Irresistible Forces

by Danielle Steel

Danielle Steel's forty-seventh bestselling novel is very much about the tides of our times, changes and responsibilities in the workplace pull two people in different directions, sweeping them into new lives and changed worlds...

Irresistible Forces

For fourteen years, Steve and Meredith Whitman have sustained a marriage of passion and friendship--despite the demands of two all-consuming careers.  Meredith, an investment banker, has achieved partnership in one of Wall Street's top firms.  Steve, a gifted physician, chose an urban trauma ward over the big money he could have earned elsewhere.  The only thing missing in their lives is children.  Steve longs for them.  But Meredith keeps putting off motherhood, saying she isn't ready and doesn't have time.  Not yet.  Especially now that she has been offered an extraordinary opportunity, a chance to reach for the brass ring--in San Francisco, three thousand miles away.  Meredith is thrilled and surprised when Steve urges her to accept a top position at an exciting young high-tech company.  Traditionally, men's careers forces families to move to new cities, compelling their wives to abandon friends, home, and lives to follow.  But Steve is more than willing to uproot himself. Saying he'll join her as he can find a new job himself, they can begin their family at last.

Neither Steve nor Meredith had reckoned on the frustrations of a bi-coastal marriage, as Steve's job keeps him in New York for months longer than planned.  Weekends together, their lifeline, fall prey to their hectic schedules.  Alone in San Francisco, Meredith is spending long hours at the office with her boss, charismatic entrepreneur Callan Dow.  Steve working late shifts at the hospital, grabbing an occasional dinner with a new colleague, a doctor raising a daughter on her own.  Almost unnoticed, Steve and Meredith have begun living separate lives in increasingly separate worlds.  And despite the best of intentions, irresistible forces begin to tear their lives and hearts apart.

With unerring insight, Danielle Steel explores what happens when lives that fit together like delicately balanced puzzles are shifted, changed, and drift apart.  Only time can tell who and what they will become as life sweeps them onward and deposits them on new, sometimes frightening, and often exciting shores.  Who survives, is at the core of Irresistible Forces.

>From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, Novels, Chick Lit, Ebooks, Adult

400 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Danielle 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.

Facebook.com/DanielleSteelOfficial
Instagram: @officialdaniellesteel

Reviews

[Suzzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good. A light, easy read that was quick and not big on intensity but still told a good story. The characters and the plots were entertaining enough to keep readers engaged and somehow even though this is a book about betrayal in marriage, the characters do no generally come off as intolerable to read about. Well done there by Steel. Easy, quick read.

[Mona · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have read quite a few Danielle Steels over the years and this one is a real disappointment plot-wise and character-wise. A couple well in love suddenly fall out of love, nothing to it. This book is pure fiction and fictitious. The author has tried too much and too hard to show that a marriage can break up by simple will of destiny without one of the spouses being necessarily wrong or at least more wrong than the other. All of the characters have been made out to be too likeable. People are flawed and they should be. Trying to pretend otherwise (or rather attempting to explain the behaviours of everyone so that the reader can relate) makes a pretty boring story.
I personally liked Steve (I mean who wouldn't) but even he gets boring. Too much perfect kills perfect. Cooking, doing the laundry, trying to talk his wife into having a baby for 14 years and agreeing and even persuading his wife to go after her dream job at the expense of his own..seriously?? And one thing that bothered me throughout and would have killed the book for me if it hadn't obligingly committed suicide: Why would the second in command in the trauma units of one of the best hospitals in NY get so little money?? And even if he does, why does Steel has to rehearse it every time you turn the page? I got it first time round, thank you very much. The book overall is kind of insulting to the common reader's intelligence. It tells you the same things over and over again.
This being said, a book I enjoyed by Steel was Message From Nam.

[Catalina Méndez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro que te deja unos pésimos valores, los personajes se mienten, no dejan saber lo que realmente piensan cuando simplemente conversando se arreglan las cosas, jamás supieron porque se alejaron ambos, ya que prefieren no decir cosas que los dejen mal, me parece raro que tras 15 años de matrimonio no hayan tenido la confianza para decirse las cosas y fingir que son perfectos cuando obviamente no lo son.

