parents eyes. Dina wasn’t wanted by either parent, she was a mistake, and that was made quite clear to her by her mother from the outset.
As she grows up, you really feel for Dina but admire her determination to succeed, she refuses to let her past hinder her future. When her father dies, her mother turns to drink, and Dina has to grow up fast. She won’t be going to college, her mother makes it very clear that the money they have is for her brother’s education, Dina will just have to find herself a nice husband and make do.
When she finally finishes school, Dina makes the decision to move to the big city. She wants to be in New York, and she wants to make a name for herself, to succeed in life and have money. But she has to do this from the bottom. The very bottom. She waits tables and bides her time, after all, to stay in the city she needs to be able to make the rent for the roof over her head.
She certainly experiences some bumps along the way, her road to success isn’t straightforward and she learns the hard way that some men just can’t be trusted.
The twists and turns along the way in this book are fantastic, there were certainly some points where I held my breath and thought, no, no that won’t happen, it can’t happen…..but it did. Of course I’m not going to let you have any spoilers because that would ruin it and I think you need to go into this the same way I did – completely oblivious. What I will say though, is that you really want Dina to succeed, to fight back against the forces that are tying to destroy her at every turn. You root for her every step of the way and when her heart breaks, yours does too.
I also now want to rule the world like Dina and go out and make myself look brilliant with only a few select items! Beauty will certainly be one of those books I can go back and read again and again.
by Olie – Amazon Customer :)
I have been reading Louise Mensch (Bagshawe) books for years. Once you’ve read one you know what you are going to get. Always well written, loved the character of Dina Kane in this book great story, strong sexy women (and some men) Read the whole book in two days once you start you just can’t stop ????
by Mrs H – book fiend
Mensch has a way of describing her characters in such a way that you root for them, and Dina is no exception. Having read all previous books by her (as Louise Bagshawe) I was beyond excited when I heard Beauty was on sale, and as my headline suggests, it’s a page turner as usual. I’ve finished this in 4 hours, as I couldn’t bear to put it down. If you are looking for a holiday read, a bit of escapism and a well written story, this is the book for you.
One minor point I noticed in the book, and it is a tiny point and totally trivial but hey, I love noticing mistakes! – Hector Green gives his age on one page as 63, and a couple of pages later has aged to 69. That’s the only thing I could find wrong with it!
by julia herron
Not as good as some of her other books, but enjoyed it once I got into it.
This book was a mix of her books “Glamour” & almost identical to Destiny which are far better books.
My favourite is Desire, which is a fantastic, thrilling book which I couldn’t put down.
by catherine
I couldn’t put it down this book had me gripped from the first chapter. Thoroughly enjoyed, you won’t be disappointed
by I love my kindle!
I am a big fan of both the Bagshawe sisters and only the long list of books on my kindle, waiting to be read, prevented me from buying this the minute it was published.
The story for me was a bit formulaic, girl from nowhere pulls herself up by her boot strings, is hugely successful, makes a few enemies along the way and gets kicked back down by them, before she dusts herself down and makes good again.
Dina Kane was a little bit too good to be true, very beautiful, very good, very worthy, nevertheless I loved her!
Everything happened a bit too easily for her, coped with the knock backs, came back even better and brighter, but I still loved her!
A few loose ends for me, her mothers reaction to her success and relationship, ditto Ludos reaction but I suppose that can be left to the readers imagination.
This book rehashes some of the themes of previous novels by Louise Bagshawe but I preferred it to Passion and Desire, where the author introduced a thriller element to her books and turned the heroines into a female version of James Bond!
This is not a deep, thought provoking read, not much here for a book club discussion, but as a beach or poolside read, or a snuggled up in front of the fire weekend afternoon read you cant go wrong 10/10.
by Raquel
I normally love a Louise Bagshawe however this one, although idid read it all the way to the end, was a bit less gripping and believable than her earlier books. It’s the same familiar story, rags to riches and finding prince charming, but in this one I didn’t really feel the connection with the characters and thought the storyline was sloppy. Dina is too perfect – too beautiful and everything seems to come a bit too easily to her, like all of a sudden she’s and expert on high end beauty products and she’s wearing Prada but has no money and is on a low wage. I thought Edward was unrealistic in his pursuit for revenge, and laughably maniacal, it was a bit overdone to have him go as far as he did (without revealing any plot spoilers) and I didn’t feel there was enough for Joel and Dina to fall in love over after just a couple of meetings and one kiss…. Maybe I’m a cynic but it felt a bit too good to be true.
Also beige has to be laziest word to describe colors of fashion items… What woman in her right mind wants to wear beige…. Camel, nude, stone, but never beige.
The climax is a bit rushed and ridiculous and at the end I didn’t really care if the characters had a happy ending or not. However if you want an easy beach read without having to engage your brain too much it’s probably ok.