Mistress of the Game by Tilly Bagshawe was the Lousiest Book I've Read!

Finally, I finished reading Sidney Sheldon's book sequel, Mistress of the Game, this time authored by Tilly Bagshawe. After reading, let me just say I wanted to throw the book at the trash. I was a huge Sidney Sheldon fan. I've read all of his books and Master of the Game was my all-time favorite. I know the characters by heart and I've read the book again and again. With Sidney Sheldon gone, I was ecstatic to find out that there's a sequel but only it's written by a different author. Actually, the author acknowledged that she's a big fan of Mr. Sheldon, too, and she was honored to be asked to write a sequel to the story. But I didn't like the outcome of the book. It was way too violent and too sadistic for no reason at all.

(Spoiler Alert!)

Sidney Sheldon also showed a lot of violence in his book but it was done with a reason. But with Tilly Bagshawe, I didn't like her style. Heck, she even ruined the first part of the story by killing the beloved Alexandra Blackwell while giving birth to her second child. Not contented, Ms. Bagshawe turned Alexandra's good-natured psychiatrist husband, Peter Templeton, into a hopeless drunkard after Alex died and later, even tried to shoot his own son with a gun just because he was close to his mother and sister. The son, Robbie, who was a good pianist and was shown in Master of the Game as the possible successor of Kruger-Brent later renounced his right from inheriting the fortune & chairmanship of the company. He grew up a drug addict and later turned into a faggot. His sister, Lexi Templeton, was kidnapped at the age of 8, was raped and lost her hearing due to bombing during her retrieval. Her brother transferred the will to Lexi & was molded to become K-B's future chairperson. Lexi, the mistress of the game of the story loved her work so much but privately, had a promiscuous sex life.

Tilly Bagshawe made the family looked twisted and erratic and she made everybody connected to the Blackwell empire cursed. Sidney Sheldon never made a story like that, most especially for his heroine. TB made Lexi looked like Paris Hilton with strings of relationship and with lots of sex scandals. As far as I could remember, Sheldon's heroine who were business magnates didn't indulged in a scandalous sex life, unless of course the heroine was a model or a movie star. Ms. Bagshawe did not spare any character from this book from stupidity, humiliation and tragedy. She loved to sensationalized the tragic moment of the character's life. Just like Lexi's distant relative Gabe Mcgregor, who's family were all slaughtered including his very pregnant wife. All people working with the Blackwells had a series of unfortunate events, too.

And what's more horrific in this book was how the author bravely described the incestuous relationships of Kate Blackwell's descendants (Eve and Alexandra's children turned lovers!!). She even made Eve's son, Max Websterm, a killer at a tender age of 10 by killing his own father! I don't know what sort of things came out from the author's mind. She must be loving violence so much that she didn't spare anyone. In Sidney Sheldon's books, the endings are always the good conquering the evil. But in Mistress of the Game, the story ended with everyone defeated and even the powerful Kruger-Brent was shattered to bankruptcy and Lexi, a fugitive. And how the heck did Eve Blackwell, who's already very old, knew all of her niece's activities, to think she locked herself most of the time in her room? She was already deranged yet the police took her word against Lexi. What a stupid book and how stupid of me to continue reading. I should've stopped in the middle of the book. I only tried to finish it to see how the story went but the author didn't justify anything. It was probably better off if she'd rejected the offer because she can never be in league with the late Sidney Sheldon.

Tilly Bagshawe said that she hopes all Sidney Sheldon's fans will enjoy her book as much as we enjoyed reading Mr. Sheldon's book. Well, she's definitely wrong. I hate her book and I'll be glad to get rid of it. This author should stop dreaming of filling Mr. Sheldon's shoes and concentrate in doing her own work.