LEGACY by Danielle Steel

Publisher: Dell
Date published: September 27, 2011
ISBN 9780440245162
Contemporary Romance
Mass Market Paperback
Reviewed by Lynne
Obtained via publisher


Thirty-eight-year-old Brigitte Nicholson leads a safe, comfortable life. She has a decent job, a comfortable relationship with her boyfriend, Ted Weiss, and is writing a book. So when she gets laid off and Ted ditches her to follow his dream of having his own dig in Egypt, she is devastated and wonders how her life has fallen apart so abruptly. Things had been just the way she wanted them and had never expected anything to change. Well, perhaps...someday...they would.

When Brigitte’s mother urges her to lay aside her problems and assist her with her family genealogy for awhile, she is not really interested. Until the discovery of a mysterious ancestor, a Dakota Sioux named Wachiwi, who appears in their family tree. Somehow Wachiwi made her way from the Great Plains, to the French court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. How this happened intrigues Brigitte, and she soon finds herself led to Utah, to South Dakota, and then to Paris to find answers to these questions for herself.

The legacy she eventually uncovers in her quest for the truth affords the way to a new life for Brigitte, one that is not so safe or as comfortable as before, but is one of risk, and courage, and happiness such as she has never known before.

LEGACY by Danielle Steel is a wonderful read. I absolutely loved it. As a fan of history, romance, and Native American culture, I was instantly drawn into this story when I discovered the interesting legacy that binds two women over the centuries with a bond that is stronger than blood.

Ms. Steel amazes me with her original and unique stories. LEGACY is no exception. Full of interesting facets of history, on two different continents, I found no let up as I devoured this book. It was well-paced, and the way Ms. Steel interweaved the lives of two separate, yet related women was skillfully done. The plotting was essential to this story, and Ms. Steel pulls it off with her usual aplomb.

It is easy to fall in love with Wachiwi and her life story. She is a wonderful, likeable character, and I am pleased at how Ms. Steel shares the woman’s entire story in LEGACY. As Brigitte travels to interesting places, seeking answers regarding Wachiwi’s place in her family tree, I found myself being just as intrigued and excited with every tidbit she found. I was anxious for Brigitte to make her way to Paris, and was so glad that she did. What she found there was a wonderful LEGACY left by Wachiwi that made her proud of her Sioux heritage. I so enjoyed reading about it.

I loved that Wachiwi was an exceptional equestrienne and a beautiful, intelligent woman to boot. Her character, so different from Brigitte’s, inspired her as a role model for her descendants, which helped Brigitte’s life come together in the end. A priceless legacy.

For anyone interested in history, romance, Native American culture, slavery, and life before the French Revolution, then this is a book I would highly recommend to pass the time. As for me, I can’t get enough of Ms. Steel’s books, and I would enjoy seeing this one made into a movie, I enjoyed it that much. LEGACY is a remarkable story.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

FAMILY TIES by Danielle Steel

Publisher: Bantam Dell
Date Published: June 2011
ISBN: 978-0-440-24519-3
Contemporary
Mass Market Paperback
Reviewed by Lynne
Obtained via publisher.


Annie Ferguson is a bright, young architect with her whole future ahead of her. At the age of 26, the thought of anything happening to her sister and her husband, the parents of three young children, is the last thing Annie ever expects. But when tragedy strikes, Annie’s life changes forever when she suddenly finds herself parenting her sister’s children, whom she has agreed to care for in the event of anything ever happening to her.

Annie makes the best of things, despite her age, giving the three children, Liz, the eldest, Ted, and Katie, all the love she has to give, never once regretting the hand life has thrown her way. However, while juggling her career and raising three children, she has little time for romance or anything else. She has quickly learned that there are few men in the world who are willing to take on a ready-made family such as hers. But no matter. Annie loves her nieces and nephew and gives them the best of what she has to offer, eventually paying for Ted’s law school tuition and anything else she feels necessary for her family’s needs.

Unfortunately, the family soon discovers how difficult adulthood can be as Liz, Ted, and Katie run into difficulties with their own lives. Annie, too, is now faced with an “empty nest”, never realizing how hard that can be, even for an aunt who has alone managed to raise someone else’s children, while willingly putting aside her own personal dreams and desires for over fifteen years.

When chance eventually takes over, Liz, Ted, and Katie soon learn that making choices involves much more than gaining their independence. Each realize that being an adult is more difficult than they had ever imagined. And when Annie finally meets a man worthy of her and perfect for her in every way, her entire family become convinced more and more of how special their family ties really are, especially when life comes at them in ways none of them could have ever foreseen.

