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Passion's Promise
Smart, beautiful, and very rich, Kezia Saint Martin leads two lives: one as a glamorous socialite jetting between the poshest places in Europe and America; the other, under a false name, as a dicated journalist committed to justice and her profession.
But the two worlds are pulling her apart, leaving her conflicted about her identity and the lies she tells to every man she meets. Then she meets Lucas Johns, a bold, dynamic crusader for social change--and an ex-con. Their attraction is immediate, but their love may be just one step from tragedy at any time.
But the two worlds are pulling her apart, leaving her conflicted about her identity and the lies she tells to every man she meets. Then she meets Lucas Johns, a bold, dynamic crusader for social change--and an ex-con. Their attraction is immediate, but their love may be just one step from tragedy at any time.
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
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2558 people want to read
About the author
Danielle Steel
914 books16.8k 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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Instagram: @officialdaniellesteel
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews
November 25, 2015
Kezia Saint Martin poor-little-super-rich girl falls head over heels in love with ex-convict, prison-reformer-wannabe Lucas Johns who's just too sexy for his shirt, too sexy for his shirt, so sexy it hurts.
I thought I'd be reading some juicy, fluffy romance but this book actually takes itself seriously. Kezia has an existential crisis and wears mink. People are out to get our crusader. Will they succeed? Will he survive to pretend to sneer at his brand new brown suede Gucci shoes another day? And what about Ale-ale-jandro, Ale-ale-jandro?
It's also very sexist and homophobic.
And... he calls her "Mama".
Was that a thing in the 70s?
"MAMA"
'Nuff said!
I thought I'd be reading some juicy, fluffy romance but this book actually takes itself seriously. Kezia has an existential crisis and wears mink. People are out to get our crusader. Will they succeed? Will he survive to pretend to sneer at his brand new brown suede Gucci shoes another day? And what about Ale-ale-jandro, Ale-ale-jandro?
It's also very sexist and homophobic.
And... he calls her "Mama".
Was that a thing in the 70s?
"MAMA"
'Nuff said!
July 22, 2016
It pains me, truly pains me, to rate a DS book 3 stars. But I couldn't bring myself to give it anymore than that. And I am going to explain why.
First off, I should point out that it was an okay story. It was written well. It was different then what DS usually does. It was like more grittier than normal. Not the normal light and fluffy. Kezia was almost selfish and rude. I understand that she wanted to do things for herself but she could have went about it a different way. Kezia just throws people away without any regard to their feelings. Not to mention she lies. Yes, I know that she has to protect herself but outright lying is just wrong.
When she met Luke, she became a totally different person and it wasn't a good thing. She became whiny and needy. She gets bitchy at everybody around her. She constantly demanded the attention of Luke, even though he was busy doing his thing. Luke was recently released from jail and was an outspoken advocate for better treatment of prisoners in jails. That was good. I appreciated Luke and who he was.
I didn't really care for the world building either. The world was the socialite world. I know that it's supposed to be pretty fake and not deep, but it was almost way too fake. DS just made the world seems too fake. It felt forced.
The ending killed it for me. I thought this was a pretty dumb ending. It felt forced, like he had to . I also didn't like how we didn't know what Kezia was going to do. If you are going to do an ending like that, I would at least want some sort of direction so I had some idea of what was going on.
Overall, I'm not impressed. It was an okay book but there were so many things that could have been done differently.
First off, I should point out that it was an okay story. It was written well. It was different then what DS usually does. It was like more grittier than normal. Not the normal light and fluffy. Kezia was almost selfish and rude. I understand that she wanted to do things for herself but she could have went about it a different way. Kezia just throws people away without any regard to their feelings. Not to mention she lies. Yes, I know that she has to protect herself but outright lying is just wrong.
When she met Luke, she became a totally different person and it wasn't a good thing. She became whiny and needy. She gets bitchy at everybody around her. She constantly demanded the attention of Luke, even though he was busy doing his thing. Luke was recently released from jail and was an outspoken advocate for better treatment of prisoners in jails. That was good. I appreciated Luke and who he was.
I didn't really care for the world building either. The world was the socialite world. I know that it's supposed to be pretty fake and not deep, but it was almost way too fake. DS just made the world seems too fake. It felt forced.
The ending killed it for me. I thought this was a pretty dumb ending. It felt forced, like he had to . I also didn't like how we didn't know what Kezia was going to do. If you are going to do an ending like that, I would at least want some sort of direction so I had some idea of what was going on.
Overall, I'm not impressed. It was an okay book but there were so many things that could have been done differently.
October 6, 2008
I like it. From the beginning till the middle.
I hate it. From the middle till the end.
The girl pictured in the novel is a girl that is kinda plin-plan actually...
I hate it. From the middle till the end.
The girl pictured in the novel is a girl that is kinda plin-plan actually...
