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Elements of Chance
You are Valerie Penn, married to the richest man in the world. Your life is a whirl of private jets, charity balls, priceless antiques, mansions in London, New York, Paris, Beverly Hills. You are loved passionately, showered with gifts...and then it all suddenly ends. Victor Penn vanishes in a ball of fire when his corporate jet crashes in Mexico.
And you, Valerie, have nothing..nothing but the mystery of your own past, the mystery of who you really are and who your real parents were. Now is the time to fill int he gaps, to solve the riddle of yourself...to find your life.
But what you find instead is an abyss of betrayal and murder that threatens to consume you. There is a secret out there, a devastating secret that even the Penn family is desperate to keep hidden.
And you will do anything to reveal it....
And you, Valerie, have nothing..nothing but the mystery of your own past, the mystery of who you really are and who your real parents were. Now is the time to fill int he gaps, to solve the riddle of yourself...to find your life.
But what you find instead is an abyss of betrayal and murder that threatens to consume you. There is a secret out there, a devastating secret that even the Penn family is desperate to keep hidden.
And you will do anything to reveal it....
549 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
6 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 27, 2022
Two stars for the sheer, infuriating possibility of there being a decent plot buried somewhere amid the muck of this wannabe Sidney Sheldon novel. Cleave half of it away and the storyline could’ve been written better had it landed in the hands of a competent author. Valerie Penn, our heroine, becomes a widow within the first twenty pages when her wealthy husband’s plane crashes, killing him and its passengers. The reader spends a vast portion of the novel questioning whether her hubs bit the big one or not, while Val anguishes over her dwindling fortune and having dalliances with many, many men in the process. There’s a kidnapping, an assassination, lies, paternity puzzlement, a dash of incest, and murder. Sounds fun, eh? Not so much. The sex scenes didn’t just border on purple prose, but waded in ridiculous and explicit descriptions that would’ve made Freud clutch his pearls. If only the the first 500 pages had been as abrupt as the ending.
September 4, 2016
Uh...
WOW.
Where do I begin?
Elements of Chance follows Valerie Penn, uninteresting piece of cardboard and child piano prodigy. When our story begins we see Valerie's life of fame and riches is turned upside down, as her (sketchy) husband, Victor Penn, vanishes when his corporate jet crashes in Mexico.
So Valerie, despite her husband disappearing in a ball of fire, is firm in her belief that Victor is out there somewhere. Alive.
And thus begins our trashy-vicious quest as Val sets out to find her real parents and disappearing husband. As we unearth the family secrets of lies and betrayal.
Sounds great, right?
I usually eat this stuff up like cake: I occasionally enjoy a mindlessly terrible Jackie Collins and Danielle Steel, If I spot "Family Secrets" or "abyss of betrayal and murder"on the back of a paperback , I won't hesitate to snatch that shit up, because it's delicious for my brain.
This wasn't just bad brain candy, it was like a shittiest imitation of every Krantz or Collins I've ever been mindless enough to enjoy.
Elements of Chance is like the dollar store version of hollywood glam novel.
As if Jackie wasn't trashy enough.
I'm about to get into spoiler territory, so if you plan to read this book, and I don't know why you would (I would only recommend this for the lols) leave now.
So what happened?
Well first of all, Valerie is a spineless little mouse. I wanted to bitch-slap her every other page, and I spent most of the book wishing she had died in the plane crash with her sketchy-ass husband. would've made this book A LOT shorter.
OH and did I mention this book was 549 pages? Look, I'm ALL for a thick trashy romp of drama and entertainment, but there was very little entertainment or romp to be had. And the Drama left a lot to be desired because no one evil enough to be interesting or developed enough to give a fuck about, they were all just stupid.
So essentially what we got was 500 + pages of uninteresting drivel as Valerie's rags-to-riches story dragged on and on.
I can sometimes tolerate some poorly written prose, but this books really takes the cake.
The sex scenes.
Oh god.
I have no issue with erotic lit. People can read what they want, but how am I supposed to keep a straight face or not gag, when I read lines such as:
"The white of his flat buttocks, his huge penis engorged with blood"
"As she felt his fluids floating inside her body."
"His penis caressing her wet vagina"
"His cries announcing his own orgasm, the spurt of his semen"
EW.EW.EW.
And can I just mention the scene where they're having sex while a surrogate mother is giving birth to their child in the other room?
"Valerie opened her eyes, remembering the perverse thrill she felt making love while their babies where being born"
WHAT?
This isn't even the half of it, because everyone in this book is going at it every 15 pages! They could not stop humping.
I won't get into the mystery or family secrets but I will say it's interesting in a very WTF way.
This is one to show to your friends just to see them squirm or pee your pants laughing over how terrible the writing is.
If you're looking for a solid glitzy saga, look elsewhere, this aint it.
WOW.
Where do I begin?
Elements of Chance follows Valerie Penn, uninteresting piece of cardboard and child piano prodigy. When our story begins we see Valerie's life of fame and riches is turned upside down, as her (sketchy) husband, Victor Penn, vanishes when his corporate jet crashes in Mexico.
So Valerie, despite her husband disappearing in a ball of fire, is firm in her belief that Victor is out there somewhere. Alive.
