Confessions of a Wild Child
The unstoppable, best-selling Collins delves into the fifteenth and sixteenth years of her signature character, Lucky Santangelo. Not as out of control as today’s rebellious teens, Lucky fights for independence and the training she needs to be part of her father’s Las Vegas hotel business, to no avail. Instead, this saga tracks Lucky through a number of exclusive boarding schools where she manages to make wild-child friends with other rich, spoiled young women. All of them spend their time picking up boys, not quite going all the way (with some exceptions), and avoiding the wrath of their absentee, overindulgent parents. Lucky crushes on her father’s right-hand man, Marco, while worrying about her younger brother, Dario, and trying desperately to gain the attention of her father, Gino the Ram. As her name implies, she’s incredibly lucky, even though her life is not a bed of roses. Unfortunately, this superficial look at Lucky’s past doesn’t really get to the heart of why the character turns into the beloved woman found in Collins’ superpopular novels, from Chances (1981) to Goddess of Vengeance (2011).HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: No matter what, Collins sells, so this prequel to her popular Lucky Santangelo novels launches with a hefty print run and coast-to-coast print, radio, television, and online promotion. --Pat Henshaw