January 16, 2024
کنزیا یکی از ثروتمندترین زنان جهان است ، او زندگی اشرافی او آنچنان برایش لدت بخش نیست ،سعی میکند با نویسندگی خود را مشغول کند ، ولی آشنایی با یک فرد بخصوص باعث میشود تا خود واقعیش را پیدا کند
May 22, 2017
What the fuck just happened?!!! I'm still in shock really! I can easily say that this was the messier, worst book I have ever read in my whole life. I really don't understand how such a book could ever be published. SPOILERS AHEAD : Kezia is just a spoiled rich person who hates her life without doing ANYTHING to change a single thing about it, and then she meets Luke, who wants to abolish the prison system from existence ( BTW murderers and rapers should all live freely with us in this one happy world, right? ). They fall in love ( in 2 days !) And she learns the meaning of life. But then he gets sent back to jail where he's murdered by a fellow prisonner. By that time, Kezia has turned into a crazy alcoholic person that spends all her days drinking at home. When she learns about the death of Luke by his friend Alejandro, she tells Alejandro that she's been in love with him all along instead, and turns out he was in love with her too!
AGAIN .... WHAT THE FUCK?? 1 STAR IS TOO MUCH FOR THIS SHIT
AGAIN .... WHAT THE FUCK?? 1 STAR IS TOO MUCH FOR THIS SHIT
April 14, 2016
Read this the second time and enjoyed it just as much
December 21, 2020
guillotine for all, including me for reading it.
March 20, 2025
I once rated Danielle Steel among a favorite as a young reader so decided to go through and read all her books in order. This book was good in the beginning and then... yuk! It quickly became, if not the worst book I've ever finished, then darn close. I just kept hoping for a miracle but sadly, no.
October 17, 2019
Not my favourite of Danielle Steel’s. At times with all of the descriptions of upper class life it reminded me of Penny Vinchenzi, but less well done.
August 29, 2025
If Blanche Deveraux wrote a book containing no plot and just vibes.
October 29, 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.
Reading Passion’s Promise (or Golden Moments, as it was later christened) feels like standing before a mirror that keeps fogging and clearing with each breath. Kezia Saint Martin, the novel’s heroine, glides through Manhattan’s marble corridors of wealth by day and slips into anonymity by night, writing about injustice under a pseudonym. The premise sounds like pure melodrama, but inside it I hear a quieter tremor—the sound of a woman rehearsing multiplicity before theory could name it. Steel’s second novel is less a story than an identity experiment; it’s Kristeva’s subject-in-process wearing a ball gown.
There’s something illicitly Barthesian about the way Kezia’s two selves refuse to converge. “She wanted to be both,” Steel writes, as if narrating the impossibility of presence. The socialite and the secret writer occupy parallel semiotic fields; one shines, the other bleeds ink.
Reminiscing her again, in the sterile brightness of a hospital room, I could feel that fracture vibrate inside my own chest—two selves, one medicated, one observing, both trapped in the body’s unreliable syntax. Steel never articulates the split philosophically, but her prose performs it through endless oscillation: Kezia thinks, hesitates, returns, escapes, returns. The repetition becomes a kind of pulse, mechanical yet alive, like the monitor beside my bed.
Derrida would say that Kezia lives in différance: every time she writes, she delays herself; every revelation of her double life is postponed until the reader has already internalized the lie. Steel’s structure, seemingly linear, is actually recursive—events looping back to interrogate their own sincerity. The romance plot between Kezia and Marc, the radical journalist, is merely the visible architecture; beneath it hums the question of authorship: Who tells the story when the storyteller wears a mask?
What fascinates me is how Steel, long before postmodernism entered mainstream fiction, encoded the female self as a system of substitutions. Kezia’s pseudonym allows her to speak in tongues, to inhabit voices denied to her by class and gender. When she finally confesses her secret, the novel flirts with collapse—the truth threatens narrative order. Steel rescues it with an ending that promises love and balance, yet the residue of fracture remains. I read that residue as Steel’s unconscious rebellion against her own genre: the romance that refuses to heal completely.
By the third night of rereading, the oxygen hiss had become a metronome. The novel’s lavish parties blurred with the metallic taste of the mask. I started to imagine the IV drip as Kezia’s typewriter—steady, relentless, feeding a substance that both sustains and limits. My body became a metaphor machine. Illness has a way of rendering even cheap glamour sacred; the hospital curtain fluttered like a ball gown. Somewhere between doses, I realized that Steel’s real subject isn’t love—it’s performance. Every gesture, every confession, every embrace is staged for an invisible audience that may never applaud.
In that sense, Passion’s Promise anticipates Judith Butler’s performativity decades before Butler would codify it. Kezia doesn’t simply have an identity; she does identity. Each movement between worlds reaffirms and undermines her existence. When she writes as “K.C.,” her nom de plume, she is free—but only within the text. Outside it, she returns to the gilded cage of her name. The novel becomes a mise en abyme: a woman reading herself reading herself. Steel’s prose, still raw and earnest, trembles on the edge of metafiction.
There’s a scene where Kezia stands before a mirror, unable to recognize the reflection. I marked it with a shaking hand because, at that moment, my own reflection on the hospital tray looked equally foreign—pale, spectral, oxygen tubing like quotation marks around my face. I thought of Barthes’ Camera Lucida, that mourning for the self caught between image and disappearance. Steel’s mirror is no less cruel: it reminds the reader that identity is always posthumous.
