Penny Vincenzi Books In Order

Spoils Of Time Books In Publication Order

  1. No Angel (2000)
  2. Something Dangerous (2001)
  3. Into Temptation (2002)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. Old Sins (1989)
  2. Wicked Pleasures (1992)
  3. An Outrageous Affair (1993)
  4. Another Woman (1994)
  5. Forbidden Places (1995)
  6. The Dilemma (1996)
  7. Windfall (1997)
  8. Almost a Crime (1999)
  9. Sheer Abandon (2003)
  10. An Absolute Scandal (2007)
  11. The Best of Times (2009)
  12. The Decision / More Than You Know (2011)
  13. A Perfect Heritage (2014)
  14. At the Heart of It (2017)
  15. A Question of Trust (2018)

Short Stories/Novellas In Publication Order

  1. The Glimpses (1996)

Short Story Collections In Publication Order

  1. Love in the Afternoon and Other Delights (2013)

Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. The Compleat Liar (1977)
  2. There’s One Born Every Minute (1984)
  3. Taking Stock (1985)

Spoils Of Time Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Short Stories/Novellas Book Covers

Short Story Collections Book Covers

Non-Fiction Book Covers

Penny Vincenzi Books Overview

No Angel

With more than 3.5 million copies sold, Penny Vincenzi is one of the world’s preeminent writers of popular fiction and American readers no longer have to miss out on the fun. With the publication of No Angel, a novel introducing the engaging cast of characters in the Lytton family, Overlook opens a thrilling new dimension to this author’s already illustrious career. No Angel is an irresistibly sweeping saga of power, family politics, and passion a riveting drama and a fervent love story. Celia Lytton is the beautiful and strong willed daughter of wealthy aristocrats and she is used to getting her way. She moves through life making difficult and often dangerous decisions that affect herself and others her husband, Oliver, and their children; the destitute Sylvia Miller, whose life is transformed by Celia’s intrusion; as well as Oliver’s daunting elder sister, who is not all she appears to be; and Sebastian Brooke, for whom Celia makes the most dangerous decision of all. Set against the tumultuous backdrop of London and New York in the First World War, No Angel is, as British Good Housekeeping wrote, ‘an absorbing page turner, packed with believable characters and satisfyingly extreme villains, eccentrics, and manipulators.’ Readers of Maeve Binchy, Barbara Taylor Bradford, and Anita Shreve will fall in love with this epic, un put downable novel.

Something Dangerous

Part two of the momentous SPOILS OF TIME trilogy The dazzling Lytton twins, Adele and Venetia, are born into the great Lytton publishing empire. In 1928, on their eighteenth birthday, they are rich and admired, with a confidence verging on arrogance. But the spectre of Na*zi Germany is growing…
Gradually their privileged world darkens in unimaginable ways but it is not just the twins whose lives have been irrevocably changed. Barty Miller, rescued from the London slums in babyhood by Celia Lytton, is clever, ambitious, and a complete contrast to the twins and she faces temptation of the most unexpected kind…
Penny Vincenzi began her career at Vogue and Tatler, later working as Fashion and Beauty Editor on magazines such as Woman’s Own , before becoming a contributing editor for Cosmopolitan . She is the author of two humorous books and eleven previous novels. Penny Vincenzi is married with four daughters.

Into Temptation

Into Temptation, the third book of the Lytton family trilogy, shifts the focus to New York City and Barty Miller. Rescued from the slums as a baby by Celia Lytton and now living in New York, Barty heads more than half of the Lytton publishing house. Falling on bad times, the family is worried that Barty will make a business decision that would be devastating to them. But will she? As events unfold, long buried secrets concerning the whole family are revealed, shaking the very foundations of the Lytton’s world. An enthralling epic of the glamorous life in the mid 20th century with scenery that extends from New York to London, Into Temptation gives apt and telling insights into the world of the British aristocracy and their literary legacy. Readers have come to depend on Vincenzi for her enchanting prose style and the epic scope of her dramas: like the Lytton family sagas that precede it, Into Temptation does not disappoint.

Old Sins

A gripping tale of mystery, passion and glamour from the bestselling author of An Absolute Scandal. Two clever, stylish and ambitious women are engaged in a power struggle, fighting for control of a multi million pound cosmetics empire. But what is the secret behind the company’s charming, ruthless and mysterious creator, Julian Morell? And why, when he dies, does he split the family inheritance between his family and a complete stranger?In a story full of passion and glamour, here are the designer interiors, the jewels, pictures, cars and to die for couture of the rich and super rich in the glittering, fabulous world Julian created for himself, and the six powerful women who loved him. Old Sins is a poignant, sexy and tempestuous love story, spanning thirty years, where the female characters a mother, a mistress, a wife and a daughter live in the shadow of Old Sins. From the Paperback edition.

