Legacy: A Novel [Kindle Edition]

Danielle Steel (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Steel (Big Girl) rebounds from a string of less than stellar books with this inspiring story about a frustrated woman who rediscovers her passion for life during a genealogical quest. After Brigitte Nicholson loses her archeologist boyfriend and her university admissions office job in the span of two days, she agrees to help her mother do some research for a family history project. Brigitte becomes hooked after she discovers a mystery in their family's past: how did a Dakota Sioux princess end up buried in Brittany as a noblewoman alongside a distant relative? Brigitte's quest to learn the story of the Marquise de Margerac (née Wachiwi) takes her from Salt Lake City to Sioux Falls, S.D., and eventually to Paris, where she meets Marc Henri, a fetching Sorbonne literature professor. Steel splices in passages from Wachiwi's life--abduction by a Crow war party, traveling to France, surviving the French Revolution--to create a doubly absorbing romantic adventure.
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From Booklist

An anthropologist and an admissions officer at Boston University, Brigette is having a streak of bad luck. First, her archaeologist boyfriend of six years announces that he’s finally gotten his own dig in Egypt and there’s no place for her there. Then she loses her job. At loose ends, Brigette goes home to her mother, who is zealously pursuing her family’s genealogy. Brigette has no interest in her ancestors, but since she has nothing else to do, she agrees to help her mom with the research, and what Brigette finds out about their past changes the course of her life. Fascinated by Wachiwi, the Crow princess who married the French marquis, Brigette heads off to France to seek firsthand information about her illustrious forebears. In typical Steel fashion, two women in two different time periods each have first loves that end in disaster, but the women become stronger as a result of their loss. Steel pairs the engrossing, exciting chronicle of Wachiwi, a brave and powerful nineteenth-century woman, with Brigette’s more circumspect tale of a modern woman who finds the courage to change because of Wachiwi’s example in a novel that is sure to be a hit with a broad array of readers. --Shelley Mosley

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 2079 KB
• Publisher: Delacorte Press (September 28, 2010)
• Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003EY7IT0
• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,180 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #33 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Family Saga
  • #39 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Family Saga

More About the Author

Danielle Steel has been hailed as one of the world's most popular authors, with over 590 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include 44 Charles Street, Legacy, Family Ties, Big Girl, Southern Lights, Matters of the Heart, One Day at a Time, 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 96 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great plotting, October 1, 2010

By 

Robin Landry "Robin Landry, Author of "Wh... (Seatac, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Legacy: A Novel (Hardcover)

I don't read many Danielle Steel books because I'm more of a character-first type reader but the plot to this book captured my attention immediately. I've read that the research Steel does for her books takes longer than the actually writing of the book, and this book is actually about a woman researching her past. This book is fascinating and kept me reading far into the night.

Legacy starts out with a woman who works in admissions in a Boston university. She passes up promotions and never asks her boyfriend of 6 years if they're going anywhere. I won't give away any more plot, except to say that if you're not going forward you're going backwards. Life doesn't allow us to stay in one place.

I love books where I learn something, and Legacy teaches plenty. Lots of history, how to research your own genealogy and a lesson on finding your passion. All these lessons are wrapped up in a great story line told by a master story-teller.

What I'm not crazy about in a Steel novel is that her characters are too perfect. She uses the word beautiful to describe one of the main characters as many times as Pulp Fiction dropped the F bomb (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, Pulp Fiction didn't use it that many times). I prefer characters that have faults(not as many as I have or it wouldn't be believable) and who overcome those faults. Steel's characters overcome circumstances, but being as perfect as they are, how could they not?

But again, that's not why I picked up this book, and while perfect characters, just as perfect people, can become annoying, I was able to overlook their perfection and enjoy a great plot-driven novel.

A totally worthwhile escapism novel and up to Danielle Steel's high standards. The kind of book you can safely buy before getting on an airplane and enjoy during a coast-to-coast ride.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars entertaining tale, October 2, 2010

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Legacy: A Novel (Hardcover)

In less than forty-eight hours, Brigitte Nicholson's life is shattered starting with her archeologist boyfriend Ted abruptly dumping her and finishing with Boston University Admissions Office firing her. Stunned with no place to go, Brigitte agrees to assist her mom who is working on a family tree.

Brigitte goes to Salt Lake City to research her ancestry at Family History Library. There she uncovers a strange mystery about her heritage as an ancestor Dakota Sioux princess Wachiwi who apparently traveled to France just before the French Revolution. While there she married a marquis. Wachiwi as the Marquise de Margerac was buried in Brittany rather than the Great Plains. Following clues takes the researcher to Sioux Falls and Paris. In France, Brigitte and Sorbonne Professor Marc Henri meet and are attached to one another. Their encounter and her family project begin to bring back la vivre de joie sprit that Brigitte had lost to complacency.

This is an entertaining tale mostly because of the exciting look at the life of Wachiwi, which is inserted throughout the enjoyable present day story line of Brigitte's research. Fast-paced in two centuries, readers will wonder what lessons Brigitte will take from the stirring life of the Sioux princess as Danielle Steel provides a winner for her fans.

Harriet Klausner

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars SEARCH FOR ANCESTORS, November 3, 2010

By 

ITZME "JEANNE" (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Legacy: A Novel (Hardcover)

Brigitte works at Boston University in the admissions office and has a boyfriend of six years (Ted). All of a sudden in one week she loses her boyfriend to an Egyptian dig and loses her job to a computer. Brigitte is 38 years old and lost. She visits her mother in New York City and then leaves reluctantly for Salt Lake City to view the archives at the Mormon Family History Library. Her mother has urged her to look for their ancestors from France (the Margeracs). She discovers Wachiwi, a Sioux who ends up married to a marquis in France. The adventure of Wachiwi makes this book special. Not like most of the Danielle Steel books.