Lara Ivory is a movie star -- an incandescent beauty with cat-like green eyes, full luscious lips and honey blond hair. Lara has been at the top of her profession for eight years and everybody loves her. But at thirty-two she cannot find a man who can handle being with such an exquisite object of desire.
Her ex-husband, Richard Barry, an extremely successful veteran film director, is currently married to Nikki, a feisty brunette clothes designer on movies. Nikki is a strong woman who tries her best to keep Richard under control -- something Lara couldn't manage. But Richard is not as pliable as Nikki thinks.
When Thrill! opens, the three of them are great friends, shooting a movie in the South of France.
Every man desires Lara, but because of her insecurities she feels they only want her for her beauty and fame. Lara is searching for something more.
Nikki can't wait to get her hooked up with a guy, because she suspects Richard still harbors an unhealthy crush on his ex-wife -- a crush bordering on obsession. After the South of France location is over, Lara goes straight to the Hamptons to shoot her next movie -- The Dreamer, while Richard and Nikki return to L.A. and their Malibu house. Richard starts post production, and Nikki awaits the arrival of her fifteen year old daughter, Summer, who is due to visit from Chicago. Nikki gave birth to Summer when she was sixteen and married to Sheldon Weston -- an older psychiatrist who got custody of their only daughter because Summer chose to stay with him when they divorced.
Joey Lorenzo is a street-smart, unbelievably handsome, small time actor with a shady past. At thirty, he's been around and then some. He had a couple of meaningful breaks in movies while he was living with New York agent, Madelaine Francis, a woman twenty years older than him --but that was six years ago -- before he vanished with seven thousand dollars of Madelaine's money. She hasn't heard from him since.
At the beginning of Thrill! Joey returns from New York, apologetic and full of excuses. He's hot to get his movie career back on track -- and uses Madelaine to do it for him. She gets him a role in The Dreamer, and he takes off for the Hamptons location.
One look at Lara Ivory and he realizes he has finally met his destiny. But he also knows he has to play it cool --because Lara is a woman who can have any man she wants. And more than anything he wants her to want him.
Nikki is making a career transition from movie clothes designer to producer. She has bought the rights to Revenge, a true story about a woman who is raped and beaten by three men, and then systematically tracks them down and kills them. Nikki has supervised a script, and wants Lara to play the lead role of the rape victim.
Richard is against it because he thinks the explicit sex and violence will exploit Lara. Nikki ignores his advice and pursues Lara for the role.
Lara agrees to do it, even though she knows the violence in the story will bring back many painful, long buried memories from her past.
By the time Lara returns to L.A. to shoot Revenge, Joey is ensconced in her life. He has gotten her hooked sexually, making her feel she has met the man who can be everything to her. Both of them have something to hide, so even though she knows nothing about him, to everyone's concern, she doesn't seem to care. She and Joey are together, and that's all that matters.
Nikki hires a hot director, Mick Stefan, a young Quentin Tarantino with plenty of attitude. Mick in turn brings in Aiden Sean, a burned-out movie star with a drug problem to play the main rapist. Both men have major problems.
And then the wild and precocious fifteen year old Summer arrives to stay and the trouble really starts.
Summer is a wild child, way out of control -- into sex, men and money. L.A. seems the perfect place to escape from the unhealthy relationship she has with her controlling father. Especially when she hooks up with Betty, a pretty nineteen year old, who introduces her to Darlene, an infamous Hollywood Madam.
Moving in and out of Thrill! is an unnamed character who tells his story in the first person from the age of sixteen to the present day. He is the wild card -- a man who lives life on the edge -- violence only a breath away.
Is it Joey Lorenzo? Aiden Sean? Mick Stefan? Richard Barry?
The reader cannot guess until the violence packed climax -- when secrets and passions ignite into a crazed roller coaster of survival.
Thrill! is a psychological sexual thriller about relationships, secrets, violence and red-hot passions.
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"I love Jackie Collins, so I thought this was great. Lots of action, great characters and happy endings for the characters that deserved it:) slight overuse of the word 'merely' but other than that this is a really good story."
—
Jamie (5 out of 5 stars)