An Outrageous Affair

Overlook has brought American readers five glittering epics by Penny Vincenzi, the ‘doyenne of the modern blockbuster’ Glamour. Worldwide, her sales are in the millions and growing. Now, for the legions of Vincenzi readers, comes her number one bestselling work, An Outrageous Affair, her most enthralling family saga yet.

A mysterious, tragic accident in the 1950s; an inexplicable suicide twenty years later. What was the strange link between the two and Caroline Hunterton’s long buried past? How many loved ones will Caroline’s secret take down with her? Caroline’s two daughters, Chloe and Fleur, have been ‘protected’ from the truth and their deep mutual hatred their entire lives until journalist Magnus Phillips decides to tell the story that would tear their lives apart. Moving from wartime England to fifties Hollywood, from glitzy Madison Avenue to London’s theatrical aristocracy, An Outrageous Affair explores the extraordinary, sometimes fatal, consequences of truth.

Another Woman

Penny Vincenzi, queen of riveting family drama, delivers her most page turning saga yet in this novel of intrigue, sure to please her legions of fans. The night before her lavish wedding, Cressida Forrest went to bed serene and happy. By morning she had vanished without apparent cause, and without a trace. Shocked, anxious, and uncomprehending, the two families face a long day of revelations, as a complex, fragile web of sexual, marital, and financial secrets is ripped apart by Cressida’s disappearance.

Forbidden Places

Forbidden Places is Penny Vincenzi’s 8th riveting family drama and is about love and marriage, families and secrets, and about wartime and what it does to every accepted social value.

The Dilemma

Incredibly, Penny Vincenzi had written eight bestselling novels before America discovered her with Overlook’s publication of No Angel. Overlook has embarked on a major effort to make available Penny’s entire backlist, all those books that until now were only available in the UK. In The Dilemma, Vincenzi’s first novel, all Francesca Channing has to do in order to keep her marriage alive, her children safe, her life intact, is to tell a lie. One simple, straightforward lie. But it isn’t that simple or straightforward at all. Her husband is charismatic, powerful and rich and he adores her. He’s also manipulative and scheming, with a family as large and complex as his business Francesca is his third wife, after all. But it was an emotional crisis of her own which finally put Francesca’s dilemma into perspective, that made her wonder if she loved him enough to lie for him, that made her wonder how far she could go. Vincenzi’s cast of vivid characters, urgent situations, and crisp, confident writing have made her irresistible to readers.

Windfall

The number one bestseller in Britain, Windfall is perhaps Penny Vincenzi’s most riveting family saga yet. After smashing successes with the American publication of six of Vincenzi s marvelously engrossing Barbara Taylor Bradford novels with more than 500,000 books in print Overlook is thrilled to offer Windfall to American readers. Sensible Cassia Fallon has been married to her doctor husband for seven years when her godmother leaves her a huge fortune. For the first time in her life, she is able to do exactly as she likes, and she starts to question her marriage, her past, her present, and her future. But where did her inheritance really come from and why? Too soon the Windfall has become a corrupting force one that Cassia cannot resist. Vincenzi s sharp eye for detail, intricate plots, and cast of vivid characters set in a world of engrossing and unforgettable glamour and passion Dominick Dunne have made her novels irresistible, and Windfall is no exception.

Almost a Crime

In Almost a Crime, Vincenzi exposes the cracks in a British power marriage. Tom and Octavia Fleming glitter among the chattering clas*ses of London in the late 1990’s. Tom, a brilliant political strategist, and Octavia, an equally talented charity consultant, appear to have it all good looks, money, success, and three pretty children everything but precious time together. When Octavia realizes that Tom is having an affair, she plots her revenge against her husband. But nothing prepares Octavia for the identity of Tom’s mistress, and her misdemeanors hardly compare to the revenge enacted by the other woman after Tom calls it off.

Described by Dominick Dunne as a writer ‘with verve and heart, immersing the reader in a world of engrossing and unforgettable glamour and passion,’ and praised by Barbara Taylor Bradford as ‘marvelously engrossing,’ Penny Vincenzi has been captivating European and American audiences ever since the publication of her Spoils of Time trilogy. Packed with twists and trysts, Almost a Crime continues the tradition of the thrilling Vincenzi bestseller.