What saves the novel from despair is Steel’s instinct for rhythm. Her sentences, short and breathless, mimic the cadence of survival. “She wanted to run. She wanted to stay. She wanted to be free.” The repetition is not laziness—it’s a mantra. Through it, Steel performs the very thing Kristeva calls the chora: that pulsating space before language fixes meaning. To read it while half-dreaming on sedatives is to feel the page throb like a second heartbeat.
Yet Steel’s early optimism—her belief that love can reconcile contradictions—rings oddly tragic now. Kezia’s eventual surrender to domestic happiness reads like a curtain falling before the real play begins. We sense the author’s own conflict: the drive to expose fracture versus the market’s demand for closure. In that collision, Steel becomes both product and protest. She constructs an ending because publishing requires it, but her language never fully consents. Beneath the promise lies a quiet refusal.
Around dawn, as the nurse changed the drip, I realized that Passion’s Promise is less about passion and more about promise—the unkept kind. Every page vibrates with anticipation of a freedom that never arrives. Steel’s heroines are condemned to partial victories, their triumphs soaked in melancholy. The reader, too, becomes complicit, craving an impossible synthesis. When the book ends, we don’t believe it; we reread the last line as if it might change.
In that act of rereading, I found something almost Derridean: the trace of desire that outlives fulfillment. Kezia’s happiness feels provisional, deferred to the next novel, the next life. Steel, perhaps unconsciously, invented seriality as ontology—the self continued through endless variations of itself. Every new protagonist will be a reincarnation of this first split subject, eternally seeking wholeness in mirrored rooms.
When I finally turned off the light, the city outside was waking. The IV pump clicked like Mozart's metronome marking time. I thought about how Steel’s so-called “escapist fiction” has always been about confinement—about women negotiating the architecture of expectation. To call it mere romance is to miss its subterranean politics. In Passion’s Promise, the love story is camouflage; beneath it, a revolution whispers.
I closed the book, but not the feeling. The corridors of Bellona smelled faintly of antiseptic and hope. I imagined Kezia walking beside me, unrecognizable in her hospital gown, laughing softly at the absurdity of survival. Perhaps that’s what Steel knew all along: that glamour is just the shimmer we cast over grief to make it bearable.
And somewhere in that shimmer, I found myself again—fractured, fevered, and still writing.
Gorge it guys. Wonderful stuff.
Reading Passion’s Promise (or Golden Moments, as it was later christened) feels like standing before a mirror that keeps fogging and clearing with each breath. Kezia Saint Martin, the novel’s heroine, glides through Manhattan’s marble corridors of wealth by day and slips into anonymity by night, writing about injustice under a pseudonym. The premise sounds like pure melodrama, but inside it I hear a quieter tremor—the sound of a woman rehearsing multiplicity before theory could name it. Steel’s second novel is less a story than an identity experiment; it’s Kristeva’s subject-in-process wearing a ball gown.
There’s something illicitly Barthesian about the way Kezia’s two selves refuse to converge. “She wanted to be both,” Steel writes, as if narrating the impossibility of presence. The socialite and the secret writer occupy parallel semiotic fields; one shines, the other bleeds ink.
Reminiscing her again, in the sterile brightness of a hospital room, I could feel that fracture vibrate inside my own chest—two selves, one medicated, one observing, both trapped in the body’s unreliable syntax. Steel never articulates the split philosophically, but her prose performs it through endless oscillation: Kezia thinks, hesitates, returns, escapes, returns. The repetition becomes a kind of pulse, mechanical yet alive, like the monitor beside my bed.
Derrida would say that Kezia lives in différance: every time she writes, she delays herself; every revelation of her double life is postponed until the reader has already internalized the lie. Steel’s structure, seemingly linear, is actually recursive—events looping back to interrogate their own sincerity. The romance plot between Kezia and Marc, the radical journalist, is merely the visible architecture; beneath it hums the question of authorship: Who tells the story when the storyteller wears a mask?
What fascinates me is how Steel, long before postmodernism entered mainstream fiction, encoded the female self as a system of substitutions. Kezia’s pseudonym allows her to speak in tongues, to inhabit voices denied to her by class and gender. When she finally confesses her secret, the novel flirts with collapse—the truth threatens narrative order. Steel rescues it with an ending that promises love and balance, yet the residue of fracture remains. I read that residue as Steel’s unconscious rebellion against her own genre: the romance that refuses to heal completely.
By the third night of rereading, the oxygen hiss had become a metronome. The novel’s lavish parties blurred with the metallic taste of the mask. I started to imagine the IV drip as Kezia’s typewriter—steady, relentless, feeding a substance that both sustains and limits. My body became a metaphor machine. Illness has a way of rendering even cheap glamour sacred; the hospital curtain fluttered like a ball gown. Somewhere between doses, I realized that Steel’s real subject isn’t love—it’s performance. Every gesture, every confession, every embrace is staged for an invisible audience that may never applaud.
