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Book Review By Hannah Warnaar
Rivals by Jilly Cooper

Rivals (sequel to Riders) is a multi-stranded story - it's about a set of rich, upper class British people who live in the same area of the country. Rupert Campbell-Black (very notorious rake and famous showjumper before he quit for a career in politics) decides to join forces with his neighbours Declan o'Hara and Freddy Jones to overthrow the owner of the neighbourhood TV station (Tony Baddingham)by bidding for the TV franchise in the area.

Declan o'Hara, host of the BBC's most popular talkshow, has left town to work for Tony's TV company after one of his wife Maude's affairs got out of hand. His oldest daughter Taggie soon catches Rupert's roving eye. She is beautiful, a great cook...and a dyslexic doormat who struggles to keep the o'Hara family together. Not to mention the fact that Rupert is 38 with two children and an inability to stay faithful to women, whilst Taggie is barely 20. As the competition between rival television companies intensifies, Rupert finds himself growing more and more in love with Taggie (under the guise of a platonic friendship). But love might not be enough. Rupert was never faithful to his first wife, Helen, even when he though he was in love with her.

When Rupert decides to do the honourable thing and try to forget about Taggie by stealing away Tony Baddingham's mistress Cameron Cook, he not only breaks Taggie's heart but his own as well. And then outrageous memoirs about Rupert are published by a scorned former mistress. It doesn't look like Rupert will ever be able to outrun his past...


Plot & Themes
Time/era of story
Forbidden/mismatched love? Yes
How mismatched?

Main Male Character
Profession/status:
Age/status: - 20's-30's

Main Female Character - 20's-30's
Unusual characteristics:

Setting
Europe Yes
European country: - England/UK
Misc setting - Fancy Mansion

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - no torture/death
What % of story is romance related? - 50%
Focus of story - many multiple characters
How much dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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