Message from my books.....

The Lucky Series - Jackie Collins

Lucky Santangelo. The epitome of a kick ass woman triumphing in a mans world. When I first read about Lucky in the aptly titled book 'Lucky', I completely fell in love with this character, this force of nature who overcame obstacles in her life that befits any Mafia type movie worth its salt. Seven books altogether, we see Lucky growing from a rambunctious little girl who witnesses her mothers dead body floating in the pool of her childhood home to becoming a mother herself - years later after a forced teenage marriage by patriarch Gino; a tragic affair with Marco whom Collins frequently refers to as Lucky's first love;  a doomed marriage to tycoon and father of her former best friend; and most frequently overcoming enemies and stereotypes. Its profound that even though this character was first published in the early 1980's (though Lucky was born in the 1950's) , the character frequently defied the idea that a strong successful woman would be anything other than feminine or perform so called womanly roles i.e being a mother, a caregiver and a wife. We see the character growing from a normal little girl thrust into an early adulthood and literally claiming her place in the world. One of the underlying themes of the Lucky series is that solitude need not equal loneliness and in there you can find strength. As the family motto goes, "Never xxxx with a Santangelo".