Todos los personajes tienen muy pocos valores, promueven la infidelidad y les parece raro que una mujer no quiera tener hijos, es más, convencen a una mujer de que ella no es que no quiera tener hijos, sino que no encuentra a la persona correcta para tener hijos, porque claro ¿esa es su función como mujer no? y lo que más me sorprende es que ella cree pensar que es con esta persona (que le sugiere esto) con quién quiere en definitiva convertirse en madre, un hombre “ejemplar” que vive hablando mal de la madre de sus hijos, y de las mujeres.

No sé qué estaba pensando Danielle al momento de escribir esto, pero está muy bien escrito solo que la historia me dejó de mal humor y me dejo cuestionando el por qué normalizan la infidelidad ya que siento que así la están promoviendo, como si fuese lo más normal del mundo ser infiel y no contar nada, ósea puedes contagiar de enfermedades, virus a tu pareja, pero no pasa nada! mejor no les dices nada y ya está, asunto solucionado, qué horrible ejemplo deja este libro.

[Mar · Rating 2 out of 5]

-Adult
-Contemporary
-Fiction
-Romance
-a "perfect" marriage falls in love with other people because of the distance in their relationship due to their jobs, basically
-Personally, it seems strange to me that distance was not a problem for them to be happy and suddenly it began to be. That is loss of interest. It seemed that Steel just wanted to justify infidelity
-the characters were half ominous, especially the protagonist who says she doesn't know what she wants and still proceeds to make impulsive decisions
-The plot sticks around to the same thing, repetitive, boring, slow
-The relationship between the characters is sorta cliche? Nothing too exciting about it. just a couple of talking about themselves (not even that much), sex, and uh… yeah.
-The romance was kinda forced, very predictable ofc, and it wasn’t that outstanding. it’s supposed to be a “slow-burn” but everything seems so rushed still
-“You’re the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time, Meredith. And I hope you know that.”
-Plot twists/😱Moments: 0/5
-Characters: 2/5
-Plot: 2/5

[The Cats’ Mother · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was about 4 times as long as it needed to be for the story, because she basically kept repeating the same 3 facts over and over: Steve and Meredith are happily married and love each other lots. They both work too hard - he as a trauma surgeon, she as an investment banker. He wants a baby, she's not sure. Getting to this point took up the first half of the book, then we discover what happens when she has to move away for a great new job, he gets left behind, and they both meet other people. It got interesting towards the end, trying to work out how it would all pan out - the characters are likable enough and you want them to have a happy ending, but I'm not sure it was worth reading just for this and I won't be in a hurry to read any more of hers.

[Phaedra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical Danielle Steele blueprint but rather enjoyable. A good quick read "in between" novels.

[Bonnies4winns · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like this book. She repeated herself too much.

[Bai · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fair warning: This is more of a rant than a review, so people who liked the book should stay away. Also I didn't tag this review as a 'spoiler' because in my opinion, this book can not have a spoiler. To have a spoiler, one needs to have a story first. However if you are unsure, do not read on.

Irresistible Forces. Where do I start? At the outset, let me mention I had never read Steel before but had heard good things about the author. And well, this book started out well enough. The first few pages with the shootout at Harlem, the introduction of Dr. Steve Whitman - all plus points. And then it went down hill. Fast.

For 50 pages we get the same monotonous drivel. Steve is good. Meredith is hot. Both are busy. They are deeply in love. We get it already! Enough!!

There are exactly four characters in this book, the rest are all here for cameos. Not to mention the fourth character is introduced well after half-time. I was convinced Steve, Merrie and Cal were all the writer's imagination could muster up, not that they were particularly good imaginative products. Made in the same mould, they are all handsome, busy, career-oriented and mind-numbingly-boring.

None of them 'like' cheating. They are perfect. They abhor cheating. And then they cheat. All of them! For heaven's sake, it's seven months! How lonely can you get? The first 50 or so pages were spent telling us how little time you had with each other. How is this ANY different?

And then comes Cal. It's painfully obvious the character is supposed to be 'oozing charm and sex', and it's equally obvious he's not. I can write pages on his annoying attitude.

Merrie if you don't want children it's because you don't love your husband

Uhh sexist much? Sometimes I want to throw something at him. You have a lying cheating ex-wife, why would you seduce another married woman? And you couldn't help it isn't an answer. You have a brain man, supposedly. Use it.

