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Fine Things
Smart, likable, Bernie Fine was the wonder boy of Wolff's, New York's most glamorous department store. A senior VP moving up, he arrives in San Fransisco to open a West Coast store. His career is skyrocketing, but his life is lacking a center. When he looks into the wide, innocent eyes of five-year-old Jane O'Reilly, and then into the equally enchanting eyes of her mother, Liz, Bernie knows he has found what he has been looking for. Bernie thought he had found love to last a lifetime, but when Liz is stricken with cancer shortly after the birth of their first child, time becomes painfully short. Alone with two children, Bernie must face the loss and learn how to move on. New people, new experiences, a new life alone with two kids. He meets it with courage and humor, and learns some of life's hard but precious lessons as he does.
180 pages, Audio Cassette
First published January 1, 1987
869 people are currently reading
5340 people want to read
About the author
Danielle Steel
911 books16.7k followersDanielle Steel has been hailed as one of the world's bestselling authors, with almost a billion copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include All That Glitters, Royal, Daddy's Girls, The Wedding Dress, The Numbers Game, Moral Compass, Spy, and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story of her son Nick Traina's life and death; A Gift of Hope, a memoir of her work with the homeless; Expect a Miracle, a book of her favorite quotations for inspiration and comfort; Pure Joy, about the dogs she and her family have loved; and the children's books Pretty Minnie in Paris and Pretty Minnie in Hollywood.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 368 reviews
July 2, 2017
Excellent read! a complex and delightful story about caring,loving and how one treats others less fortunate...well written (paperback!)
March 4, 2015
I loved this one. Ms Steel writes many books and they're good stories. They all serve a purpose and this one I'll get around to reading again. I'm not the only one to rate this highly.. Literary reads are great of course, and so are books like this! They've all got their place and they find theirs on my shelf quite a lot by the way!
July 28, 2015
Nakon duge potrage napokon sam pronašla ovaj roman, pročitala ga i pozitivno se iznenadila. Jako lijepa priča o životu jednog čovjeka koji se suočava sa tragičnim trenucima, ali i proživljava one najljepše. Jedina zamjerka ide prevodiocima srpskih i hrvatskih izdanja koji su naziv Fine Things preveli kao Lepe/Fine stvari. Prezime glavnog lika je Fine pa prema tome to aludira na njegov život, a ne na neke lijepe ili fine stvari. Preporuka za sve ljubitelje porodičnih drama i ljubavnih priča.
February 5, 2015
This book is about a man named Bernie. In his life he has met many people but they all have a special place in his life. When he meets his future wife he has no idea what will happen next. The incoming events are difficult and touching to him and his loved ones. He has a kid that came with his wife Liz. The kid named Jane finds that Bernie not only is a good father but also a good supporter in events to come.
I can connect to the world because people marry others and already have kids that become adopted. Jane becomes adopted by Bernie who is fairly rich but also has his problems. I can understand how difficult this is for both of them getting used to each other.
I give this book a five out five because it is very realistic. The problems here are not one that an average person might have but are still touching. They have problems that people have rarely and still deal with it. It shows how mature and good people still outnumber the bad intentions in the world.
I can connect to the world because people marry others and already have kids that become adopted. Jane becomes adopted by Bernie who is fairly rich but also has his problems. I can understand how difficult this is for both of them getting used to each other.
I give this book a five out five because it is very realistic. The problems here are not one that an average person might have but are still touching. They have problems that people have rarely and still deal with it. It shows how mature and good people still outnumber the bad intentions in the world.
January 25, 2013
this is one of those books you wont want to put down, but fair warning it is a tear jerker. the main character finds the love of his life, their romance is one of a kind the kind we all dream of and then she is taken from him and he has alot to deal with , there are alot of twists and turns alot of susupense, alot of romance , a little bit of everything, even some laughable moments. Danielle steel is a great author i have heard alot about her but this is the first book of hers i have read and I know I will be reading more. Highly reccommend it
April 16, 2011
i loved that this book was written from a man's perspective, and such a great guy! i've moved away from romance-type novels, but this will always be one of my faves. oh, i guess a small warning: i cried and cried!!! (still a wonderful book though)
June 8, 2012
Bernie Fine, our main character, finds himself being transferred from his beloved New York City to San Francisco. While he's less than thrilled about the move, his life changes for the better as he meets five-year-old Jane and her mother Liz. Bernie has found the love of his life in Liz, and they quickly marry. However, that would be way too easy for a Danielle Steel novel, and we find that shortly after the birth of their first child, Liz is faced with a losing battle to cancer. Now, Bernie finds himself alone with two children, and he must face the loss and learn how to move on.
