Tag Archives: Danielle Steele

Book Review – Accident by Danielle Steele

Posted on by
Reply

We start off playing happy families with 39 year old Page, 45 year old husband Brad and children Allyson 15, Andy 7. They live in San Francisco and as far as Page is concerned everything is near perfect, her marriage, children and lifestyle. So much so that she wonders about having another child before it’s too late.

Suddenly as is typical in Danielle’s novels their lives are torn apart one dreadful Saturday night. Allyson sneaks out on a double date with her school friend Chloe and two 17 year old boys Jamie and Phillip. It is Allyson’s very first date but knowing that her parents won’t approve of her going out with an older boy she and Chloe tell their respective parents that they are at each others homes. They have an enjoyable night; a meal and the boys drink wine but only half a glass.

Allyson’s date Phillip is driving and the other couple are in the back seat. They are crossing the Golden Gate Bridge when another car driven by a Senator’s wife hits them. The crash causes the instantaneous death of the driver Phillip, Ally has terrific head injuries, Chloe has leg injuries and Jamie walks away with a few bruises. The senator’s wife is unharmed and her white dress isn’t even marked.

She is going home from a party and claims not to have had a drink. The police believe her and don’t bother to breathalyse her. They cannot tell how the accident was caused because there was too much damage to the youngster’s car, but the implication in the newspapers is that Ben was under the influence of alcohol despite having had only half a glass of wine. The senator’s wife is an ex alcoholic and the families have to question whether she had lapsed and been drinking and if there was a cover up because of her husbands position.

Page rushes to the hospital to find her daughter in a coma and needing brain surgery. The doctors cannot tell whether she will live or not and if she lives how badly affected she will be. At first she cannot contact her husband who is supposed to be on a business trip and has to get in touch through his boss. Normally he leaves a contact number, why hasn’t he this time, why did he sound annoyed at her and why did he only take an hour to get to the hospital when it should have taken six?

Yes the story drew me in and absorbed me for at least the first two thirds of the book. Danielle Steele writes in an easy to read manner that plays on your emotions. Throughout I wanted Allyson to come out of her coma and every time she had a setback and was expected to die I felt sad but then glad when she stabilised.

The book is mainly about a woman and mother dealing with problems that come out of the blue but are far reaching. Page has to juggle her life around spending hours at her daughter’s bedside willing her to come out of the coma and without much support. Wondering if she will ever be the same if she does, how much the family’s lives will be affected if there is brain damage, but most of all preparing herself for Allyson’s death.

She also needs to spend quality time with her young son and faces the dilemma of should she reassure Andy and let him think that everything is going to be back to normal or should she prepare him for the worst. Then there are marital problems to be faced, more reassurance for Andy – it isn’t his fault that his wonderful father is turning into a rat.

More crap is thrown at Page when her selfish mother and sister who live in New York come to stay for a week. Supposedly out of concern but they expect to be waited on hand and foot and are more interested in shopping and getting their hair and nails done than visiting the hospital.

Danielle described those two characters very well. She made me loathe them but I think that she didn’t need to go further and add that the two women had locked Page in her bedroom with her doctor father when she was a young teenager. Too much information and I felt unnecessary to bring incest into the storyline. I also felt that the whole scenario was unrealistic. If I had moved thousands of miles to get away from the gruesome twosome I wouldn’t have them to stay in my home that’s for sure. But then Danielle was throwing every bit of conflict that she could at her main character to test her strength and courage.

As a main character, Page came across well. We are shown that a woman portrayed originally as very ordinary can produce an extraordinary amount of inner strength to enable her to deal with terrible situations without falling apart.

There are some special moments in the book when Andy befriends Bjorn, Chloe’s 18 year old brother. Bjorn has a mental age of ten and loves being around young children and Andy is proud to have an older friend. It was a nice touch to add the character of Bjorn and a demonstration of how good can come from bad. I would have liked to read more about the developing friendship, it expressed to me how young children don’t have prejudices and can easily accept somebody who is a little different. A week after finishing Accident I feel that I enjoyed those small sections the most.

I enjoyed reading the rest of the book to a certain extent, my emotions were played with and at first I found it hard to put down. Then the storyline became all too familiar and I realised why I had stopped reading Danielle Steele before. After the first few chapters I had a good idea of what was going to happen, leaving little surprise element, though the ending did leave some questions unanswered.

If I were new to reading Danielle Steele’s novels I would probably have thoroughly enjoyed this one. Perhaps over familiarity with her style and technique induced a boredom in me towards the end which I would normally only find when reading work from less skilled authors. I feel a little sad to be taking Danielle Steele off my reading list knowing that I was previously enthusiastic about her work. I have changed but Danielle hasn’t.

I find it hard to rate this novel because I would have found it compelling throughout a few years ago and know that my tastes have changed. Therefore I will recommend it to those who like a romantic/tragic read with the power to play on your emotions.

Patricia has been writing articles and reviews for many years. You can view
more of her work and find some great free advice about writing and free writers tools worth over $3000 at the creative writing guide and her Make Money From Writing website Cashwrite.info

Double Flips With A Spandex Clad Sex Machine

Posted on by
Reply

klone and II wasn’t going to read another Danielle Steele book after finding them too predictable but when I saw The Klone and I my resolve weakened.