The company's CFO Charlie was there just to make Cal look better by comparison, and to create a job opening for Meredith, just like Steve's boss was there...actually no he wasn't. He had two lines maybe. Cameos, remember?

And for a couple in their forties, they have surprisingly few friends. And by few, I mean none. Zero. Nada. Yes, I get they are busy but come on, none? A college roommate, a colleague they are friendly with (and did not sleep with), a childhood friend? Anyone? But then again how could they? If they did, said friend could have pointed out WHAT MORONS THE CHARACTERS ARE and the whole story could have been avoided.

Character development is not something the author figures is necessary. Pace? Forget fast, sometimes I wondered if we were going backwards. You remember the summary talked about a 'move'? That happens at page 225...in a 400 paged book. After 50% is over! As a joke, I decided to skip 50 pages and see if I could immediately pinpoint what was going on. I could. It's not even funny.

Research may also not have been a strong suit. Because apparently doctors are dirt poor in NYC. Assistant head of the best trauma unit in the city is dirt poor. Was this supposed to be a joke? Just Read

Anna was the only character I even remotely liked, and Steve's whiny internal monologue even nearly ruined that. Incidentally, Anna is the least-seen character and is only introduced after 250 pages. I think the less-seeing may have helped with the liking part.

This book was an agony to get through. In total, I probably liked 10 pages. And the only thing I actually liked about this book - the issue of it being completely fine if a woman did not want to have a kid, the author even killed that in the end! Just torture.

I wouldn't recommend it at all, but then again the friend who recommended it to me loved it. So I guess, to each his own... UPDATE: Turns out she was just messing with me. This is crap. I wouldn't recommend it. Period.

[Jacky · Rating 1 out of 5]

I decided at age 27 to read my first romance novel. This was it. To be frank, it was a horrible waste of life. If you want to bore yourself to death, read this book. The writing is not interesting, the characters are contrived and the book was about 300 pages too long with a plotline that I could have come up with at age 13.

[Fransisca Sidabutar · Rating 1 out of 5]

this is a book about lust, not love!! This book legitimize couple to be unfaithful as long as they were not love each other again.

[Lucinda07 · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this book only started getting good 200 pages in. First half of this book was incredibly boring but the last half was amazing! I loved reading it. I wish there was a second book to explain more (but a lot shorter)

[Parth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, "Irresistible Forces" isn't the kind of novel you admit that you have read and especially when you are a guy. But, oh boy, I did.

I just picked this novel out of nowhere and realised later that Danielle Steel is the best selling living author alive. An impressive achievement, so why not go reading her book...

This book is a cliché and so verbose. Half of the novel is about Meredith and her boss Cal having a dinner, taking fancy trips or Steve doing surgery. This book is a drudge to read. While it may raise an important question of marriage and its tangibility- its treated in an extremely flippant manner and you barely care for the characters by the time this book is over.

I am not picking up a Danielle Steel book again--she is unfortunately a writer whose writing you want to resist.

[Hodan (Ho.th.an) Jama · Rating 2 out of 5]

what the hell was that??!?!?!?!, everyone lived happily ever after!!!! Callan Dow was such a TOOL and a total narcissist!! and i wanted to kill Meredith 99.999% of the time! they acted like Steve was a janitor (not that there is anything wrong with that)or a low life not a gd DOCTOR!!! Callan always looked like a model from a GQ ad, everyday with his suits and sport jackets, i don't want that and i don't think it's normal!!!! whats wrong with a guy in jeans and a t-shirt on the weekend or his off time? i think a guy who's always dressed up like a GQ model should be hospitalized!!!!!

and the ending, there was not ending i thought i lose some of the pages at the end of the book,he got shot and that was it, how does it end like that?
i wish i could get back the day i lost reading this book :(
this was my first and LAST Danielle Steel book!!! never ever again! i would rather watch 1hur of the Hills (i can't stand 1min so 1hur would kill me)than read anything by this author ever again! the entire book had no details, there was no inside to any of the characters just Meredith, i wanted to kill myself at one point and i fell like i should go back to the bookstore i bought it from and demand my money back!