Sheer Abandon

A number one bestseller from one of Britain’s most popular novelists, Sheer Abandon is an all consuming story revolving around the consequences of a desperate act…

Martha, Clio, and Jocasta meet by chance at Heathrow airport in 1985 as they are starting off on separate backpacking adventures, and they decide to spend the first few days of their trips together in Thailand. When they go their separate ways, they vow to get together in London the following year. But many years pass before the three cross paths again, and the once capricious, carefree girls now all have thriving careers. One of them, however, harbors a terrible secret: On her return from her pre college excursion, she abandoned her just born daughter at Heathrow.

Clio has fulfilled her ambition of becoming a doctor, only to find herself trapped in a marriage to an arrogant surgeon who belittles her and her professional achievements. Martha is a highly paid corporate lawyer, just embarking on a political career. Dedicated to her job, she has had little time for personal relationships and lives a busy, but lonely life. Jocasta, a tabloid newspaper reporter with an infallible instinct for the big story, is in love with a charming colleague who can t make the permanent commitment she longs for. The infant abandoned at Heathrow has grown up under the loving care of her adoptive family. Now a beautiful teenager named Kate, she sets out to find her birth mother a quest that unexpectedly brings the women together and exposes the secret buried so many years before.

Impossible to put down, Sheer Abandon is top notch women s fiction.

An Absolute Scandal

Penny Vincenzi, master of the contemporary blockbuster, returns with a moving, engaging portrait of people coping with a notorious financial disaster and its unpredictable emotional repercussions.

Set during the boom and bust years of the 1980s, An Absolute Scandal follows the lives of a group of people drawn together by their mutual monetary woes when the great financial institution Lloyd’s undergoes a devastating downturn. For Nigel Cowper, this means the destruction of his family business; his wife, Lucinda, is willing to do everything she can to help him except give up her irresistible lover. The powerful, charismatic banker Simon Beaumont and his wife, a highly successful advertising executive, lose everything they worked so hard to acquire; but the ultimate tragedy is something that neither one could have anticipated. The well to do are not the only ones suffering: a self sufficient widow is suddenly deep in debt; a single mother struggles to maintain a comfortable home for her children; and a schoolmaster and his frustrated wife find that financial problems deepen the cracks in their troubled marriage.

As their lives begin a downward spiral, these characters intersect in ways they never saw coming. Written in what has become her signature style of both wit and candor, Penny Vincenzi draws back the curtain and offers an inside view of the greed and social power plays that occur behind the closed doors of upper crust society…
where money isn t everything. Sometimes, it’s the only thing.

The Best of Times

In a matter of seconds, absolutely everything can change In this masterfully crafted page turner, peopled with intense characters and centered on one devastating moment that involves them all, plot twist queen Penny Vincenzi vividly captures how the actions of one person can dramatically affect many in the blink of an eye. On an ordinary Friday afternoon, on a major motorway outside of London, a trailer truck suddenly and violently swerves across fives lanes of traffic careening cars into one another like dominoes and leaving a trail of chaos and confusion. Within the space of a minute, an astounding miles long pileup has amassed, and, as the survivors await help, their stories unfold. Vincenzi expertly maneuvers the plot between the panic stricken husband trapped in his car with his young mistress, his adultery sure to be discovered; the bridegroom trying frantically to get to the church on time he won t; the widow on her way to reunite with the love of her life after sixty years, now forced to ponder whether she ll ever see him again; the junior doctor waiting to receive the crash victims in the ER And at the epicenter of this field of destruction lies the truck driver, suffering from memory loss, while the mysterious hitchhiker, the only person who knows what really happened, has fled the scene. Spellbound by these intimate and evocative tales, we watch as fate takes its powerful course and the far reaching effects of the crash ripple through the lives of hundreds of people. Written with incredible verve, candor, and wit, Penny Vincenzi reveals human behavior in all its fascinating detail as she challenges her characters to face crisis boldly and she surprises us with the results at every turn.

The Decision / More Than You Know

It all comes down to love or money in a harrowing custody battle over a little girl, set against the glossy backdrop of the magazine and advertising worlds in 1960s London. A privileged girl from a privileged class, Eliza has a dazzling career in the magazine world of the 1960s. But when she falls deeply in love with Matt, an edgy working class boy, she gives up her ritzy, fast paced lifestyle to get married. By the end of the decade, however, their marriage has suffered a harrowing breakdown, culminating in divorce and a dramatic courtroom custody battle over their little girl. Also at risk is Eliza’s gorgeous family home, a pawn in the game, which she can’t bear to give up. True to form, Penny Vincenzi introduces a devious cast of characters seemingly plucked from the pages of sixties and seventies era magazines, as she deftly maneuvers between the glamorous, moneyed worlds of fashion and advertising, and a heart wrenching custody battle going on in the courtroom where the social mores of the time are on full display.

Related Authors

Leave a Comment