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Book Review of The Jewels of Tessa Kent

The Jewels of Tessa Kent
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Teresa Horvath is the only child of an Irish Catholic mother and a Hungarian professor father who have almost nothing in common except their devout faith and their beautiful, talented daughter. At age 14, through a bizarre sexual encounter, she becomes pregnant and gives birth to a daughter, Maggie, who Teresa's parents raise as their own. At age 16, she is selected for the role of Jo in a new movie version of Little Women, embarking on a career that transforms her into the award-winning international film star Tessa Kent. When she neglects to claim Maggie as her own child after her parents are killed in a car crash returning from her Monte Carlo nuptials to one of the world's richest men, the groundwork is laid for terrible consequences. While Tessa is showered with jewels by her doting husband, Maggie is raised by a cold, unloving family financed by her brother-in-law. After receiving a letter on her eighteenth birthday revealing the fact that her parents were actually her grandparents, and that her adored but distant sister is her mother, Maggie flees to New York City and enters the world of high-end auctions. Like her mother, she turns out to be lucky in love, rich in friendships, and enormously successful. Krantz, the reigning queen of glitz-and-glamour romance, takes her readers on a compelling and enjoyable trek through the worlds of precious-jewelry collecting, elegant auction houses, and the international jet-set scene, imparting tidbits of fascinating information along the way and presenting a remarkably likable cast of good-hearted characters.