[Flibertigib · Rating 1 out of 5]

my feeling about having read this book is similar to the existentialist entropy experienced when i find myself in the checkout line at a grocery store staring at magazine covers. i.e., something in my soul died a little, and i certainly lost a few brain cells.

but what do you do when you're working at a home and desperate to kill time anyway you can and this was the only thing to read.

bad writing. everything spelled correctly, but it was badly proofread, redundant word choices, definitely needed editing, and the worst part of the writing was how thru the entire book mz steel told, rather than showed. worst writing tells about an experience, the best writing has the reader live the experiences by showing it to them 1st-hand. the writing was insipid, banal, hackneyed, and offered nothing. and the banality of the book wasn't even balanced out by a decent sex scene. wtf?

[Muamer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't write reviews quite often but for this book it had to be done, first of all, this was my first and LAST Danielle Steel book, no way I'll read anything from her ever again. When you finish with this book just burn it! The first half of the book is how much the wife loves her husband, her soulmate of 15 years of marriage. In second part she fucks her boss and suddenly, the boss is her instant soulmate. I call this book a pile of bullshit. This book is about lust not love. Meridith is a total cunt, you can't compare a doctor who saves lives and Mr. Fancy Pants who goes from one meeting to another. I wanted to stop reading this book after first 200 pages but I simply wanted to see what happens with Steve. Despite the fact that he cheated his "wife" and I don't approve what he has done, I am glad he finally got a decent partner.

[Maryann · Rating 1 out of 5]

absolute crap. I didnt finish this. If you want to read a book about a woman saying she loved her husband and "Im married" likes its some sort of superfluous label until you feel like peeling it off, this is the book for you. Main girl, Merri thinks shes in love with her husband even though she doesnt want his kids and puts her job first, husband steve is also fooled. Both fall for someone else, cheat on each other...and thats as far as I got. Good luck to other readers, some might actually enjoy it. Im never reading another Danielle STeel book again

[Anja · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was really cute and fun story. It wasn't so much about the plot, but it was about the characters and their thoughts, feelings, behavings. I was a little bit disapointed with the end, it was kinda expected, but, again, it's not about the story. The writing was excellent and that's the main reason for high rating, atleast in my opinion.

[Simin Yadegar · Rating 3 out of 5]

مری و استیو زن و شوهر و عاشق یکدیگرند . مری کارشناس بورس و استیو جراح است آنها به شدت درگیر کارهستند به نحویکه بندرت برای با هم بودن و تفریح و سرگرمی وقت دارند اما ازآنجا که به علایق یکدیگر احترام می گذارند و درک متقابلی از حرفه هم دارند این مسئله برای آنان مشکلی ایجاد نمی کند و از عشقشان به یکدیگر نمی کاهد . اما با تغییر شغل و محل کار مری وضعیت زندگیشان دگر گون می شود ...

[Alina Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok. This actually hit a raw nerve with me. That even the strongest of marriage can wind up in hell. That sometimes, the strangest things happen for a reason and that it's better to have loads in common than opposites attract because it will finally catch up with you......

[Alex (Alex's Version) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was about 4 times as long as it needed to be for the story, because she basically kept repeating the same 3 facts over and over.. Steve and Meredith are happily married and they fuck each-other like rabbits...

I personally Loved Steve (I mean who wouldn't) but even he gets boring. Too much perfect kills perfect. Cooking, doing the laundry, trying to talk his wife into having a baby for 14 years and agreeing and even persuading his wife to go after her dream job at the expense of his own..seriously?? Where are the Steve's in my life?
For 50 pages we get the same monotonous drivel. Steve is good. Meredith is hot. Both are busy. They are deeply in love. We get it already! Enough!!

There are exactly four characters in this book, the rest are all here for cameos. Not to mention the fourth character is introduced well after half-time. I was convinced Steve, Merrie and Cal were all the writer's imagination could muster up, not that they were particularly good imaginative products. Made in the same mould, they are all handsome, busy, career-oriented and mind-numbingly-boring.

None of them 'like' cheating. They are perfect. They abhor cheating. And then they cheat. All of them! For heaven's sake, it's seven months! How lonely can you get? The first 50 or so pages were spent telling us how little time you had with each other. How is this ANY different?

And then comes Cal. It's painfully obvious the character is supposed to be 'oozing charm and sex', and it's equally obvious he's not. I can write pages on his annoying attitude.

Merrie if you don't want children it's because you don't love your husband

Uhh sexist much? Sometimes I want to throw something at him. You have a lying cheating ex-wife, why would you seduce another married woman? And you couldn't help it isn't an answer. You have a brain man, supposedly. Use it.