This novel was really jam packed with ups and downs. Just as soon as something exciting was over, something new happened. It made for a quick read, since it was hard to put down. It did feel like I was being cheated out of story at some times, since it did move so fast and could have had some more details. Other than that, it was a really good book.
This novel was really jam packed with ups and downs. Just as soon as something exciting was over, something new happened. It made for a quick read, since it was hard to put down. It did feel like I was being cheated out of story at some times, since it did move so fast and could have had some more details. Other than that, it was a really good book.
August 5, 2009
One summer when I was a teenager I had no money and nothing to do. I started digging into my mom's bookshelf just for something different to read. (You can only read your Sweet Valley High and V.C.Andrews so many times.) I plowed through book after book of Danielle Steel that summer. And after I read it I claimed the book as mine and it went on my bookshelf. To this day I don't know if my mom has actually read a Danielle Steel novel.
July 7, 2018
One thing I really love about Danielle Steel is that you can picture her as a 12 year old girl, dreaming up romantic stories. Her books really feel like the fantasies of an upper class pre-teen girl from around fifty years ago, rewritten by the same girl in her thirties and forties. "Wouldn't it be neat to marry a doctor? Or what about the man who runs my favorite department store?"
This story is like that, sort of quaint and sweet but very out of touch. Before the internet, before Target, Walmart, online shopping, apparently there were these things called department stores. And apparently the men who bought the clothes for the women's lines were like rock stars.
Bernie Fine is a rock star. Danielle Steel's idea of a rock star, anyway.
FINE THINGS is the story of Bernie's life, with some love stories and soap opera tragedies thrown in. Not to do spoilers, but they are all pretty random curves that Bernie deals with. Somebody very precious to him dies of a tragic disease. A mean grifter comes out of nowhere and menaces his family. For a while. There's a car accident. None of these plots really grabs you, they just fade in and out at random. Throw them around in random order and it's still the same book.
As often happens in Danielle Steel, the funniest stuff is totally unintentional. In the opening chapters, Danielle gives Bernie two girlfriends who are meant to be no good and scheming, but really are more fall down laughing funny than anything else. One is like a Jane Fonda, Joan Baez type of Sixties radical, as she might be imagined by, say, Pat Nixon. ("Oh, her horrible combat fatigues! Bernie was repelled by them. And why didn't she shave under her arms anymore?") The other is more like the typical OW in an old-fashioned Harlequin Presents -- a selfish, cold, French fashion model who likes to borrow Bernie's credit cards. ("Zis is not love, Bernard. Zis is sex! You must give me my freedom and allow me to spend your money. Ze sex will be worth it, bien sur!") Oh, and last but not least, there's Bernie's Jewish mother, Ruth. A Jewish mother written by Danielle Steel, that's like looking for pizza at McDonald's. But you know it wasn't bad.
So now, stop reading, unless you've read the book. Below is what I WANTED to happen!
Chandler Scott gets killed off too soon, and personally I thought he was such a bad ass! I really wanted him to KEEP Jane, and then the two of them end up roaring through Mexico in a stolen car like doomed lovers in a Tarantino movie, doing mescal and going to donkey shows and living like existential outlaws on the run. And then they find a village of poor Mexicans, and end up giving them guns to fight the evil General Mapache, and there's an epic gun battle and everyone dies in slow motion and there are tons of explosions. And then at the end Bernie comes down, finds Chandler Scott dead, and slowly removes his pistol from his holster while sad music signals the end of the West.
This story is like that, sort of quaint and sweet but very out of touch. Before the internet, before Target, Walmart, online shopping, apparently there were these things called department stores. And apparently the men who bought the clothes for the women's lines were like rock stars.
Bernie Fine is a rock star. Danielle Steel's idea of a rock star, anyway.
