Customer Reviews

Bungalow 2

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

Another Steel disappointment. The quality of a Danielle Steel story line is no longer important to her it seems.

This is another lifeless, predictable story. The first 50 pages go over and over how Tanya is a wife, mother and writer. She loves her life. She loves being a mother. She loves being a wife. She loves writing. SHe loves doing all three. Did we mention how much she enjoys her lifestyle? Get the picture?

Tanya takes a job which requires her to move to LA for 9 mos. Tanya misses her family and lifestyle...we hear about that chapter after chapter. Will it upset her fairy tale lifestyle? Well, the typical Steel book of late, proves yes, once again. Hubby starts hanging around the neighbor who has been helping out in Tanya's place. Tanya meets a director. Hmmm...wonder where this will go. 3/4 of the book goes no where. The ending seems rushed. There has to be a happy ending, and it seems Steel crams it in to fit.

Its amazing how Steel can say the same thing over and over , page after page and go nowhere. This is nothing like her original work. Don't waste your money on this one. If you must read it, get it at the library for free.

This is perhaps the worst written book that I have ever attempted to read. How did it get to the best sellers list? Does she keep buying all of her own books until they appear on the list? After just reading one of Anne Tyler's fabulous books, I picked up this book and felt that I was reading the equivalent of a fat-free white bread with fat-free bologna sandwich with a bottled water. All of which is beyond me to why they are on the market. Her named should be changed to Danielle Stole as in "Danielle Stoled my money!"

I agree with the other reviews of this book. Except for "His Bright Light...", her story about her son, Danielle Steel has not written a decent book in years. Like a lot of my fellow reviewers, I borrowed this book from my local library. I could barely make it half-way through before I gave up in disgust. I hated the characters and I hated the morally superior tone. As a soap opera fan, I especially took offense on behalf of all the talented writers, actors and other professionals in that genre. I'll take a bad episode of any soap opera over this drivel any day. Like another reviewer said, please don't kill any more trees for more of the same old regurgitated plot! You have enough money, Ms. Steel; please take a vacation and a good long break from writing!

I'm just wondering how many trees had to be knocked down to publish this drivel. Poor poor trees.

Let me start by saying I'm not a DS fan. I stopped reading her books since the one about the Titanic, when she allowed the main character, a dedicated mother not unlike Tanya, to jump in the ocean and drown with her beloved husband. You see, her reasoning for purposely drowning and leaving her children orphaned was that she loved her husband so much, she couldn't bear life without him. RIGHT! So, I had thought THAT was the worst DS book, that is, until I opened this one.

My eyes were going buggy reading about what a wonderful life this woman had and how she didn't want to leave her beloved, perfect family in her perfect home with her perfect children and perfect husband, to earn a half million dollars (that's what I figured was the sum she got paid) to live at a swanky hotel with Pratesi sheets and anything her heart desired, to live a glamorous life with glamorous people and how much Max loved her and Douglas was intrigued with her blah blah blah.

I closed the book last night and decided I could never make it to the end because I was sick of Tanya already, and she'd barely started working on the movie. Well, now that I've read all the reviews, I think I'm going to finish reading it, only because I want to see good old perfect Tanya get her comeuppance!!

Horrible horrible book!

I have said many times that I won't read another book by DS. And yet I pick it up to read fully knowing that her style has seriously deteriorated over the years. It's only for the entertainment factor--to read it quickly,skim over all the repeated information and know that it's going to be filled with shallow characters, not much plot, poor grammar and did I mention how she repeats herself over and over and over again? Having lived in Southern CA and have known many "wannabes" in the film industry, the chances of someone making it big and getting an Oscar so quickly is highly unlikely. There's no substance to the story, just pure fluff. One must skim it-------ignore the repeating of information and just drift along with the characters. So maybe one of these days I will actually stop reading her work----it is a disappointment since the early days of "Message from Nam" and "Thurston House". She writes too many stories, doesn't edit the grammar and just doesn't seem to care anymore about the depth of the characters. And did I say she repeats everything over and over again?
Just read her stories for what they are-----a no brainer. It's an easy, quick summer read----doesn't require any thought. A great skimmer.

First of all, I no longer purchase Danielle Steel books. Instead I request them at the library. The reason being that she changes the title of the book, the names of the character, but the plot remains the same. She must have a template. Readers have become bored with this. They want something that is going to make them turn the pages, a book that is difficult to put down. This one was very easy to put down. If you want to read it, don't buy it but get it out of the library. You can save your money for a page-turner.

I was very disappointed in this book. I read Danielle Steel in her earlier years and loved her books. I stopped reading them several years ago because they all became just alike. This one sounded promising so I decided to give the author another try. Mistake. Like others have said, DS repeated herself over and over. Does she even realize or care that she does this? The run-on sentences were awful and distracting. I feel like, at this stage, Ms. Steel is just "phoning it in" to rake in the dough from the loyal fans who continue to read all her works. In my opinion, if this is the best she can do, she should retire.

Once upon a time, I really loved Danielle Steel so when I saw this book on the shelf with its pretty cover and the promise of finding out what happens behind the scenes for a Hollywood writer. I learned long ago that Danielle Steel gave up on writing original stories sometime in the 80s, but I decided that it'd been so long since I'd read something of hers, even the pattern book this was sure to be would be a nostalgic trip back to my teens. I prepared myself to read the same story with the names changed to protect the innocent so I wouldn't get frustrated on my quest to find out what a writer gets to do on a Hollywood set in an entertaining way. I knew I wasn't picking up Nabokov.

Even in that mindset, I was shocked at the level of trite drivel this book soared to out of the gate. The main character was a complete and total doormat. She revelled in the abuse heaped on her by her children and her husband. No one with an ounce of self esteem could possible take joy in that level of servitude without being heavily medicated. She made Stepford Wives look rebellious and outgoing in comparison. I fear for any teenager who picks up this book and looks for a role model.

This is the first book I have ever seriously considered demanding my money back. I mourn the hours spent reading it as time wasted.

I can't even believe this was a professional endeavor. The first 150 pages basically said the same thing over and over and over; the main character loves being a wife & mom and feels guilty that she's pursuing a once in a lifetime career opportunity. WE GET IT. When the story finally gets going and hubby goes astray our protaganist uncharacteristically bounces back with an "Ok well I guess that's life" attitude. Every character in this book (except for the directors dog)is beyond boring and cliche. Admittedly, it's been a long, long time since I've read a DS novel and I doubt I'll ever read another. My middle school students write better stories.

Along with other DS reviewers, I vowed not to read any of her newer books. I remember reading DS's books in the past (such as Fine Things), which I loved. Bungalow 2 is complete and utter fluff. I picked this book up at the library recently and had yet to read it, when my 17 year old daughter was home sick and asked if I had any books. I gave her this one thinking it might be something she'd enjoy. She read a few chapters and told me that DS writes like "a teenager" and has bad grammar. My daughter then read a few lines to me, and I had to agree that her writing was below substandard. I started reading the book and honestly just cannot finish it. I can't believe that DS isn't embarressed to have this garbage published. Has she really become that lazy, or is she having some 14 year-old girl write her stories? It's unfortunate that she continues to put out these awful books, but is still cashing in based on her previous works. She's riding on the shirt tails of her earlier successes, and shame on her editors for letting this garbage make it to the book shelf. Complete utter nonsense, garbage, crapola, poor grammar, etc., etc. As one reviewer put it, stop wasting trees, enjoy the millions that you've made, and stop writing these sorry excuses for fiction.