In that sense, Passion’s Promise anticipates Judith Butler’s performativity decades before Butler would codify it. Kezia doesn’t simply have an identity; she does identity. Each movement between worlds reaffirms and undermines her existence. When she writes as “K.C.,” her nom de plume, she is free—but only within the text. Outside it, she returns to the gilded cage of her name. The novel becomes a mise en abyme: a woman reading herself reading herself. Steel’s prose, still raw and earnest, trembles on the edge of metafiction.
There’s a scene where Kezia stands before a mirror, unable to recognize the reflection. I marked it with a shaking hand because, at that moment, my own reflection on the hospital tray looked equally foreign—pale, spectral, oxygen tubing like quotation marks around my face. I thought of Barthes’ Camera Lucida, that mourning for the self caught between image and disappearance. Steel’s mirror is no less cruel: it reminds the reader that identity is always posthumous.
What saves the novel from despair is Steel’s instinct for rhythm. Her sentences, short and breathless, mimic the cadence of survival. “She wanted to run. She wanted to stay. She wanted to be free.” The repetition is not laziness—it’s a mantra. Through it, Steel performs the very thing Kristeva calls the chora: that pulsating space before language fixes meaning. To read it while half-dreaming on sedatives is to feel the page throb like a second heartbeat.
Yet Steel’s early optimism—her belief that love can reconcile contradictions—rings oddly tragic now. Kezia’s eventual surrender to domestic happiness reads like a curtain falling before the real play begins. We sense the author’s own conflict: the drive to expose fracture versus the market’s demand for closure. In that collision, Steel becomes both product and protest. She constructs an ending because publishing requires it, but her language never fully consents. Beneath the promise lies a quiet refusal.
Around dawn, as the nurse changed the drip, I realized that Passion’s Promise is less about passion and more about promise—the unkept kind. Every page vibrates with anticipation of a freedom that never arrives. Steel’s heroines are condemned to partial victories, their triumphs soaked in melancholy. The reader, too, becomes complicit, craving an impossible synthesis. When the book ends, we don’t believe it; we reread the last line as if it might change.
In that act of rereading, I found something almost Derridean: the trace of desire that outlives fulfillment. Kezia’s happiness feels provisional, deferred to the next novel, the next life. Steel, perhaps unconsciously, invented seriality as ontology—the self continued through endless variations of itself. Every new protagonist will be a reincarnation of this first split subject, eternally seeking wholeness in mirrored rooms.
When I finally turned off the light, the city outside was waking. The IV pump clicked like Mozart's metronome marking time. I thought about how Steel’s so-called “escapist fiction” has always been about confinement—about women negotiating the architecture of expectation. To call it mere romance is to miss its subterranean politics. In Passion’s Promise, the love story is camouflage; beneath it, a revolution whispers.
I closed the book, but not the feeling. The corridors of Bellona smelled faintly of antiseptic and hope. I imagined Kezia walking beside me, unrecognizable in her hospital gown, laughing softly at the absurdity of survival. Perhaps that’s what Steel knew all along: that glamour is just the shimmer we cast over grief to make it bearable.
And somewhere in that shimmer, I found myself again—fractured, fevered, and still writing.
Gorge it guys. Wonderful stuff.
February 19, 2014
I am not big on romance novels but this book is unlike any romance novel I have ever read and will always be a favourite as well as being truly unforgettable!
September 18, 2023
This book sure didn't live up to it!
At first, I thought this would be one of the few Danielle Steele books I really liked (though they do make good miniseries), but then it sure disappointed me! I liked the whole thing with Kezia having that double life as a frivolous society columnist and a serious journalist, with all the aliases along the way. I understood her feeling she needed to break away from her gilded cage background, with all its unattractive baggage. It was also amusing the way society thought she and Whit were a couple, while it was just a ruse to hide his being gay. (The book was written in 1979, when it still wasn't so easy to come out.) I can't say I thought much of her using that young artist guy, since it seems he was really in love with her, but I figured I'd overlook that when Lucas, the ex-con radical fighting for prison reform came on the scene, and hence starts the H and h romance!
Or so it seemed! But then Ms. Steele decided to do a number on her readers which could have had an impact but turned out to be dud ammunition. She killed off the H and made the h have a HEA with the OM!
It so happens that I liked the OM better, as Alejandro was the kind I prefer. He's not the boring beta simp, willing to wait in the wings forever if only the h will glance his way, or the intrusive, controlling jerk, who thinks he knows what's best for the h, which - of course - is him. Instead, Alejandro (Lucas's friend) became a friend to Kezia, was there whenever she needed him (which was often), never overstepped bounds, and when it became clear he was falling for her, he never made any moves or tried to take her away from Lucas, even when his parole was revoked, and he went back to prison. And I was never crazy about Luke, who used the "f" word one time too many, called Kezia "Mama", and was a bit too radical for his own good.
(I also hated all the drinking everyone did, but that's just me.)