FAMILY TIES by Danielle Steel is a wonderful read. As usual, Ms. Steel never fails to disappoint. She has such a knack for plotting, characterization, and suspense. The reader cannot help but care for Annie and her nieces and nephews in this heartwarming story.

Annie, who has taken on such a heavy responsibility at such a young age, to care for her nieces and nephew who desperately need someone like her in their young lives, is very likeable. As the children mature, even then, Annie never resents them or the hand fate has dealt her. She is shown as an extremely loving, caring individual, who would gladly have done everything all over again. The children have put joy into Annie’s life that she might never have known otherwise.

Ms. Steel’s talents again kept me on the edge of my seat as I involved myself in FAMILY TIES. She is tremendously gifted at plotting and kept leading me in different directions as she tied in the lives of Annie and her three “children”. I grew to care for each of them and always wanted to see how things would turn out for Liz, Ted, and Katie as they struggled with their daily problems, some that were so extreme, my heart went out to them. And when Tom came into Annie’s life, it was the greatest thing. Knowing how wonderful and knowledgeable Tom is, I was rooting for him and Annie to get together permanently.

FAMILY TIES is another one of those escapism books that Ms. Steel is so good at writing. When I finished reading FAMILY TIES, I was instantly hoping to get my hands on another one of her books, they are that good. With 79 books already in print, it is no wonder that Ms. Steel is one of the most popular authors in the world. She takes us places that few would dare to go. When young Katie defies everyone’s advice and runs off to Iran with her boyfriend, you eventually feel the terror that overwhelms them when things go awry. Ms. Steel was genius at instilling that sense of fear into her writing, and she kept me guessing as to the outcome of that situation, eventually resolving it in a way that put me at ease.

Ms. Steel is good at injecting true reality into her books, and FAMILY TIES is no exception. I would recommend it to anyone, especially to all of Danielle Steel’s many fans. This one is indeed a winner. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

BIG GIRL by Danielle Steel

Publisher: Dell
Date published: March 22, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-440-24521-6
Contemporary
Mass Market Paperback
Reviewed by Lynne
Obtained via publisher.


Victoria Dawson has always been considered the ‘big girl’ in her family and spends her entire life dealing with the putdowns and ridicule of her parents because of it. Referred to as the ‘tester cake’ while her beautiful younger sister, Gracie, was born the perfect one, Victoria’s low self-esteem and difficulty overcoming her weight problem, since she had been unfortunate enough to resemble her grandmother, makes her put her efforts more into learning, in an effort to fit in with her family in the hope that they will take pride in her accomplishments. But despite becoming a ‘smart girl’, her parents insist she is still lacking in the looks department and barely take notice of her academic achievements.

After college, Victoria chooses to follow her lifelong dream of becoming a teacher, a career that embarrasses her well-to-do family, since nothing Victoria does is ever good enough. Gracie has already been earning some big bucks through advertising, commercials, and such, which makes Victoria even more insecure with her looks since Gracie never has to work at hers. Gracie never has to diet as Victoria does either, which makes her parents continually take verbal potshots at her for being whom they consider a ‘loser’.

As Victoria eventually becomes head of the English department at a prestigious private school in New York City, she begins to blossom. Taking control of her life, she becomes independent of her family, joining a gym and disciplining herself to lose weight. She even finds herself discarding her ugly nose for a new one and becoming involved with a handsome lawyer, Collin White, who, amazingly, has similar family problems of his own.

As their relationship grows and Victoria prepares for her sister’s unfortunate wedding to a rich man her parents are anxious to have join the family, she soon comes to realize, with Collin’s love and support, that she really is beautiful...inside and out.

BIG GIRL by Danielle Steel is a wonderful story. It is so well-written, as are all of Ms. Steel’s books, that I found it hard to ever put this one down. The story just flowed so smoothly, and I enjoyed meeting all of the wonderful characters as they went about their lives.

The characters in BIG GIRL are so alive and easy to relate to. I’m sure many readers have been in similar circumstances as Victoria encountered, fighting weight problems, competing against others who make us feel bad about ourselves, having low self-esteem when we don’t measure up to our parents’ ideals, no matter what we do to try and earn their love and approval.

I really felt Victoria’s pain whenever her parents ridiculed her about her weight or her looks. And when Victoria made the move to talk to a psychiatrist about her family problems, I felt it was the best thing she could have done. Talking about her problems with a trained professional was a big help because not everyone has friends who want to listen when people share such things. The fact that Ms. Steel threw this into the mix was a great idea. It really helped Victoria discover that she was not the problem, but her parents. And I loved the fact that Victoria and Gracie loved each other so much and that Victoria never once was jealous of the fact that her parents preferred Gracie over her. It was painful, however, when Victoria learns that she is so unloved by her parents. I am certain many readers can also relate to this.

