Thursday, October 15, 2015

Webs of Power by Darlene Quinn - Review


Title: Webs of Power
Author: Darlene Quinn
Genre: Adult, Contemporary
Length: 369 Pages
Publisher: Emerald Books Co
Release Date: September 1, 2008
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

Webs of Power is a raw, unsentimental portrayal of greed, manipulation, and relationships set in the excessive, insatiable retail industry of the 1980s. When a hostile takeover of the retail giant Consolidated is announced, the lives of three determined women, each linked to the corporate upheaval, are unexpectedly thrown off course: Paige Toddman's marriage to Consolidated's West Coast Division CEO is threatened when she decides to step out of her fast-paced lifestyle to raise the unwanted child she is carrying, a choice driven by her secret past. The fabric of Ashleigh McDowell's life begins to fray when her fiance, the president of Consolidated's West Coast Division, moves away and her father figure faces a lawsuit that could wipe out his controlling shares of the company's stock. Vain and power hungry, Viviana De Mornay will stop at nothing to become the wife of the man leading the takeover. Webs of Power is a thrilling real-world drama with dynamic characters who find the courage to drastically reshape their lives in the face of crises and the twists of fate.


First off, if you read this book you will need a good chunk of knowledge about leveraged buy-outs, hostile take-overs, and how the retail business works at the top levels of management. I had a little, but apparently not enough. I didn't always follow the business side of this corporate drama, and that means I didn't follow a good chunk of the main plot. It was a shame, because it was a very well written story with some larger than life characters.

The characters, well, they may have been larger than life, but there were soooo many. They were hard to keep track of because not everyone called them by the same name. We had first names sometimes, and last names only other times, and occasionally a nickname thrown in. I had a very hard time keeping track of who was involved in what part of the business dealings. I had no problem keeping their personal lives straight though.

And those personal lives are what saved the book for me. While most of them held the illusion of a perfect life, we found that not everything was roses. There was some personal drama and even a bit of crime drama wrapped up nicely all together. There was just a little too much business lingo for me to really get into it. It seemed to be great look into some of the major business issues that plagued the 90's in the US and people who are a tad more business savvy than I will really enjoy this one.

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*

No comments:

Post a Comment