The company's CFO Charlie was there just to make Cal look better by comparison, and to create a job opening for Meredith, just like Steve's boss was there...actually no he wasn't. He had two lines maybe. Cameos, remember?

And for a couple in their forties, they have surprisingly few friends. And by few, I mean none. Zero. Nada. Yes, I get they are busy but come on, none? A college roommate, a colleague they are friendly with (and did not sleep with), a childhood friend? Anyone? But then again how could they? If they did, said friend could have pointed out WHAT MORONS THE CHARACTERS ARE and the whole story could have been avoided.

Character development is not something the author figures is necessary. Pace? Forget fast, sometimes I wondered if we were going backwards. You remember the summary talked about a 'move'? That happens at page 225...in a 400 paged book. After 50% is over! As a joke, I decided to skip 50 pages and see if I could immediately pinpoint what was going on. I could. It's not even funny.

Research may also not have been a strong suit. Because apparently doctors are dirt poor in NYC. Assistant head of the best trauma unit in the city is dirt poor. Was this supposed to be a joke? Just Read

Anna was the only character I even remotely liked, and Steve's whiny internal monologue even nearly ruined that. Incidentally, Anna is the least-seen character and is only introduced after 250 pages. I think the less-seeing may have helped with the liking part.

This book was an agony to get through. In total, I probably liked 10 pages. And the only thing I actually liked about this book - the issue of it being completely fine if a woman did not want to have a kid, the author even killed that in the end! Just torture.

[Guada · Rating 1 out of 5]

SIN ÁNIMOS DE EXAGERAR, ESTE ES EL PEOR LIBRO QUE LEÍ EN TODA MI VIDA. Nada de lo que pasa tiene sentido. NADA. Meredith se la pasa hablando de lo mucho que ama a Steve y de que es perfecto (195 páginas, las conté) para después, absolutamente de la nada, enamorarse de su jefe??? Y no solo eso, sino que también se la pasó diciendo que NUNCA en su vida iba a querer tener hijos porque no creía que iba a ser buena madre que pin que pan y cuando se besa con Callan.... CHAN. QUIERE TENER HIJOS SUYOS????? Decidite trola de mierda O QUERES LOS HIJOS O NO LOS QUERES. Otra, el "romance" entre Steve y Ana, UNA FARSA. Todo el tiempo dicen que son re buenos amigos y después los tenes cogiendo como si fuese lo más normal del mundo. Ambas relaciones me parecieron híper forzadas y no hay nada que pueda salvarlas porque son ridículas por donde las mires. Estoy llena de bronca mientras escribo esto y destruyo el teclado PERO QUÉ LIBRO MÁS PORONGA. No puedo creer que desperdicié horas de mi vida leyendo esta mierda. Y ENCIMA parece que la escritora está empeñada en hacer que sus personajes femeninos estén con hombres que les llevan MÁS DE OCHO O DIEZ AÑOS. EN QUÉ CABEZA????? O sea dale una vez oka por qué no, pero en este libro se volvió a repetir Y EN LAS DOS RELACIONES? Escuchame flacaaaaaaaaaaa. Horrible por donde lo mire. No tengo una cosa buena que decir sobre esto. Que se terminó capaz, pero hasta eso me hace enojar.
Bueno y conclusión: nunca más voy a leer un libro de esta mina porque son todos igual de poronga. No sé cómo vende tanto si siguen todos el mismo hilo: desarrollo de personaje inexistente y una diferencia de edad bastannnte notoria. Si fuese que el romance es lindo, bueeeno pero no. Nada. Todo una verga. Nada más para decir, solamente que quiero pegarle una trompada a la pantalla de la computadora. GRACIAS POR NADA DANIELLE STEEL !!!!!!!!!!

[Liza · Rating 1 out of 5]

My mother in law seemed so excited when she gave me this book. The author is not one that I enjoy reading but I graciously accepted her gift (I suspect it was pulled off the shelf at the senior center and her girlfriends declared it a must read). I hope that is the case because it is about the collapse of a good marriage partly because the wife didn't want kids. I hope she wasn't trying to warn me in order to get grandkids. I never knew her to read a book, so I think I am reading too much into this.

