Product Description

The dazzling Lytton twins, Adele and Venetia, grow up with the world at their feet. Born into the great Lytton publishing empire, they are rich and admired, with a confidence verging on arrogance. At eighteen, in 1928, their future seems assured. But the spectre of Nazi Germany is growing... Gradually the twins' lives darken in unimaginable ways, as they struggle to cope with circumstances their privileged world has not prepared them for. But it is not just the twins whose lives have been irrevocably changed: Barty Miller, rescued from the London slums in babyhood by Celia Lytton, clever, ambitious, and a complete contrast to the twins, is faced with a temptation of the most unexpected kind... Following on from the bestselling NO ANGEL, SOMETHING DANGEROUS is a riveting drama and a fascinating love story.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #110544 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 912 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Particular skills are required in a novel the size of Penny Vincenzi's Something Dangerous: strong, powerfully drawn characters, yes; colourful, authentic scene-setting, of course. But what's needed above all else is organisation: an author must know how to bring together all the elements to create an inexorable hold on the reader. It's no surprise to find Vincenzi doing just that. Through such engrossing novels as Another Woman, Forbidden Places and No Angel, she has effortlessly woven an unbreakable spell that ensures few readers will be able to put her intelligently written romantic sagas down.

Something Dangerous (like No Angel) introduces a sharply observed element of social commentary into its epic-saga format, along with a vivid panoply of international history from the frantic 20s to the two World Wars. Adele and Venetia Lytton are twins enjoying all the social prestige and wealth that their position as daughters of the founder of a highly successful publishing empire can give them. At the age of 18, they make up for a lack of formal education with a confidence and cheek that isn't too far from arrogance. As the 30s begin, the twins put the horrors of the 1914 conflict behind them--but their adulthood coincides with the sinister rise of Nazi Germany. Soon, their privileged position comes to seem hollow indeed: Venetia finds that being trapped in a grim marriage is only the beginning of her misery, while Adele struggles to bring up two young children in a Paris that is being engulfed by the war. Then there is Bart Miller, taken from the slums by the twins' mother and more able to cope with life than Adele or Venetia. And crucial to the narrative is Laurence Elliott, scion of the family's New York members, single-mindedly pursuing an almost obsessive love. The interaction of Vincenzi's fascinatingly rendered cast is choreographed with her usual aplomb, and the epic backdrop never dwarfs the agonies and ecstasies of her characters.--Barry Forshaw

About the Author
Penny Vincenzi began her career as a junior secretary for Vogue and Tatler. She later worked as Fashion and Beauty Editor on magazines such as Women's Own, before becoming a contributing editor for Cosmopolitan. She has written ten previous novels.

Customer Reviews

Something Dangerous
"A total Vincenzi junkie", I supply many friends in America with her wonderful yarns. A recently hooked Bostonian buddy had this to say in a recent e-mail after I sent her "Something Dangerous'along with "The Dilemma", ...........

Now....about Penny Vicenzi....the thing I don't like about her books is
that when I start one I do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE until I finish
reading it. After a few days the house looks trashed and I lie on the
couch, sit on my chair, sit on the potty, sit at the dining room table -
reading the ENTIRE time. I take the book in the bathroom, in the
bedroom, out on the balcony, etc. Her books are extremely addictive and
I have LOVED the two I have finished. I will mail the latest one this
week.

Another Vincenzi delight
As always with Penny Vincenzi's books, I bought and devoured the hardback the moment it hit the shelves.

A fat delightful and utterly compelling read, following on from her last novel, No Angel, and developing the stories of the characters who came alive on the page the last time.

Celia is as dreadful as ever, Michael as long suffering and LM as wise. The social and political climate of the time are brilliantly evoked and skilfully used as the backdrop for the usual page-turning, compulsive plot.

It really isn't wise to start reading this if you have things you must do, as I found I resented every moment spent away from it until I had finished it.

Fantastic book
This must be one of the most un-put-downable books I have ever read. The stories of the individual characters made some of the most compelling reading I have ever experienced in this type of book. Penny Vincenzi made them and the huge problems they faced so totally believable. So many books these days attract such hype and praise and I've been disappointed with other best-sellers. But certainly not this one. I'd give it more stars if I could!! It really was a fantastic read and I can't wait to read the final title in the trilogy.