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Be Careful What You Wish For
635 pages
A sweeping, twist-filled family saga where boardroom battles and generational secrets collide against the vibrant backdrop of the 1960s.
What it feels like
Reading this installment of the sprawling saga feels like strapping into a meticulously crafted rollercoaster of mid-century melodrama. The narrative moves at a propulsive clip, trading ornate prose for sheer, unadulterated momentum. You are immediately plunged into a high-stakes world where boardroom politics are just as lethal as physical threats, and family loyalty is constantly tested by ambition and betrayal. The mood is sweeping yet intensely personal, balancing the glamorous, shifting cultural landscape of the 1960s with the intimate, often soapy rivalries of the British upper crust. It is a deeply satisfying, popcorn-thriller experience wrapped in historical fiction, perfect for readers who love to devour generational epics packed with cliffhangers, cunning villains, and triumphant underdogs.
- Mood
- tense
- sweeping
- high-stakes
- nostalgic
- Tone
- dramatic
- suspenseful
- earnest
- soapy
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- generational legacy · corporate ambition · family loyalty · class mobility · revenge and retribution
- The writing
- Accessible, plot-driven, and straightforward, prioritizing momentum and dialogue over ornate description.
- The arc
- Moves from sudden, heart-stopping tragedy through a labyrinth of tense rivalries, culminating in a high-stakes, cliffhanger resolution.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave sprawling, multi-generational family sagas packed with boardroom drama, historical backdrops, and relentless plot twists.
Content notes
- fatal car accident
- grief
- blackmail
- corporate sabotage
About the book
"Be Careful What You Wish For opens with Harry Clifton and his wife Emma rushing to learn the fate of their son Sebastian, who has been in a fatal car accident. But who died, Sebastian or his best friend? When Ross Buchanan is forced to resign as chairman of the Barrington Shipping Company, Emma Clifton wants to replace him. But Don Pedro Martinez intends to install his puppet, Alex Fisher, in order to destroy the Barrington family firm just as the company plans to build its new luxury liner. In London, Harry and Emma's daughter wins a scholarship to the Slade Academy of Art where she falls in love with Clive Bingham, who asks her to marry him. Both families are delighted until Jessica's future mother-in-law has a visit from a friend who drops her particular brand of poison into the wedding chalice. Then Cedric Hardcastle, a Yorkshireman who no one has come across before, takes his place on the board of Barringtons. This causes upheaval and will change the lives of every member of the Clifton and Barrington families. Hardcastle's first decision is who to support to become the chairman of the board: Emma Clifton or Alex Fisher? And with that the story takes yet another twist that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Be Careful What You Wish For showcases the master storyteller's talent as never before--when the Clifton and Barrington families march forward into the sixties in this epic tale of love, revenge, ambition and betrayal"--
Description from Open Library.
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