FINE THINGS is the story of Bernie's life, with some love stories and soap opera tragedies thrown in. Not to do spoilers, but they are all pretty random curves that Bernie deals with. Somebody very precious to him dies of a tragic disease. A mean grifter comes out of nowhere and menaces his family. For a while. There's a car accident. None of these plots really grabs you, they just fade in and out at random. Throw them around in random order and it's still the same book.
As often happens in Danielle Steel, the funniest stuff is totally unintentional. In the opening chapters, Danielle gives Bernie two girlfriends who are meant to be no good and scheming, but really are more fall down laughing funny than anything else. One is like a Jane Fonda, Joan Baez type of Sixties radical, as she might be imagined by, say, Pat Nixon. ("Oh, her horrible combat fatigues! Bernie was repelled by them. And why didn't she shave under her arms anymore?") The other is more like the typical OW in an old-fashioned Harlequin Presents -- a selfish, cold, French fashion model who likes to borrow Bernie's credit cards. ("Zis is not love, Bernard. Zis is sex! You must give me my freedom and allow me to spend your money. Ze sex will be worth it, bien sur!") Oh, and last but not least, there's Bernie's Jewish mother, Ruth. A Jewish mother written by Danielle Steel, that's like looking for pizza at McDonald's. But you know it wasn't bad.
So now, stop reading, unless you've read the book. Below is what I WANTED to happen!
Chandler Scott gets killed off too soon, and personally I thought he was such a bad ass! I really wanted him to KEEP Jane, and then the two of them end up roaring through Mexico in a stolen car like doomed lovers in a Tarantino movie, doing mescal and going to donkey shows and living like existential outlaws on the run. And then they find a village of poor Mexicans, and end up giving them guns to fight the evil General Mapache, and there's an epic gun battle and everyone dies in slow motion and there are tons of explosions. And then at the end Bernie comes down, finds Chandler Scott dead, and slowly removes his pistol from his holster while sad music signals the end of the West.
March 2, 2020
I went for YA and I shouldn't have. Bernie Fine's story is good but much much tedious. There's Sheila, his first love. Isabella, his second. Liz, his one and only (for some chapters). Then their marriage, child, Liz's cancer, her death and details of everything she did before her death. Their daughter kidnapping then, blah blah more chapters. And Megan comes then. Bernie's last wife hopefully. Their romance and everything. My God! I lost two brain cells while reading this.
May 31, 2023
I really liked this one. It was about a man, his life, loves and trials. Very good.
August 28, 2024
When I was a teenager I read this book and it was my fave book. This is how I remembered it. That was roughly 30 years ago. I wish I would have left it in the past. It pains me to say that I just couldn’t get through it all. At page 140 I started skimming and even that was too much for me. Then I skipped to the last 2 pages and read them. It did end the way I remembered and that is all I needed to see. This book has not aged well at all! My jaw literally dropped at some of the things I read. Literally left me in shock. There was one other of hers I really liked back then and now I am afraid to attempt that one too!
March 17, 2025
Enjoyable read .. keep tissue handy :)
May 16, 2022
I have read this book many times through the years. This is the book that made me love reading Ms. Steel. I recently reread this book and it still touches me just as much as the first time I read it. Bernie Fine was the wonder boy of Wolff’s, New York’s most glamorous department store. A senior VP on the way up, he arrives in San Francisco to open a West Coast store. His career is skyrocketing, but his life lacks a center. When he looks into the wide, innocent eyes of five-year-old Jane O’Reilly, and then into the equally enchanting eyes of her mother, Liz, Bernie knows he has found what he has been looking for. I loved how Bernie took care of Liz when she got sick and I loved that he would do anything to protect Jane from a father that she never knew and a man who would use her to get what he wanted. I was also happy that he was able to find love again after watching his wife die. I love this book.
October 31, 2015
Fine Things by Danielle Steel
Bernie starts out as a jock in high school, goes to college, avoids the draft and ends up in a clothing store-the owner loves his ideas.
Years later and relationships later we find him living on the west coast running another store. He first sees the little girl and falls in love with her, then meets the mother and they start a relationship, get married months later
and move to NY where she finds out she is pregnant. As the story goes on we find out Liz back story and her ex husband.