The main character Stephanie is 41, divorced and at a low ebb when she meets 59 year old Peter in Paris. Her marriage break up 2 years earlier came as a total shock to her. She believed that her and her husband Roger were happy until the day he told her that he had met somebody else, didn’t love her and wanted a divorce.

Stephanie blamed the break up on letting herself go and becoming frumpy. Once over the shock she threw away her flannelette nighties, dieted and exercised and bought herself a new wardrobe. Her new image didn’t get her husband back as she secretly hoped but it did give her the confidence to help rebuild her life and start dating again.

Some people manage to find new partners quickly after break ups and diminish their feelings of hurt and rejection. Others like Stephanie try the dating game and meet many prospective partners but none ever feel right. After the break up Stephanie realised or perhaps accepted that her husband had used her for a meal ticket. She had a healthy private income and he was in and out of work or following pipe dreams for a lot of their 13 year marriage leaving her to support them and their two children. Roger’s new partner has a larger trust fund than Stephanie, making her feel as if her money had been why he stayed with her for so long rather than herself and he had waited to move on until he found a better meal ticket. The feeling of being used would bring a massive blow to the confidence and it would be hard to learn to trust anybody of the opposite sex. Stephanie had just about given up on the hope of finding a new partner when she met wealthy bionic engineer Peter.

She had gone to Paris to pick up her children after them spending a holiday in the south of France with their father and his new wife. For a few days before meeting them she shopped and explored Paris. Peter was staying at the same hotel as her and they shared some of that time together. By coincidence Peter also lived in New York and the relationship continued and grew once they got back. After 3 months Peter announced that he had to go to California for 2 weeks to oversee the company that he owns there and says that he has a surprise for her.

The surprise rang her doorbell and turned out to be Peter or his double called Paul who is exactly like Peter in good looks and physique but totally opposite Peter in dress sense and behaviour. Peter is conservative in every way that Paul is not and when Stephanie first sees Paul dressed in fluorescent green skin-tight and revealing satin pants, a see through sparkly black net shirt, black satin cowboy boots with rhinestone buckles and wearing a diamond peace chain around his neck she believes that Peter is playing a joke or has flipped.

From there on the novel slips into fantasy and becomes so unrealistic that I laughed at most of the rest of it. Stephanie’s visitor tells her that he is Paul’s klone and his most successful experiment to date. He has been sent to entertain her for the 2 weeks that Peter is away but usually he stays in the shop with his head off. Stephanie treats it as a joke and goes along with it but wonders if this new Peter is some form of escapism for the conservative Peter. The Peter she knows wouldn’t do double, then treble, then quadruple flips in bed, nor would he wear such a variety of wild outfits.

I liked the basic idea in that it feels safe to be with somebody who is staid and reliable but every now and then spice things up by throwing in unexpected fun, madness and wild sex. With the same partner pretending to be somebody else that could be quite a roller coaster ride, but with two different partners you would surely be heading for double trouble – and a bad back from the bedtime antics!

I don’t think that I’m a fuddy duddy but the thought of a 59 year old man wearing garish spandex outfits seemed ridiculous to me. I found it hard to create an image in my mind of such an exotic creature and as far as eroticism is concerned I probably wouldn’t be able to do anything for laughing. I can imagine that it would be fun to go to a posh restaurant with him and watch the waiters pretending that there is nothing out of the ordinary, but 2 weeks of posh restaurants, parties, business meetings and extreme behaviour would cause more than the indicated tiny ripple if those who see peacock Paul are used to staid Peter.

Then there are the children. Danielle Steele makes it clear that the children are quite normally taking their time to get to know and accept Peter. After 3 months the oldest 13 year old Charlotte still hasn’t accepted him, thinks he is boring and would throw a wobbly if she thought her mum had sex with him. Then Paul appears and not only do the children accept him and his dramatically altered appearance without question and think him cool, they are suddenly happy that he stays overnight at their apartment. They are told that he is sleeping in the guest room but come on, children are inquisitive and with 2 weeks of nights full of double flips from the bed to the floor the bumps in the night would be enough to waken the dead never mind two youngsters.

I found the Peter/Paul character hard to like in either guise and they wouldn’t figure in my fantasies. Peter would be too staid and Paul would be too silly.

You’ll have to read the book to find out if Paul is really a klone, Peter has a split personality, playing out his sexual fantasies or Peter’s identical twin. I expected the novel to be a little different from Danielle’s normal style of writing and it was to a certain extent. I had fun reading it but I did find the ending easy to guess. Part of the fun was imagining what I would do in Stephanie’s situation. Enjoy it I guess but burn the spandex.

I felt that Danielle Steele enjoyed writing this novel, it is a change from her normal formulaic style probably expected by her publishers but I did wonder how much of it was her own fantasy. Although I liked the book I found it easy to put down and pick up again later. Good for light reading and it entertained me on a train journey but not a fantastic book.

The author Patricia Jones loves writing and building websites.
You can see more of her work at The Creative Writer- Make Money
From Writing and UK Travel Guide