Customer Rating:      Summary: This Author No Longer Earns Her Fat Paychecks! Comment: It saddens me to say, but the phenomenal author formerly known as Danielle Steel no longer exists. She has hit rock bottom, although imo it would take just ONE quality, impressive novel to restore her former glory, with the condition that she CONTINUE to put out quality over quantity. The plot was interesting enough, but I must agree with other reviews in the fact that her writing has become atrociously elementary, repetitive and laughably unresearched. It shocks me that reputable publishing companies will put material like this out based on a "brand name", while truly magnificent material from thousands of would be/should be authors gets tossed to the trash heap before they even get a fair review. Before reading this book I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it couldn't be any worse than 'Bungalow 2'. I was right in that assumption, but not by much. My advice to DS fans is check your local library before parting sight unseen with your hard earned dollars. My advice to Steel is fire your editor and take a refresher course in writing 101. What do you expect when you churn out novels at an assembly line pace? Read your reviews and it will become crystal clear that the majority of your fans DON'T appreciate quantity over quality and are liable to desert you in droves if it continues. It appears as if you're sacrificing your God given talent as a writer for the almighty buck, and I, for one, don't appreciate being ripped off.
Customer Rating:      Summary: A page turner at Danielle Steele's best !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Comment: I really enjoyed this book, it started good from the start . It continued on at a slower pace but you have to acquire a taste for the character and all involved . People who suffer from amnesia has to go through this process to try and remember stuff from their life , so i dont think it was repetive that she loved her ex husband like a brother , she just did not remember much details about her previous life with him . Overall it was a good summer read , and i enjoyed it during my vacation . I would still recommend Danielle Steele's novels . I am an avis fan of hers for over twenty years . Keep up the good work , and dont mind these negative reviewers they have personal issues .
Customer Rating:      Summary: blah, blah, blah Comment: Honor Thyself is the story of Carole (already forgotten her last name!), a Hollywood actress who is taking time off from the big screen to write a novel. She has a case of writers block and decides to take a trip to Paris to "find herself" so she can complete her book and go back to acting. On her first day in Paris she is in a victim of a terrorist attack that leaves her unconscious and unclaimed in the hospital. Once her ex-husband finds her, he, their two children and her assistant rush to her bedside. Carole comes out of her coma only to have amnesia. The rest of the story details her recovery.
Honor Thyself is a poorly written book. Commas are everywhere and I would guess the majority of sentences are seven words or less. Some of the storyline left me shaking my head. Guards with machine guns in hand walking beside the wheelchair when Carole's dismissed from the hospital and then she's traisping all over Paris with her old boyfriend while the same machine gun-toting guards are in the car behind them or walking at a distance to afford them privacy??? Come on Ms.Steel, write something the reader can believe. I know it's fiction but this was quite a stretch. I kind of like my fiction to be believable. And how many times do we read that Carole loves her ex-husband as a brother. What??? Does one really love someone they were married to and had two children with as a brother?
Honor Thyself is just more of the same from Danielle Steel. I honestly don't know why I keep reading her books. Thank goodness I get them from the library now and don't waste my hard-earned money on them. I guess I'm hoping that the newest DS novel will be like the great can't-put-them-down books she used to write. How disappointed I am each time! I have wondered why her books have been so bad lately and I happened to see the same interview as mentioned earlier. My advice to Ms. Steel is to quit writing five books at one time and just concentrate on one. Honor Thyself Ms. Steel and maybe then your readers won't be so disappointed.
Customer Rating:      Summary: So-so read, story line similar to many of her other books Comment: I found the script to be reminiscent of the repetitiveness found in many of her other books. The book could have been easily abridged without the loss of any content. I noted many sentences that were incorrectly structured and/or contained poor grammar.
One of the themes in the book (very wealthy and important woman meets very wealthy and important married man)is recurrent. I find it rather disconcerting that in many of the books I have read, she seems to promote extra-marital relationships as healthy and normal (the fault resting on an unloving spouse, thus justifying the new, blissful relationship). I find it hard to identify with/sympathize with a woman who falls in love with a married man and is hurt when he won't leave his wife for her. I would like to see more books about "ordinary" "boy meets girl" who marry and stay married through sickness, financial difficulties, marriage problems, disasters... the stuff with which most of us can identify.
As a medical professional, I was incredulous with regards to the lack of accuracy in the details surrounding Carol's brain injury and recovery. They are not believable and are technically incorrect, such as the effects of an injury to the brain stem, the process of removing her from the ventilator (not "respirator" as it is referred to in the book), etc. The post-injury recovery time was very abbreviated and unrealistic. Maybe I am being too picky, but when I read books that incorporate medical conditions, I expect the author to do the required research and confer with appropriate medical professionals before including such detail into a book (especially when it is a primary focus).
I do not wish, however, to be totally negative in my review. I like the overall theme of examining one's life and relationships-past and present. I also think that the terrorist element is definitely relevant to this day and time and is something for everyone to contemplate.
Customer Rating:      Summary: Same old formula Comment: Same old formula. Beautiful, world known woman meets man, loses man, meets man again only to ride off in to the sunset after a tragic event in her life.
The good news: I didn't buy the book. My sister gave it to me.
The bad news: I read the book.
It's the same, poorly written, repetitious, formula that Steel has used now for years as her writing gets more and more stale with each new offering, but with the money she makes and her multi-million dollar net worth, she probably doesn't care. Her first ten to fifteen books were magical, and then they started to go downhill; swearing, sexual detail, and flamboyance. Personally, I liked her books better when they were purely love stories without all the graphic language and sex, but that's just me.
In this story, Carol Baker, beautiful, world reknown actress decided to chuck Hollywood and travel to Paris, a place she hadn't been since a disasterous love affair with a French diplomat ended poorly. She's intent on writing a book, and on her first night in the City of Lights, she's in a taxi in a tunnel when a car full of young men pass her taxi. One of the young men looks her straight in the eye, and seconds later the tunnel explodes with a terrorist bomb. Carol is ejected from the taxi, and for days, no one knows who she is. In the hospital, she awakes after days, but has total amnesia. Over the next weeks and months, her memory comes back, her former lover comes to visit, and the bomber even tries to kill her in her hospital room. She gets better, her children stop twittering over her well being, her ex-husband goes back to the States, and her best friend and secretary allow her privacy to see her diplomat lover. In the end, Carol goes off in to the sunset, madly in love and all is well with the world.
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