Deadly Embrace

June 3, 2002
The godmother of glam/vamp fiction returns with a campy prequel/sequel to Lethal Seduction, digging down and dirty to find the roots of celebrity journalist Madison Castelli's twisted family tree. Madison, first introduced in Collins's L.A. Connections series, plays a supporting role in this soapy sex-o-rama. This time, her father, Michael Castelli, a handsome "wiseguy" turned tycoon, takes center stage, along with his lover, stunning Las Vegas showgirl Dani Castle. Castelli has been accused of killing not one but two women: Beth, Madison's mother, and Stella, the woman Madison believed to be her mom. He is acquitted of the first murder with the help of his mob boss buddy, Vito Giovanni, aka Mr. G., who is unfortunately deceased by the time the second hit occurs. The nasty men responsible for framing Castelli are threatening to take out more of his loved ones if he doesn't cough up money Mr. G. promised them before he died. While Castelli knows that means they could harm not only Madison but Dani, mother of Madison's two step-siblings—Sofia, teen wild child now on the prowl in Europe, and Vincent, young Vegas hotel mogul—he also knows these crooks are responsible for the murder of his own mother, making retribution his ultimate goal. Throughout the readable if sometimes turgid saga, which skips from Michael and Dani's New York and Las Vegas pasts to the present-day ordeal of Madison held hostage at an upscale L.A. restaurant, the bombardment of amoral antics leaves the reader either reaching for an antacid or a very dry martini. Warning: the tongue-in-cheek/family-feel-good denouement cheerfully opens the door for another sequel. (June)Forecast:Collins knows no limits—in salacious prose or sales. Expect
Deadly Embrace to sizzle on bestseller lists this summer.

February 15, 2002
Picking up where Lethal Seduction left off, this novel tracks sassy celebrity writer Madison's efforts to uncover her father's mobster past.

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2002
Things aren't going well for Madison Castelli, last seen in "Lethal Seduction "(2000). Her father, Michael, is accused of a double murder (well, he is a mobster), and her photographer boyfriend has been missing in Colombia for 10 days, "which is pretty damn worrying." Needing "a break to get her head on straight," Madison heads to L.A., where she is promptly involved in a hostage situation in a trendy restaurant. And so it goes in Collins' glitzy, melodramatic world. Seemingly flying on automatic pilot, Collins throws together her usual grab bag of outrageous events stitched together in alternating story lines and described in laughable prose. The dialogue consists of gems such as, "You treat me like crap, Michael, then you expect me to fall gratefully into your arms like God's gift." Or the ever popular: "Give it to me, Mike, give it to me good." But to give Collins her due, she is a master of pacing. Each short chapter, alternating between the past and present and exploring the lives and loves of Madison's family, trots briskly along, filled with drugs, sex, murder, and mayhem--and concluding, just like a Jane Austen novel, with an oh-so-happy wedding. For the addicted. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)