Product Description
Eve dared. . . Eve, with passion that overruled her total innocence, ran away from home to live in unrepentant sin; won stardom singing on the stage of the Parisian music halls before Worlds War I; married into the world of international diplomacy; and become the greatest lady Champagne. Eve's younger daughter, Freddy, inherited all of her mother's recklessness. Growing up in California, she became a pilot by sixteen; throughout World War II she ferried war planes in Britain--a glorious redhead who captured men with one humorous, challenging glance. Eve's elder daughter, Delphine, exquisite, gifted, and wild, romped through the nightlife of Hollywood of the thirties. On a whim, she made a screen test in Paris and soon found herself a great star of French films. She chose to risk her life in occupied France because of a love that transformed her frivolity into courage.
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  I really thought I would like it..., 2004-09-25
It started out great. Eve, in the 1910s, was fascinating to me. If I'm going to read something set in another era, the earlier the better, because the less likely I am to have heard the same things before. I loved the description of Paris and the music-hall scene, and I thought it was terrific that Eve was ambitious enough to shrug off Alain's rejection and become a star.
But she didn't live up to her potential! She stopped being a dynamic character. Every few chapters she popped up to express mild regret that she'd become a society dame and wonder what had happened to "Maddy", then go back to arranging flowers. She was so interesting at first, but Krantz made it seem like her ultimate purpose was just to produce Delphine and Freddy.
And the chronology was inconsistent. Delphine's and Freddy's storylines were completely separate, so they jumped all over the place: sometimes we caught up with one of them years after we'd seen them before; sometimes they were doing different stuff in the same year. The WWII timeline in particular was so disjointed, I thought I was reading alternate history.
And except for Eve (early on), none of the characters were particularly interesting. Freddy was too perfect; Delphine was too passive; Bruno was too obviously evil. The friction between Tony and Freddy was told, not shown, and Jane, who had a lot of potential as a sidekick, was only used as a plot device.
And I think the opening sequence was a bad idea. If we know going in that Freddy's going to have more than one child, and Dephine's going to continue to be a film star, that removes any mystery about the ending.
Two stars only because I liked the first few chapters. Otherwise, skip it and read Mistral's Daughter instead.
Great!, 2004-02-02
I love everything about this book. You've got romance, adventure, mystery, and Europe! What's not to like? I love the time period, taking us through two world wars and classic love stories.
Slow starter but worth sticking to it, 2002-07-26
As she approaches her 60th birthday, Vicomptesse Eve de Lancel remembers her years as a madcap music hall singer before her marriage into the Lancel champagne family. Her daughters, beautiful Delphine and the irrepressible Freddy, live adventurous and sometimes scandalous lives. Delphine is a seductive actress and Freddy a flamboyant aviatrix. While Delphine struggles through the German occupation of WWII Paris, Freddy plies the skies of Britain, delivering Spitfires to RAF squadrons. Brother Bruno plots his way to a fortune. This one's a slow starter but if you're a Krantz fan you won't be disappointed in the last 2/3rds of the book. The characters are unpredictable and once it gets going, readers become more and more involved in the story. It's an entertaining way to spend an afternoon.
Krantz's best, 2000-05-25
I am admittedly not a great fan of Judith Krantz's upperclass, usually eccentric and oversexed protagonists, but this novel about three women (the mother and two daughters) who, in their private way, become heroines of the World Wars, truly impressed me. Krantz weaves a very tight atmosphere around her settings, giving even the most unlikely situations cerrdibility (like one scene where a freight plane plays 'dare' with a Messerschmitt propelled fighter-and wins!) This and other slightly unhistorical accounts are what made me subtract a star from the rating, but as far as reading pleasure goes, I could not put this book down. I started it at around ten p.m., and was still at it by five in the morning, so well had the characters and the storylines caught me. I recommend reading this book, so long as you're not looking for a lesson in European history, but for a story and protagonists that you can feel for.
Wonderful!!!, 1999-01-17
It was action packed. A wonderful saga with a bit of romance. The characters came alive, especially Mac!!
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