So, while I had no objection to a Kezia/Alejandro union, what bugged me was how fast it came about, as far as her feelings went. She was Lucas this, Lucas that, Lucas everything, couldn't seem to imagine her life without him, wanted to stay near the prison, even though he told her to stay away, etc. etc., then no sooner does she lose him to the grim Reaper, she decides it's Alejandro she's loved all along! (Altogether now: "WTF!!!!!!")
If that were the case, there should have been signs of an attraction there, that they were both fighting, especially when he spends more than one platonic night in her apartment. There was no quickening heartbeat, no spontaneous kiss, no subtle hints, nothing, just friendly advice, brotherly comfort and platonic outings. And we're supposed to believe that all of a sudden it hit her: SHE LOVES HIM!!!
Funny, she never once thought of Alejandro when she was in bed with Lucas!
GIVE ME A BREAK!!!
Also: what's with the snarks about Chicago? A "Sears and Roebuck" city??? More like the third largest city in the country, one of the "big three" (L.A., N.Y. and CHI). Hardly a hick town.
And that was rather a crummy comment, about women getting horny, then feeling guilty and crying rape! While I'm sure - human nature being what it is - that it's happened, I doubt very much it happened all that often, maybe 5% of all rape cases? In another of her early novels, Ms. Steele has a female character who makes a habit of accusing men of rape, and the H is sent to prison because of this, so I'm guessing she knows some guy who was falsely accused, and it's colored her outlook? Perhaps.
Okay, enough said!
At first, I thought this would be one of the few Danielle Steele books I really liked (though they do make good miniseries), but then it sure disappointed me! I liked the whole thing with Kezia having that double life as a frivolous society columnist and a serious journalist, with all the aliases along the way. I understood her feeling she needed to break away from her gilded cage background, with all its unattractive baggage. It was also amusing the way society thought she and Whit were a couple, while it was just a ruse to hide his being gay. (The book was written in 1979, when it still wasn't so easy to come out.) I can't say I thought much of her using that young artist guy, since it seems he was really in love with her, but I figured I'd overlook that when Lucas, the ex-con radical fighting for prison reform came on the scene, and hence starts the H and h romance!
Or so it seemed! But then Ms. Steele decided to do a number on her readers which could have had an impact but turned out to be dud ammunition. She killed off the H and made the h have a HEA with the OM!
It so happens that I liked the OM better, as Alejandro was the kind I prefer. He's not the boring beta simp, willing to wait in the wings forever if only the h will glance his way, or the intrusive, controlling jerk, who thinks he knows what's best for the h, which - of course - is him. Instead, Alejandro (Lucas's friend) became a friend to Kezia, was there whenever she needed him (which was often), never overstepped bounds, and when it became clear he was falling for her, he never made any moves or tried to take her away from Lucas, even when his parole was revoked, and he went back to prison. And I was never crazy about Luke, who used the "f" word one time too many, called Kezia "Mama", and was a bit too radical for his own good.
(I also hated all the drinking everyone did, but that's just me.)
So, while I had no objection to a Kezia/Alejandro union, what bugged me was how fast it came about, as far as her feelings went. She was Lucas this, Lucas that, Lucas everything, couldn't seem to imagine her life without him, wanted to stay near the prison, even though he told her to stay away, etc. etc., then no sooner does she lose him to the grim Reaper, she decides it's Alejandro she's loved all along! (Altogether now: "WTF!!!!!!")
If that were the case, there should have been signs of an attraction there, that they were both fighting, especially when he spends more than one platonic night in her apartment. There was no quickening heartbeat, no spontaneous kiss, no subtle hints, nothing, just friendly advice, brotherly comfort and platonic outings. And we're supposed to believe that all of a sudden it hit her: SHE LOVES HIM!!!
Funny, she never once thought of Alejandro when she was in bed with Lucas!
GIVE ME A BREAK!!!
Also: what's with the snarks about Chicago? A "Sears and Roebuck" city??? More like the third largest city in the country, one of the "big three" (L.A., N.Y. and CHI). Hardly a hick town.
And that was rather a crummy comment, about women getting horny, then feeling guilty and crying rape! While I'm sure - human nature being what it is - that it's happened, I doubt very much it happened all that often, maybe 5% of all rape cases? In another of her early novels, Ms. Steele has a female character who makes a habit of accusing men of rape, and the H is sent to prison because of this, so I'm guessing she knows some guy who was falsely accused, and it's colored her outlook? Perhaps.
Okay, enough said!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 25, 2019
Mi promedio de estrellas para este libro es 2.5, pero como todos sabemos acá hay que redondear y decidí hacerlo para arriba.
Estaba MUY entusiasmada por leer este libro, me pareció interesante la sinopsis y había leído tanto sobre la autora que pensé que ya era hora que lea algo escrito por ella. Por si no saben Danielle Steel escribe romance y yo soy fan del género. Pero después de haber leído este libro en particular no se si me dan ganas de leer más de ella.
Para seguir con la reseña, me meto más en detalle en lo que me pareció la historia y sus personajes...
-PERSONAJES:
En general me parecieron un poco planos y aburridos, muchos parece que van a ser importantes a lo largo de la historia pero terminan quedando en el olvido y siendo irrelevantes. Con algunos sentí que la autora los vendía con entusiasmo pero esa fuerza iba aflojando y terminaba siendo débil.