[Carina Carvalho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vários anos sem ler Danielle Steel, aproveitei o facto de ter de ler um livro com a palavra força e lá encontrei um dela para ler. Ficou um pouco aquém do que me lembro dos livros dela. Demorou muito tempo a desenvolver mas gostei muito do final. Mais valia ter explorado mais o final e não ter demorado tanto a lá chegar.

[Lynda Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a simple holiday read.
What a lovely love story with an equally lovely ending.

[Isabel · Rating 2 out of 5]

pfpfpf al principio bastante sin mas, muy repetitivo, luego se pone intenso pero demasiado cliché

[Kris · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was the 17th Danielle Steel book I've read. It also is the 2nd book in her collection that I just couldn't get through. I didn't mind reading about Steve, I understood him and his job, but Meredith bored me. Maybe it's because I don't really know what an investment banker does, but I found I didn't understand her job. So sorry Danielle, this one was no good.

[debbie lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read!

One of Danielle's finest works! So good you never want to put your book down, and you don't want the story line to end......just go on and on. Wishing there was a part two so the character s could continue to grow.....

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was ok. not a great steele novel. husband and wife are separated by their jobs and try to save their marriage while meeting other possible romances.

[Debbie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was purely dreadful. In typical Danielle Steel style, it was annoyingly repetitive, poorly written, and so very boring. Except for the fact that she writes about dreadful characters and seems to want to depress her readers, I think a better audience for her writing style would be children with short attention spans who need to have things repeated to them over and over again.

With her poor storytelling skills, the attempt to make these adulterous characters have happy endings that they didn’t deserve fell short. By the end, I was just angry and annoyed, which isn’t what any decent author should want for their readers. I apologize if my revealing that the characters are adulterous is a spoiler, but I promise that the story and poor writing is so transparent that you arrive at the conclusion very early in the book on your own, far before the author ever leads you there at a sleepy pace.

At a single star, this isn’t even my least favorite Steel novel. I recently ripped the pages out of one when I finished, just so no one would have to be subjected to it. I’ll leave this one in the book box. Who knows, maybe others are interested in reading about shallow characters with no moral compass. Me, I’m just glad I only have one last Steel book in my stack.

Maybe I’ve been reading too many well written novels lately, but it is beyond me how Steel is a best-selling author. My guess is that most of the high stars on her books are paid reviews or just fake because she’s a horrible storyteller, her writing style is so boring, and I am so over her cliche sayings and phrases that mean nothing in the realm of the story. Apparently she’s only ever visited four places in her life because she writes about them over and over again. Even Nicholas Sparks picks a new town, even if he does always write about eastern North Carolina.

One last thing that really bothered me about this story. How is it that a surgeon who is 2nd in command in a large trauma unit in NYC makes no money. She repeats this over and over, and I just don’t understand that one. I don’t think it is true and it added nothing to the story, so I’m not sure why she made such a big deal about it. I’m just glad this book is over. Don’t waste your time on it.

[Bailey Jones · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is more of a rant than a review, so I’m very sorry: I have read a few Danielle Steel books, and I normally like them, but this one was rough. Not only was the story repetitive, but it made me uncomfortable to read. As someone who just got married, does not really thrive off of drama, and really values trust, this book was not personally for me. I would understand the appeal if the reader was single, into open relationships, and/or very into drama and gossip, but none of those are me, and I had a poor experience reading this book.

(SPOILER), on that note: the main girl cheated on her husband with a guy who, in my opinion, exhibits peer pressure at its finest. And the guy’s kind of a titty baby. That rubs me the wrong way as is. And then in the middle of the story, her husband cheats on her with a girl he barely knows? That was unnecessary—I honestly liked the husband way more than the wife, and I feel like they would have ended up divorced either way if that plotline where the husband cheated didn’t exist.

Despite all this, I will say that one positive thing this book helped me do was reiterate the value of my marriage and relationship with my husband. I am so thankful to be married to a guy who is understanding, caring, hardworking, faithful, and so much more.

Overall, I was not really impressed with the plot or character development. Why portray this married couple as “perfect,” “sexy,” “hot,” and all this other stuff for 1/3 of the book just to have them end up cheating on each other?

If I were to recommend any Danielle Steel books, personally, I really enjoyed The Ring and Legacy. :)

Sorry this review/rant was so long—if you read the whole thing, you’re a trooper!!