Date: June 26, 2025
Author: Danielle Steel
Genre: romance, contemporary women’s fiction
P. 27, paragraph 3, ‘She had been in love with him since the moment they met.’ Same paragraph, 6 sentences prior, ‘She had been in love with him since the moment he walked into her life.’ The same issue as I had with the last book of Mz. Steel’s I tried to read. Repetition.
By page 70 I realized I have no emotional connection to any of the characters in the story. Up until this point Mz. Steel has been busy giving the entire narrative of Sasha, the main character’s life, including the history of her parents, conception and growing up.
Sometimes Mz. Steel made giant leaps in the story progression. I caught her going so far as to span years, maybe even decades, from the start of one paragraph to the end of that same paragraph. I found this book to be tedious and repetitive and unoriginal. I wonder how many times Mz. Steel has told and retold this same story. Very cookie-cutter-like of her. She even used the last name Boardman. Was she looking at a tree when this inspiration rooted itself?