Puedo decir que los que realmente importan en esta historia son Kezia, Luke (o Lucas) y Alejandro. E igualmente de ellos hay cosas que no se aclaran, o que lo hacen muy vagamente. Kezia me pareció insoportable, es la típica mujer hermosa que todos quieren tener, de la que todos se enamoran (literalmente hablando), sentí un poco de empatía por ella pero igual no terminó de convencerme. Aunque sí tengo que decir que me gustó como terminó, dándose cuenta quien es realmente y aceptandose de esa manera.
Como dije antes, a mi me gusta el romance pero me pareció demasiado goloso de a momentos, pasaba algo y se tiraban un "... pero te amo" y es como que llegó un momento que me cansó al nivel de rodar los ojos cada vez que lo decían.
-DESARROLLO DEL LIBRO:
El comienzo del libro fue lo mejor, arranque leyendo a mil por hora, me gustaba, me parecía interesante. La idea de una it girl en New York (a lo Gossip Girl) que se enamora de un ex-convicto me entusiasmaba porque no había leído nada del estilo, pero cuanto más me adentraba en el libro menos me interesaba, me aburría, no podía concentrarme en lo que leía, aprovechaba cualquier excusa para no leer en absoluto. Se me hizo MUY largo para la historia que cuenta, me parece que hay partes que pudieron ser totalmente omitidas porque en mi opinión no suman a la historia. Y además de que se me hizo eterno, nunca terminé de engancharme, casi que no tenía problema en dejar una conversación a la mitad, lo que normalmente detesto hacer.
Las últimas 80 páginas se me hicieron interminables, por ahí había un par de cosas buenas que me enganchaban y leía rápido unas 10 hojas y después me volvía a trabar, pero necesitaba terminarlo y lo logré.
Por último, algo que quiero señalar es que no tiene elemento sorpresa, por lo menos yo me imaginé todo lo que pasó, me pareció flojo en eso porque con la idea general del libro la autora pudo haber planteado un montón de situaciones para dejarte speechless (sin palabras), pero no lo hizo. Aunque quiero remarcar que el autodescubrimiento de la protagonista hacia el final del libro, como mencioné antes, me gustó porque si hay algo importante es ser independientes, aceptarnos como somos realmente y querernos de esa manera, sacándonos el miedo al que podrán decir y dejando de lado las máscaras con las que finjimos ser quienes no somos para que los demás se sientan cómodos.
Estaba MUY entusiasmada por leer este libro, me pareció interesante la sinopsis y había leído tanto sobre la autora que pensé que ya era hora que lea algo escrito por ella. Por si no saben Danielle Steel escribe romance y yo soy fan del género. Pero después de haber leído este libro en particular no se si me dan ganas de leer más de ella.
Para seguir con la reseña, me meto más en detalle en lo que me pareció la historia y sus personajes...
-PERSONAJES:
En general me parecieron un poco planos y aburridos, muchos parece que van a ser importantes a lo largo de la historia pero terminan quedando en el olvido y siendo irrelevantes. Con algunos sentí que la autora los vendía con entusiasmo pero esa fuerza iba aflojando y terminaba siendo débil.
Puedo decir que los que realmente importan en esta historia son Kezia, Luke (o Lucas) y Alejandro. E igualmente de ellos hay cosas que no se aclaran, o que lo hacen muy vagamente. Kezia me pareció insoportable, es la típica mujer hermosa que todos quieren tener, de la que todos se enamoran (literalmente hablando), sentí un poco de empatía por ella pero igual no terminó de convencerme. Aunque sí tengo que decir que me gustó como terminó, dándose cuenta quien es realmente y aceptandose de esa manera.
Como dije antes, a mi me gusta el romance pero me pareció demasiado goloso de a momentos, pasaba algo y se tiraban un "... pero te amo" y es como que llegó un momento que me cansó al nivel de rodar los ojos cada vez que lo decían.
-DESARROLLO DEL LIBRO:
El comienzo del libro fue lo mejor, arranque leyendo a mil por hora, me gustaba, me parecía interesante. La idea de una it girl en New York (a lo Gossip Girl) que se enamora de un ex-convicto me entusiasmaba porque no había leído nada del estilo, pero cuanto más me adentraba en el libro menos me interesaba, me aburría, no podía concentrarme en lo que leía, aprovechaba cualquier excusa para no leer en absoluto. Se me hizo MUY largo para la historia que cuenta, me parece que hay partes que pudieron ser totalmente omitidas porque en mi opinión no suman a la historia. Y además de que se me hizo eterno, nunca terminé de engancharme, casi que no tenía problema en dejar una conversación a la mitad, lo que normalmente detesto hacer.
Las últimas 80 páginas se me hicieron interminables, por ahí había un par de cosas buenas que me enganchaban y leía rápido unas 10 hojas y después me volvía a trabar, pero necesitaba terminarlo y lo logré.