He still travels to Milan and other countries for the fashion designs for the store. The ex reurfaces and Liz ends up with cancer...
Life spirals out of control when the twists and turns stop. So much heart break. They move on and things take a turn, like how book got its name.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
Bernie starts out as a jock in high school, goes to college, avoids the draft and ends up in a clothing store-the owner loves his ideas.
Years later and relationships later we find him living on the west coast running another store. He first sees the little girl and falls in love with her, then meets the mother and they start a relationship, get married months later
and move to NY where she finds out she is pregnant. As the story goes on we find out Liz back story and her ex husband.
He still travels to Milan and other countries for the fashion designs for the store. The ex reurfaces and Liz ends up with cancer...
Life spirals out of control when the twists and turns stop. So much heart break. They move on and things take a turn, like how book got its name.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
July 18, 2013
What a heartbreaking page-turner. I couldn't put this down. It pulled out all of the saddest stops, and it successfully became only the second book ever to make me cry.
I love that the main character is a male, based on everything he goes through. This is something I'd typically read happening to a woman. Steel throws all of the most devastating happenings possible at this character and you can't help but feel sorry for him.
I know Steel has the reputation for being over-the-top and cheesy, but it works. When a story captures my attention that quickly and for that long, I know it's good. I was sad for the book to end. I'll definitely be reading more of her.
I love that the main character is a male, based on everything he goes through. This is something I'd typically read happening to a woman. Steel throws all of the most devastating happenings possible at this character and you can't help but feel sorry for him.
I know Steel has the reputation for being over-the-top and cheesy, but it works. When a story captures my attention that quickly and for that long, I know it's good. I was sad for the book to end. I'll definitely be reading more of her.
February 21, 2014
One of the best Danielle Steel books I've read. Not only is this book NOT about a female heroine, it's very realistic. The main character, a man called Bernard (aka Bernie) isn't exceptionally handsome or anything, and has an over protective mother. His luck with women isn't the best, until he found Elizabeth O'Reily! His mother, or should is say, his JEWISH mother, didn't approve of her at first due to the simple fact that Liz isn't Jewish. Later on though she learns to accept her and love her. (Liz has a daughter).
Anyways, long story short, this story talks about a man's journey through life. It's quite interesting tbh
Anyways, long story short, this story talks about a man's journey through life. It's quite interesting tbh
August 11, 2016
Life's Journeys
Super storyline and caring, loving characters. This is the first book that has affected me so. Several times I just had to stop and cry. Can't remember the last time this has happened while I was reading a book.
Super storyline and caring, loving characters. This is the first book that has affected me so. Several times I just had to stop and cry. Can't remember the last time this has happened while I was reading a book.
May 1, 2008
THIS NOVEL IS THE FIRST AND ONLY NOVEL THAT HAS BROUGHT ME TO TEARS.
January 2, 2016
my favorite
April 10, 2016
this book is my favorite Danielle Steel book,if you don't mind crying like a big baby when you read it!
December 9, 2025
This review was written in that dim corridor of days between the 22nd and 28th of October, 2025—a week blurred by the hiss of oxygen and the slow drip of IV lines at Bellona Nursing Home & Diagnostic Centre Pvt. Ltd. I was then a reluctant guest of illness, recovering from an infection that had seized both lungs and kidneys. Forgive, therefore, the infrequent tremor in my language; it bears the soft delirium of painkillers and the fragile clarity of a mind half-dreaming between fever and thought. But Slime does that annoying, delightful thing some tales do—it pretends to be campy horror and then quietly slips a mirror into your hands.
Steel flexes her emotional range here with a story that combines romance, tragedy, and healing—not in a chaotic cocktail, but in a slow, deliberate pour.
Bernie Fine is a self-made man, charming and earnest, the kind of protagonist Steel writes with an almost old-school warmth. He meets Liz, a schoolteacher with quiet strength, and their love story feels like a soft sunrise: steady, gentle, and glowingly hopeful.
Steel makes their early romance so tender that you can practically smell the coffee and hear the soft jazz in the background.
And then, she breaks your heart. Because that’s what Steel does—she lets you get attached just enough to feel the loss like a punch.
