|
I continued reading, reminding myself that Steel is a bestselling author and there "will be more", only to find more pages about nothing. I decided to give another try to Danielle Steel's books and checked out "Amazing Grace". It did start out nice and smooth but then after a few pages I noticed that it is filled with a lot of unnecessary detail. There it went like this: "the time was one thirty five and Sarah did this, then it was one forty five and Sarah did this" and so on for quiet awhile.I could not read beyond 30 pages. This book is full of repetitious phrases and words and for me it was utterly monotonous and boring.
WHY I BOUGHT THIS BOOK: First things first, I'm not a Danielle Steel reader, nor do I consider reading her genre "beneath" me. Don't read this even if it's given to you for free. Fortunately for the book, all of these shortcomings were enough to make me completely forget that the plot was dull until I stopped reading.
I chose the book based on the popular author (thinking it should be a decent fluffy romp) and girth (should last a week). I stopped 2/3 of the way into the book and realized that it was just repeating itself as if written for someone with a short-term memory disorder. I purchased this paperback on impulse during a trip to Italy for some light beach reading.
Even the budding romantic relationships were awkward and cliched. THE REVIEW: The story itself does not unfold so much as the author dictates the events and interactions to you. The characters are one-dimensional at best (and utterly eye-rollingly unbelievable at worst), the small amount of dialogue between the characters and descriptions were repetitive, and vocabulary was extremely limited.
And on top of that, I paid 11 Euros for this.On the plus side, it did force me to contemplate the differences between good and bad writing and reinforced the fact that impulse-buying = bad. Life is too short and IQ points are too precious.
I like most of Danielle Steel's books, but this one for me was very disappointing. I listened to her audiobook and I could not get past the first CD. The language was terrible. If you are a christian you don't need to listen to this stuff.
She really shows you exactly what different people can think and on what levels they think on in a situation like this and why they would think it. Melanie Free Grammy winning singer is one of those people along with Sister Maggie Kent. She never does cease to amaze with each novel she turns out. Everett at Maggie's suggestion goes to find his son and to see him for the first time since he was a child he learns that he is a man that is married and has children and that his son goes to AA as well.
Once they emerge from the rubble and devastation left behind by the earthquake their lives will start to cross paths and intermingle in ways they did not think possible and in different ways as well. Sarah Sloan, Melanie Free, Everett Carson and Sister Maggie Kent experience a severe earthquake damaging the ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton hosting the event that evening. During the day she is happy helping the homeless and at night she then deals with her mothers nagging and complaining at night about the conditions that they must deal with. Everett and Maggie talked quite a bit including about Everett's past life and about him being an alcoholic and missing his son.
Maggie becomes the person that Sarah needs to talk to and Melanie as well after she returns to LA. Melanie breaks away from her mothers smothering clutches to help Sister Maggie who is a nun and a nurse with the homeless and the hurt at the field hospital. Sister Maggie's Path also crosses with Sarah Sloan took her son to the field hospital because he was sick and the normal hospital emergency room wouldn't take him. Maggie asked her if she was ok because she looked upset she just said it was her husband but that she couldn't go into it at the moment. Four people's lives will be changed drastically when a earthquake hits San Francisco during a benefit charity dinner dance.
Maggie helped him set up an AA meeting there in the makeshift shelter area since he hadn't been to one in a while and he ran it while the shelter was there until the planes were able to get anyone out of the area. Meanwhile Sarah Sloan and her husband Seth are having a terrible time as the world as they know it is falling down around them because he is in trouble with the SEC for Money Fraud. Melanie is still trying to deal with her mother and realizes that she must start running her own life and career and must make her mother see that, and to do that will take something drastic. Meanwhile Maggie is dealing with her own demons as her love from Everett comes to light and that he loves her as well. The Journalist Everett Carson has been taking pictures from the start of the benefit on he has even given his jacket to Melanie because she was only wearing the dress she preformed in on stage. They realize that the whole city is in shambles and a couple go out to try and help others to get patched up or get to the make shift shelter. While sitting in his Hotel room he calls Maggie to thank her for telling him to go and find his son.
Maggie told her that she new where she was if she needed her there by adding Sarah into the vast equation that was Maggie's life. After the earthquake he was still taking pictures even of Melanie and Maggie helping in the field hospital. Each person that has been affected by the earthquake has their own demons to fight and extinguish but each will be dealt with over time.Danielle Steel's Amazing Grace is a wonderful book each character is full of depth and emotion you feel as if you are right there with them in the midst of all the earthquake has caused.
This is the first Danielle Steele book I have ever read, however, I listened to this one on tape and I got what I expected. She writes like she is telling a story to mentally challenged people, repeating constantly, using grade school metaphors (fresh as a rose). I made it through the 4th cd and it was torture. Sorry, I think she is a writer for the very simple minded-
|