And thus begins our trashy-vicious quest as Val sets out to find her real parents and disappearing husband. As we unearth the family secrets of lies and betrayal.
Sounds great, right?
I usually eat this stuff up like cake: I occasionally enjoy a mindlessly terrible Jackie Collins and Danielle Steel, If I spot "Family Secrets" or "abyss of betrayal and murder"on the back of a paperback , I won't hesitate to snatch that shit up, because it's delicious for my brain.
This wasn't just bad brain candy, it was like a shittiest imitation of every Krantz or Collins I've ever been mindless enough to enjoy.
Elements of Chance is like the dollar store version of hollywood glam novel.
As if Jackie wasn't trashy enough.
I'm about to get into spoiler territory, so if you plan to read this book, and I don't know why you would (I would only recommend this for the lols) leave now.
So what happened?
Well first of all, Valerie is a spineless little mouse. I wanted to bitch-slap her every other page, and I spent most of the book wishing she had died in the plane crash with her sketchy-ass husband. would've made this book A LOT shorter.
OH and did I mention this book was 549 pages? Look, I'm ALL for a thick trashy romp of drama and entertainment, but there was very little entertainment or romp to be had. And the Drama left a lot to be desired because no one evil enough to be interesting or developed enough to give a fuck about, they were all just stupid.
So essentially what we got was 500 + pages of uninteresting drivel as Valerie's rags-to-riches story dragged on and on.
I can sometimes tolerate some poorly written prose, but this books really takes the cake.
The sex scenes.
Oh god.
I have no issue with erotic lit. People can read what they want, but how am I supposed to keep a straight face or not gag, when I read lines such as:
"The white of his flat buttocks, his huge penis engorged with blood"
"As she felt his fluids floating inside her body."
"His penis caressing her wet vagina"
"His cries announcing his own orgasm, the spurt of his semen"
EW.EW.EW.
And can I just mention the scene where they're having sex while a surrogate mother is giving birth to their child in the other room?
"Valerie opened her eyes, remembering the perverse thrill she felt making love while their babies where being born"
WHAT?
This isn't even the half of it, because everyone in this book is going at it every 15 pages! They could not stop humping.
I won't get into the mystery or family secrets but I will say it's interesting in a very WTF way.
This is one to show to your friends just to see them squirm or pee your pants laughing over how terrible the writing is.
If you're looking for a solid glitzy saga, look elsewhere, this aint it.
June 19, 2021
a good trashy novel that doesn't require a lot of deep thinking
November 8, 2010
Serenity Harris
Section 4 english
Ms. Valention
Barbara wilkins the author of many great books wrote one book that i seem to have fallen in love with and it's called Elements Of chance and its basically about a rich couple and one day the husband was going on a buisness trip and his wife heard on the news about a plan that had crashed and she was worried it was her husband and i actually was.I really love how this book was written is was written in a way in which anyone could understand; it uses alot of imagery and many forms of interesting figurative language. One thing i absolutely love about the book is the imagery used for example "The rolls was ten-year-old custom made maroon limousine that victor liked because it gave him room to stretch his long legs. I like the different type of the imagery used because it gives me a chance to actually picture what they were seeing. I would reccomend this book to anyone because this book is a very interesting book and once you start reading it, it's like you cant even put the book down.This book makes you wonder about a whole lot of things once you start reading it. Anyone who likes reading will love reading this book because I really hate reading but once I started this book I couldn’t put it down, this book is associated with many different styles of reading such as drama,suspense, romance and so on so I feel that anyone would love this book and I would recommend it to anyone. Elements of chance is the type of book that anyone could make some type of connection to because there are so many real situation inside that book that there is no way someone can read it and not make some form of connection weither its something they have personally been through, a friend has been through, or even they have read in another book; so with that being said this book is a great book for anyone to read and I would recommend it and hopefully it would get through to someone.
Section 4 english
Ms. Valention
Barbara wilkins the author of many great books wrote one book that i seem to have fallen in love with and it's called Elements Of chance and its basically about a rich couple and one day the husband was going on a buisness trip and his wife heard on the news about a plan that had crashed and she was worried it was her husband and i actually was.I really love how this book was written is was written in a way in which anyone could understand; it uses alot of imagery and many forms of interesting figurative language. One thing i absolutely love about the book is the imagery used for example "The rolls was ten-year-old custom made maroon limousine that victor liked because it gave him room to stretch his long legs. I like the different type of the imagery used because it gives me a chance to actually picture what they were seeing. I would reccomend this book to anyone because this book is a very interesting book and once you start reading it, it's like you cant even put the book down.This book makes you wonder about a whole lot of things once you start reading it. Anyone who likes reading will love reading this book because I really hate reading but once I started this book I couldn’t put it down, this book is associated with many different styles of reading such as drama,suspense, romance and so on so I feel that anyone would love this book and I would recommend it to anyone. Elements of chance is the type of book that anyone could make some type of connection to because there are so many real situation inside that book that there is no way someone can read it and not make some form of connection weither its something they have personally been through, a friend has been through, or even they have read in another book; so with that being said this book is a great book for anyone to read and I would recommend it and hopefully it would get through to someone.
July 17, 2007
Can I give this less than one star? I have never rated a book so low, but I sure don't remember why!
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September 5, 2013Read 11/98
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews