Old Sins [Hardcover]

Penny Vincenzi (Author)

Book Description

The death of Julian Morell, the founder of a multimillion-dollar cosmetics empire and a well-known paramour, ignites a raging battle between the women in his life--his mother, his first wife, his daughter, his colleague, his mistress, and his second wife. Reprint.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this distended romance featuring wealthy and fashionablecharacters living in the glamorous echelons of British society, sixwomen intimate with the late Sir Julian Morrell--dashing captain ofthe cosmetics industry--gather for the reading of his will. Julianleaves hotels, horses and millions of pounds sterling, but daughterRoz and second wife, Phaedria, are shocked when each inherits 49% ofthe Morrell empire and the controlling 2% is left to a man no one hasever heard of: Miles Wilburn. The story backtracks to Julian's life,detailing his egotistical love affairs; the rise of his luxuryboutique Circe, with its branches in London, in New York and on RodeoDrive; and the rivalries of his women: his soignee mother, flightyfirst wife, frigid mistress, administrative whiz colleague, andjealous, insecure daughter Roz. Infatuated with Michael Browning, asexy self-made mogul from Brooklyn, Roz rejects him to marry wimpy CJEmerson, who will not challenge her domineering personality. Roz andPhaedria squabble to the end as they hunt for Julian's heir Miles, ablond and sweet California surfer whose eventual entanglement with theMorrell women provides unexpected ironies. While designer clothes andmix-and-match weddings/ adulteries are satisfyingly plentiful, thenovel lacks a clearly sympathetic central character the reader canroot for. Vincenzi is a London-based journalist.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Old sins do indeed cast long shadows in this glitz and glitter novel set in England. Julian Morell's family is shocked to discover that he has left the controlling shares of his cosmetics empire to a stranger, Miles Wilburn. The story jumps back in time to show how Julian built the empire, and reveal his relationships with the women in his life, including his mother, whose financial savvy kept the company running during its lean beginnings; his mistress, Camilla, a brilliant workaholic like himself; and his spoiled daughter, Roz, who expected to inherit the company for which she worked so hard. The story of Miles Wilburn runs parallel, until all the strands come together in a surprise ending. The novel's characters seem especially compelling and intelligent in this surefire winner for the popular fiction collection. The novel was originally published in England, where it was a best seller.--Ed.
-Marilyn Jordan, North Miami P.L., Fla.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 816 pages
• Publisher: Century
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0712680098
• ISBN-13: 978-0712680097
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,217,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic read - a classic, April 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Old Sins (Hardcover)

I read this books many years ago when it was released and was completely hooked. It has the perfect combination, glamour, sex, betrayal, love, intelligent writing. Julian is the rat with a double life and all suffer as s consequence. The women in the book are very strong, though somehow manage to get manipulated by Julian because they love him. However they mature and take control of their lives and the results are fantastic conflicts between his daughter and his second wife. The end is bitter sweet as only one of the leading ladies gets her man. It is all the things Dynasty wanted to be but was not. I loved it and I am a BIG fan of modern romance and fiction.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book but much too long., May 22, 2005

By 

J. Jamison (New Albany, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Old Sins (Hardcover)

I first read "No Angel" which led me to "Something Dangerous" and "Into Temptation." By that time I was hooked on Penny Vincenzi, and now I have all her books. I have just finished reading "Old Sins", the 4th. of her books I've read. I read it in paperback, which was 1000 pages of reading. The story is very good-- lots of interesting characters, a mystery, all the good things that make a book worthwhile. However, and this is the biggie--- this is a book that wouldn't have been hurt a bit by cutting out at least 500 pages. There was so much character discription that went on page after page on each of the characters, even the minor ones, that I did speed reading thru some of it towards the end. I thought the book was very good, but totally too long. The story could have been told, leaving out nothing important, with a bit of editing. I finished it last night, and frankly I am taking a breather from reading anything for at least a day or two to rest up. This was actually too much of a good thing.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Discovery, June 12, 2001

By 

Heather Marshall Negahdar "Haze" (Bridgetown, Barbados) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Old Sins (Hardcover)

What a wondeful day it was when I discovered this wonderful author. Old Sins was my first reading by her and I throughly enjoyed the characters and the mystery attached. Since then I've read all of her books and I'm now in the middle of her current one No Angel. Old Sins is one of her best. Thnaks Ms. Vincenzi