Sparkles (Louise Bagshawe)****

I’ve always admired Louise Bagshawe’s writing style but haven’t particularly enjoyed her books so I was thrilled to find Sparkles. In some ways, it has a lot of similarities with the other Louise Bagshawe books I’ve read. Like Lucy in Tuesday’s Child, Sophie has to learn to be a lady (although we only really see her nonladylike self in flashbacks) and like Lita and Becky in When She was Bad, Sophie finds herself in charge of a business. She’s never done anything like it before but she discovers she has a real knack for it.

But in this book, everything really works. Bagshawe has created a fascinating and exciting multi-layered story, full of twists and turns you almost never see coming. Her characters are also great. Sophie at first seems a bit distant and too concerned with keeping up her aristocratic appearance but the more you read, the more you get to know the vulnerable and sexy woman inside.

Also with a big part to play in the book is Sophie’s son Tom, who is spending his university days shagging and failing his classes (so in other words he’s a completely normal student). But when he fears for the safety of his inheritance he decides to come home and take charge. In the process, he meets Judy, once Sophie’s husband’s secret (at least as far as Sophie was concerned) lover, who is now showing an interest in Tom.

Judy is a complete bitch who likes to tell herself she only cares about being rich but it’s very difficult to hate her. No matter what she does, it’s difficult not to sympathise with her and also to admire her determination and inventiveness. And I smiled more than once when she found herself accidentally being really nice to Sophie. Judy is a great villain because you want her plans to be thwarted but you do kind of want her to end up as happy as she can be without making the other characters suffer.

At the beginning of the book, all Hugh really wants is to buy Sophie’s business but he too turns out to be someone completely different from what I was expecting. He has a business of his own and he always works really hard at it but gradually he realises there are more important things in life.

Then there are scenes featuring the mysterious and murderous Vladek, who is in some way connected to the stories in ways we can partly guess – although you don’t realise the full extent of this until the end of the book. At one point he changes his name to Yuri and this is how his girlfriend refers to him but my friend told me that calling someone Yuri is like calling someone by their first name and surname in English so Yuri’s lover should really call him Yura. But maybe I misunderstood and in any case, Vladek/Yuri is a bit weird so maybe Bagshawe was being really clever and making him get it wrong on purpose.

This is a wonderfully written book, with beautiful, evocative descriptions and exciting dialogue. Maybe it’s not a book I’ll read again but it’s a book I’ll remember – and maybe that’s more important.