Por último, algo que quiero señalar es que no tiene elemento sorpresa, por lo menos yo me imaginé todo lo que pasó, me pareció flojo en eso porque con la idea general del libro la autora pudo haber planteado un montón de situaciones para dejarte speechless (sin palabras), pero no lo hizo. Aunque quiero remarcar que el autodescubrimiento de la protagonista hacia el final del libro, como mencioné antes, me gustó porque si hay algo importante es ser independientes, aceptarnos como somos realmente y querernos de esa manera, sacándonos el miedo al que podrán decir y dejando de lado las máscaras con las que finjimos ser quienes no somos para que los demás se sientan cómodos.
February 10, 2025
This book was originally published in 1985. I remember reading many Daniel Steel books back then and really enjoyed them. I don’t remember reading this one. At some point I stopped reading her books because, while they were a wonderful escape from my real life, eventually I grew tired of the “perfect” protagonist.
I read this book on Kindle for a new online book club The First Books Bookclub which is the brainchild of Sarah Stewart Holland of Pantsuit Politics Podcast. I learned about it in her Substack By Plane or by Page. Each quarter they are pairing a first book by a bestselling author in the past with a first book by a new author.
In true Daniel Steel style, Kezia is a perfect protagonist, rich, beautiful, intelligent and tortured. Kezia has it all and yet she is unhappy. When she does an interview with a handsome man who lives a life of purpose, even when that purpose could have fatal consequences, Kezia’s life is forever changed.
I had the same experience I used to have reading a Danielle Steel novel. I felt immersed in the story and did not want to do anything but find out what happened next.
It was so interesting reading this novel from today’s lense. My experience and rating of this book is vastly different today than it would have been if I had read it in 1985. I can understand why this was a bestseller back then. And while I am glad I read it, I must say that I like that many new romance novels go a bit deeper with characters that feel real and aren’t perfect.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
I read this book on Kindle for a new online book club The First Books Bookclub which is the brainchild of Sarah Stewart Holland of Pantsuit Politics Podcast. I learned about it in her Substack By Plane or by Page. Each quarter they are pairing a first book by a bestselling author in the past with a first book by a new author.
In true Daniel Steel style, Kezia is a perfect protagonist, rich, beautiful, intelligent and tortured. Kezia has it all and yet she is unhappy. When she does an interview with a handsome man who lives a life of purpose, even when that purpose could have fatal consequences, Kezia’s life is forever changed.
I had the same experience I used to have reading a Danielle Steel novel. I felt immersed in the story and did not want to do anything but find out what happened next.
It was so interesting reading this novel from today’s lense. My experience and rating of this book is vastly different today than it would have been if I had read it in 1985. I can understand why this was a bestseller back then. And while I am glad I read it, I must say that I like that many new romance novels go a bit deeper with characters that feel real and aren’t perfect.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
October 7, 2022
Not the typical Ms Steel novel, if the lady has one. However, it's plot was well veiled as you were led you were invited the world of the privileged. Sometimes we tend to forget that having money and opportunities bring their own burdens and expectations. These can then lead one to look cross the tracks to escape the pressure and experience life as it can be. In this novel you get to read about the hazards that this can bring.
You will also appreciate that decisions made when our living under one situation may create further choices that aren't so easy to make. Can you turn your back on commitments because the grass is greener and leave those you've helped behind.
I won't mention how the story ends, however, in a world were social media, peer pressure, and cultural expectations tend to dictate if not influence the decisions we make it's not surprising it pans out the way it does.
You will also appreciate that decisions made when our living under one situation may create further choices that aren't so easy to make. Can you turn your back on commitments because the grass is greener and leave those you've helped behind.
I won't mention how the story ends, however, in a world were social media, peer pressure, and cultural expectations tend to dictate if not influence the decisions we make it's not surprising it pans out the way it does.
February 26, 2021
I really hate that the main character Kezia became a whiny needy woman when she got involved with Lucas Johns. I also didn't like the fact that she kind of turned into her mother by becoming a drunk and almost killing herself. I thought that if you saw someone go through that in your life you definitely would not want to repeat it and you would take that on as a life lesson especially since she watched one of her good friends Tiffany go through the same thing and then commit suicide as well. However I did like the fact that she became her own person and decided to not do what was expected of her given she was an heiress. I also didn't really care for the fact that they let us to believe at the end that she was going to try to have a relationship with Alejandro.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 27, 2018
not Steel's best by any means. While I was intrigued by all the places the character went, I found this novel lacking depth. She just travels from party to party, restaurant to restaurant and club to club for the first third of the book, possibly more, gathering information for "the column." I found the pairing of her and Johns to be unlikely in her elite set and while it was sweet in concept, I didn't find it believable. the best part of this book is all the traveling and fashion that are mentioned and the way the main character parodies it and the materialistic set that "must have a pair of gucci" Other than that, it was a bore.
March 10, 2020
First I will start off with what I didn’t like about this book. I thought Edward was a controlling old pervert that was in love with someone half his age. I felt that when Kezia didn’t see things and do things his way, he threw a childish little tantrum. I also thought that Lucas was full of himself. I didn’t like him either.