Ms. Steel has such a knack for writing, especially about real-life situations. I haven’t read one of her novels that hasn’t touched me in some way, and BIG GIRL is no different. I absolutely loved reading it and did feel a bit sad when the story ended. I became so involved with Victoria’s problems and how she tried to overcome them, it was often heartwarming when something good finally came her way.

The icing on the cake was when Victoria met Collin. He was such a wonderful, kind character who related so well to Victoria and what her life had been like. I found myself rooting for their relationship to keep going in a positive way since there had been so many disappointments with Victoria’s past relationships.

I would recommend BIG GIRL to anyone who enjoys feel-good reads and, in my opinion, this one is top-notch.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

SOUTHERN LIGHTS by Danielle Steele

Publisher: Dell/Bantam
Date published: October 26th, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-440-24332-8
Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Mass Market Paperback
Reviewed by Dawn
Obtained by Publisher


Alexa Hamilton left the South behind after her ex-husband left her and their daughter for his first wife and his family was extremely cruel to her. Now an up-and-coming district attorney in Manhattan, she is preparing for her biggest case yet. When her seventeen year old daughter begins to receive mysterious and threatening letters, Alexa thinks they are from serial killer, Luke Quentin, the defendant of her big trial. Now Alexa has to ask the one man she doesn’t trust to keep her daughter safe while she deals with memories of a betrayal that haunts her still.

After many years away from reading a Danielle Steele novel, I picked up SOUTHERN LIGHTS hoping this time it would be different than the other books I read by her. In a way, it was good and other ways so repetitive I wanted to toss the book aside and scream “Come on already”. The writing was at times tight then it unraveled to the point where I was scratching my head wondering what happened to that plotline that seemed to disappear in mid-chapter. The characters were boring, the story flipped too frequently to too many sub-plots that it felt like I would need a score card to figure everything out. The pace of the story was quite uneven.

SOUTHERN LIGHTS introduces the reader to tough and cynical Alexa Hamilton. Ten years before, she was dealt a major blow when her husband left her for his first wife and his family enjoyed tearing her apart in the aftermath of her marriage breaking up. Taking her young daughter, she makes a life in Manhattan as a District Attorney, where a plumb legal case lands in her lap. Alexa is a strong heroine who I felt should have been the star of this story. I enjoyed her scenes with her daughter yet the trial scenes felt a little forced in the end.

The secondary characters where a mix of interesting yet second dimensional. I often felt like they were there for space and to keep the story moving along. The story had some really interesting characters that I wished were a bit more fleshed out as it would have made the storyline stronger.

SOUTHERN LIGHTS is a story about families dealing with the past and more in trademark Danielle Steele-style. I was not impressed by this latest novel by a seasoned author like Danielle Steele and found SOUTHERN LIGHTS to be a boring story with so many plot points going on; it was kind of hard to follow along. If you are looking for a quick read, then this may be for you.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

AMAZING GRACE by Danielle Steel

Publisher Random House
Date published October 2008
ISBN 9780440243274
Contemporary Women's Fiction
Mass Market Paperback
Reviewed by Pam




AMAZING GRACE is a complex tale of finding love in many different places and how people cope when a disaster strikes the town.

Sarah loves and trusts Seth Sloane and struggles to understand his attitude when things go wrong. Can their love withstand his betrayal, as he struggles to come to terms with how easy it is to lose everything. Melanie Free, a pop princess appears to have everything any young woman could possibly desire. How she copes is by helping other’s despite her mother Janet, still trying to keep her under control.
Everett Carson has been sent to San Francisco to cover the charity event, Sarah is organizing, and among the guests is Maggie, a nun who lives in the world of the homeless. When the world they knew is turned on its head by an earthquake, they each have to dig deep inside themselves to learn who they truly are, and to be able to love.

The characters were an interesting mix of rich and poor and the interplay between them was very interesting. Everett Carson stood out as he struggled to turn his life around, and his interaction with Maggie was one part this reviewer really enjoyed. The mix of a pop star with a large fan base, a domineering mother, a druggie boyfriend and a best friend who rode on her coat-tails in many ways, was a brilliant touch. A nun who began to wonder about life, a man who has cheated his way to the rich list and the danger they all faced was interesting.

In fact the story was very believable and the interplay between the characters and the way they were all drawn together was very well thought out. Sadly the book had a great plot which was lost in so many editing errors and repetitions. It often pulled this reviewer out of the story, it was something that I, as a reader wasn’t expecting from an author of this caliber.