„The most important thing of all he said was to only do what I was good at, not to struggle with the rest.“ (Quotation page 224)

Content:
The elegant, timeless and famous Athina Farrell is the figurehead of the House of Farrell. Once very famous cosmetic brand, but meanwhile a little bit old fashioned, is the company almost insolvent. A group of investors is ready to give the Farrell a new but last chance. Bianca Bailey, a smart businesswoman and very successful, high-profile financial expert, has the knowledge and brilliant ideas, but many changes are to be made in the family leaded company. The matriarch Athina Farrell is absolutely not open to new ideas, if not her own and she is still powerful – would she risk the future of the famous House of Farrell?

Theme and Genre:
This interesting, thrilling story is about family lead companies, about cosmetics and new markets in our modern world. It is also about family, love, feelings, about social media and bullying, and the problems of very successful working moms.

Characters:
The characters are interesting, well drawn and most of them likeable. Bianca, who wants to succeed in saving the company and who knows that it will work, has problems to connect her intense job with her family live as a mother of three. Florence Hamilton, director of the famous Farrell flagship store at Berkeley Arcade for many years, is just loveable. Athina Farrell, stylish but with traditional business ideas is a legend and still sees the House of Farrell as her own, not willing to cooperate with Bianca.

Plot and writing:
The story is intense, because it is much more than the exciting question, if and how the famous House of Farrell is saved. It is about decision-making and the twists, troubles and happiness in the personal lives of everybody intertwined. The author switches between the persons, and they all have their own stories. In my opinion, that is why this book is so unputdownable, together with the naturally flowing, readable language.

Conclusion:
This book could be described as a saga and generational fiction of a family owned famous
cosmetic brand, but what it makes a really captivating and delightful reading are the personal stories of the members of the family Farrell, all the persons working at Farrell and in Bianca’s team. A perfect book for enjoyable, exciting hours of reading.
( )

Couldn't put it down. ( )

The words Penny Vincenzi and cosmetics company when combined got me all in a flutter when I heard about this book. I love Penny’s books and I’m a cosmetics junkie so when she writes about this, of course I’m going to read it! The real question is, why did it take me so long? I think I wanted to savour this big book, so I waited until I was on holidays to really get the most out of it (translation: stay up very, very late reading). It’s also pretty big at 753 pages, and I don’t read too many chunksters these days for unknown, likely trivial reasons.

A Perfect Heritage has everything I want in a Penny Vincenzi book:
- Gorgeous dress on front cover
- A list of characters (I literally swoon over these, then think I’ll never remember them all but of course, I do because Penny Vincenzi is a master at making each one a complete individual)
- A number of boardroom battles, cloaked in civility
- Some truly gorgeous characters
- At least one heinous villain
- Blind twists in plot
- A happily ever after for the characters I’ve come to regard as close friends.

The storyline of A Perfect Heritage centres on The House of Farrell, a decaying cosmetics house that hasn’t kept up with the times. It clings to one hero product, The Cream, but it’s outdated and old-ladyish. Enter Bianca Bailey (top business mind with an awesome name) to turn the company around and make it popular again in the Queen’s Jubilee year. Bianca knows what hard work is, but she hadn’t thought that working with Lady Athina Farrell, co-founder would be so difficult. Lady Farrell sees herself as THE name and The Boss of the company. She’s also not averse to underhand tactics to get her way. It’s a full battle to try to bring the House of Farrell forward, which has disastrous effects on Bianca’s home life. The employees of the House of Farrell, both old and new, have their own problems and secrets. Some of these in turn could be problematic for the company…

One of the strengths of Penny Vincenzi’s writing for me is the detail she puts into her characters. I now know so much about Bianca, husband Patrick and their children I feel like I should be sending them a Christmas card this year! Each member of this novel’s cast is intricately drawn and truly individual. No need to refer to the character list after very long! I could see the lines of stress on Bianca’s face as Athina usurped her and the joy as she solved a seemingly unsurmountable problem. I could see Bertie Farrell bumbling around the office blindly, yet caring so much for his staff. I cried with Susie as she was blackmailed and all along, the wise eyes of Florence helped to guide the House of Farrell gently but forcibly forward.

There’s a lot of tension in this book as the House of Farrell falls into one calamity after another. Some were so dire that I couldn’t possibly see how Bianca and co could find a way out. True, not all of the solutions were successful but this dose of real life only made the story sparkle more for me. A page-turner with an engaging set of characters – what more could you ask for in a book?

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com ( )

"It was like good quality junk food-a contradiction of terms that nevertheless keeps you snacking."
read more: http://likeiamfeasting.blogspot.gr/2015/03/a-perfect-heritage-penny-vincenzi.htm... ( )