What I did like about the book is how Kezia found herself. She didn’t like the rich fancy party scene and just wanted to be herself and the fact that she did it against Edward’s best judgement made me happy for her.
All in all a very good book. I liked it very much
What I did like about the book is how Kezia found herself. She didn’t like the rich fancy party scene and just wanted to be herself and the fact that she did it against Edward’s best judgement made me happy for her.
All in all a very good book. I liked it very much
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 19, 2022
Promessa d'amore è una promessa che la protagonista fa a sé stessa. Per nulla classificabile come un Romance è invece una storia drammatica con risvolti positivi per tutti, o quasi, i personaggi. La massima di questo romanzo potrebbe essere "Chi cerca, trova": un crescendo di emozioni che Kezia, la protagonista, vive nella sua tormentata vita col passare da uno stile finto, egoistico, a uno veritiero, magari scomodo, ma che finalmente rivela una felicità cercata per tanto tempo. In definitiva, una romanzo di crescita con un finale per nulla scontato.
February 13, 2023
Amazing
I loved Passion's Promise. It was amazing. It is the only word for me to describe it. At first, I thought this was going to be a light book - but it's a lot like life with happy times, sad times, twists, and turns. Sometimes, in a novel, you think you know where the story will take you. However, Passion's promise is anything BUT predictable. I loved the characters and locations - the pacing of the story and the surprises along the way. I will definitely reread this novel again. I could not put this book down. Read this novel. You won't be disappointed.
I loved Passion's Promise. It was amazing. It is the only word for me to describe it. At first, I thought this was going to be a light book - but it's a lot like life with happy times, sad times, twists, and turns. Sometimes, in a novel, you think you know where the story will take you. However, Passion's promise is anything BUT predictable. I loved the characters and locations - the pacing of the story and the surprises along the way. I will definitely reread this novel again. I could not put this book down. Read this novel. You won't be disappointed.
November 24, 2022
I've chosen to read Danielle Steel books starting with her first books, and this was book #2. The best thing I can say about this one is that it is better than Going Home, the first book, which wasn't good at all. I'm hoping that the next one takes another step forward. I admire her commitment to writing, and I know millions love her books -- so I think she must be improving book by book. Next is book #3, Now and Forever.
July 29, 2023
In this book, the protagonist Kezia, a wealthy and discontented individual, meets Luke, who advocates for the abolition of the prison system. They quickly fall in love, but Luke is eventually sent back to jail and is murdered by another inmate. Kezia spirals into alcoholism and when she learns of Luke's death, she confesses her love to his friend Alejandro, who reciprocates her feelings.
This book is fucking trash lol
This book is fucking trash lol
February 8, 2021
It was an ok book. At first I didn't like it, but I quickly grew to like the characters. At some points I was annoyed by some of the different things that the characters would say or do, but overall it was an interesting story that would be horrible if it actually happened in reality. It was a 3.5 out of 5 in my opinion.
July 7, 2021
Honestly I got bored! There were just bits of this book that didn’t need so many words! I think she was trying to push the social divide too hard yes we get how rich and famous she is and how he’s so not! Plus we saw the budding romance coming at the end!
Still with an auth so huge you expect a few bumps in the road!
Still with an auth so huge you expect a few bumps in the road!
May 7, 2022
I actually enjoyed this Story and found myself not wanting to look up from it or put it down. Definitely a page Turner, suspenseful and emotional. Characters that you get attached to and a heartbreaking bittersweet ending. To anyone wondering if Steel has any novels Worth reading, definitely Read THIS one!
August 25, 2024
I began reading the novel thinking that it was going to be just the typical DS’s book about looks, money and very shallow. But I was wrong, I ended up becoming fond of the main character, Kezia, and the ending was quite unexpected. I recommend its reading if you want to entertain yourself and free your mind.
December 1, 2024
Even the rich and famous don't have it easy. The constant paparazzi in your face that you can't lead a normal life, and to step away from the norm comes with lots of ridicule - like falling in love with an ex-con.
Two very different lives crossed paths merely by chance, and this kept the story interesting of what was going to unfold next.
Two very different lives crossed paths merely by chance, and this kept the story interesting of what was going to unfold next.
February 21, 2025
Kezia had a victim mindset through and through. Which is a book killer for me when it’s the main protagonist. I saw very little character development in her. Lucas Johns seemed like a macho-man creep from day one (HE FOLLOWED HER ONTO A PLANE AFTER THEIR FIRST MEETING?!?).
Alejandro wasn’t awful as a character but his story line sucked for him - let the man have a win dang it (not with Kezia though, she was awful).
Alejandro wasn’t awful as a character but his story line sucked for him - let the man have a win dang it (not with Kezia though, she was awful).
July 18, 2025
I enjoyed reading Daniel Steele's books when they came out in the 80's and just drifted away from her as life got busier. Now an empty nester I am rereading them before I catch up on those I have missed. I am so glad I did because this book was still just as enjoyable as it was then with characters that just grab your attention and hold it. I definitely recommend reading it.
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