When tragedy strikes, Bernie’s life collapses into a grief so raw that even the reader feels winded. But Steel uses this collapse not to devastate but to rebuild. She guides Bernie through fatherhood, resilience, and rediscovering meaning in the mundane. His relationship with his adopted daughter becomes the emotional spine of the book—fragile, imperfect, and deeply human.
Steel handles loss without drowning the story in darkness. The light returns slowly, through community, work, and small acts of courage.
By the end, Fine Things feels like a novel about second chances that don’t come wrapped in ribbon but grow quietly out of everyday love.
It’s classic Steel: hope after heartbreak, warmth after winter, and a reminder that tenderness is a muscle that can rebuild itself.
Steel flexes her emotional range here with a story that combines romance, tragedy, and healing—not in a chaotic cocktail, but in a slow, deliberate pour.
Bernie Fine is a self-made man, charming and earnest, the kind of protagonist Steel writes with an almost old-school warmth. He meets Liz, a schoolteacher with quiet strength, and their love story feels like a soft sunrise: steady, gentle, and glowingly hopeful.
Steel makes their early romance so tender that you can practically smell the coffee and hear the soft jazz in the background.
And then, she breaks your heart. Because that’s what Steel does—she lets you get attached just enough to feel the loss like a punch.
When tragedy strikes, Bernie’s life collapses into a grief so raw that even the reader feels winded. But Steel uses this collapse not to devastate but to rebuild. She guides Bernie through fatherhood, resilience, and rediscovering meaning in the mundane. His relationship with his adopted daughter becomes the emotional spine of the book—fragile, imperfect, and deeply human.
Steel handles loss without drowning the story in darkness. The light returns slowly, through community, work, and small acts of courage.
By the end, Fine Things feels like a novel about second chances that don’t come wrapped in ribbon but grow quietly out of everyday love.
It’s classic Steel: hope after heartbreak, warmth after winter, and a reminder that tenderness is a muscle that can rebuild itself.
September 24, 2018
Danielle Steel isn’t one of my go-to authors, and I hadn’t read her for a long time. “Fine Things” is a great read for practicing speed reading skills; there are four major events in the life of Bernie Fine, and they—as well as the ending—are revealed early in the book. From there on it’s a scan from one life-altering event (mostly tragic) to the next--400+ pages of it. All of which are easier, of course, since Bernie is richer than rich. Kinder than kind as well. Stupider than stupider sometimes. Even the title make me roll my eyes. Someone told me that one should start every Danielle Steel book because once in a while, she creates a rose. I can save my readers some trouble. This one is a thorn.
November 12, 2021
I always admire Danielle Steel's writing style, it's so natural and engaging. Fine Things starts off heavily in a world of fashion which is not something I'm passionate about at all, but the writing is captivating enough to get me to the point where I fell into the characters. I enjoyed the journey of getting to know Bernie Fine, and especially his connection with Jane and with his Mother Ruth as their lives change and connections grow deeper. I definitely recommend this book to those who enjoy Danielle Steel. It was a quick read for me during a busy time of my life where I do not have a lot of spare time to sit and read.
September 26, 2018
This has to be one of my FAVORITE Danielle Steel novels! Steel writes a heart-grabbing story of a loving man, Mr. Fine, who meets a young girl who can't find her mom. He takes this darling little one out for ice cream, where he eventually meets her mother. The rest is history (good, or bad?) If you're looking for a read that will have your whole heart and full attention, Fine Things is the next on your list.
September 25, 2015
A wonderful read but a tear-jerker. Contrary to my expectations in the starting, the book was pretty much predictable after a point. However,Danielle Steel has impeccably expressed each and every phase of life- the happiness, the tragedies, fear , love etc and that's what prevented me from putting this book down until and unless I finished it.
October 3, 2007
Great book...I have never cried so hard while reading a book aside from Where a Red Fern Grows ; )
October 10, 2007
Good book. Very strong character. Cry...cry....cry....
April 13, 2012
This is an older Steel book and I did enjoy it. I do find now that her books are becoming cookie cutter and I don't read all of the newer ones, unless I happen to see them at the library.
February 26, 2017
Such a sad story, made me so emotional, how one man could have such tragedy in his life and remain a good person is beyond me.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 368 reviews