The Jewels of Tessa Kent

I loved this book. I couldn't put it down. I was crushed at the ending especially when Maggie and Tessa finally find each other, yet their time is limited. I would love to e-mail Mrs. Krantz about this novel. There was something that caught me and wouldn't let go. I think it would make a great movie.

Judith Krantz is an extremely skilled writer with that genuinely, authorly flair for creating subworlds on her own terms - a talent possessed by any writer worth reading, from Dickens to Agatha Christie, whatever the genre or actual literary merit of his or her output. I read The Jewels of Tessa Kent with as much enjoyment as all her other works, very little more or less, since she is if nothing else consistent and the predictability of her formula - if you like this sort of thing, as I do - is part of the attraction. She is very good at drawing a detailed and superficially convincing picture of a specialised environment or social situation - in this case, the worlds of film-making, auction houses and applied Catholicism - and, despite the superabundance of positives and superlatives in her novels (nobody is ever just slightly beautiful, or a little bit rich, or reasonably good at what they do) she always includes a couple of entertaining vignettes of nasty, obsessed characters. Unfortunately, however, her great weakness seems to be an inability to portray a convincing romantic relationship. Her heroines generally fall madly in reciprocated love at first sight and marry within a week, in a way that never seems remotely plausible.

This was the first Judith Krantz book I've read and I just loved it. Tessa's character is absolutely beautiful and the whole story is unforgetable. A must read :)

I've read everything by Judith Krantz and she NEVER lets me down. From beginning to end I am engrossed in this book. Tessa's life was one of surprise and grief but that did not keep her from being the star she was born to be. Again Judith Krantz has turned an ordinary situation into an extraordinary work of art. Thanks Judith and keep'em coming. I can't wait until the next book comes out.

This was the first Judith Krantz book I read and I simply loved it. Tessa's character was so well developed that I can't stop thinking about it. Krantz has definately written a novel I'll never forget. A must read!