Customer Reviews

Lightning

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Alexandra Parker is battling breast cancer and her husband, Sam, is being a real jerk because he can't deal with her illness. His mother died of cancer and he just can't face the trials and tribulations his wife has to go through to conquer her illness. I don't know what Danielle Steel was thinking when she wrote this book, but the characther of Alexandra should not have taken her husband back after his terrible treatment of her immediately after she was diagnosed. And then he has an affair to boot with a self-centered, social climbing twit. While cancer is very hard on family members, and some spouses cannot cope, I feel that Ms. Steel took this to the extreme... and some of the scenarios just happened much to quickly after Alexandra was diagnosed.

I really enjoyed reading this nearly 400-page book. It took me two days to read all of it, but I think that it was well worth my time.

This book was very sad and emotional for me to read, but I really felt for Alex Parker, the protagonist in this story. Her mean husband, Sam, goes on a high-fledged affair with lots of intimate "doing-it" when his wife is suffering from chemotherapy/mastectomy.

I hated the ending, Sam should have gone to prison instead of probation, and I think she should have went & married Brock, who was no doubt my favorite character here. Brock was the nice one, caring for Alex while she was sick, but in the end, Alex went back to that no good cheating lunatic Sam, while she left Brock to go back to Illinois. Bad ending.

This one was really good, but the fact that Alexandra gets cancer and her husband dosen't support her is horrible! Also, when she helps him in the end when he didn't help her. It's heartbreaking, but good!

Firstly, can I say this review is written from a mans perspective, on a predominantly women orientated book! I picked this book up while on holiday in rainy Gloucester in the Southern UK. Having never read a Danielle Steel book before, I assumed (stupidly) that her works were all trashy books, relentlessly relying on exaggerated portrayals of emotions designed to appeal to the over emotional, hormonal, female pshyche, in the same light as an Oprah Winfrey Show. Maybe that day, i descovered my femenine side! This book was such an encapsulating read that i didn't want to put down for a second. The realism throughout (though i have never experienced it myself) drew me into the character in a way I never expected, and heart wrenching scenes during her illness, really made me admire the author, and feel like I was going through it too! The ending was poignient, not bad. It just goes to prove that we are only human, and you cant always choose who you love. I now take these issues much more seriously, and I pride myself on the awareness of this and other womens issues that i have since aquired.

This is the story of Alex, who had it all. A sucessful career as a lawyer, a solid marriage of eighteen years with Sam, (a man with a equally successful career in the financial market,) a wonderful daughter, and cushy lifestyle. Then she get's breast cancer. Her husband emotionally jumps ship, it being too hard on him because his mother died of cancer or some crap like that. He's a total ass to her, practically blaming her for getting cancer, and eventually starts an affair with some English trollip. Prince Charming right?

However, Alex does not suffer alone. A younger colleague named Brock, who had a sister who suffered from cancer, comes to her rescue, supporting her through the chemo, and all it entails. Eventually, they get romantically involved.

Then things go downhill for Sam. It turns out his partners were involved in embezzling, and he's going down with them. His sexpot leaves him, and suddenly he wants Alex back. She resists for a while, but by the end of the book, takes him back. After Sam's treatment of her, it made this strong, intelligent woman look like a doormat.

Up until the ending, the book was great. It realistically protrayed breast cancer, and Alex was a character I was rooting for. I liked Brock, but thought they were too quick to get involved. I can't believe she let him go. He's the one who held he while she vomited, the one who saw the scar of her severed breast, bald head, and still thought she was beautiful. Meanwhile, her husband screwed around, but not before abandoning her in every way, and making the process way harder than it had to be. Yet Sam walks away with Alex in the end. Geez! What kind of example does that set?!

I read this book in one weekend, once I started I couldn't put it down (that's why I'm giving it three stars). But when I got my first glimpse of how the story was going to end, I almost didn't finish it. What a disappointment! I could understand Alex eventually forgiving Sam, but please! If my husband refused to support me if I went through something like that, it would be a pretty hard thing to get over. I believe that most marriages begin with the bride and groom saying something to the effect of "for better or for worse!?" I felt that the ending of this book was a bit of an insult to couples who really actually believe that (there are still plenty of us out there, believe me!) What a waste of a good weekend!

I just finished reading this book, and I liked it. The only thing that kept me from a five is the ending. How could she go back to that scum? I liked Brock, although sometimes he was childish, and the scenes about cancer were very realistic and encouraging.

Once again a DS heroine is rich, successful, beautiful and loved. When she discovers she has breast cancer her whole world is shattered. Her husband refuses to deal with it on any level so she turns to a co-worker (Brock) who cares a great deal about her. Her husband is not only unsupportive, but has an affair to boot. Everything was so believable until the end, when she went back to her husband. If she didn't have a daughter, would she have chosen differently? Inspite of the ending, I thought the way she handled her cancer and the courage she showed were very believable. I'm sure there's a million women out there that would like to meet Brock.

The story is good until the end. I don't think any woman would go back to her husband after the way he treats her - unsupportive, unloving and selfish. I think this is the worst story I've ever read by D.S.

I wish I could have given this book Minus 5 Stars!

I have to admit that at the beginning of this book I had an inclination to shelf it without finishing it. Now I wish I had. Alex and Sam Parker deserved each other -- both shallow, cold and self serving. This story reflected on what "love is not!" As a women, I resented this story by Danniele Steel. It is hard enough for a women to go through breast cancer without a jerk of a husband to act as Sam did. No excuses, I don't care how many mothers he had die of cancer. So, he falls in love with a "young gorgeous girl" -- before Alex even gets out of the hospital. Is that falling in love -- or just plain lust! Steel doesn't know the difference and if she does, she didn't prove to me in this book. After being abandoned Alex falls "in love" with Brock, the only real person who truly knows what love is. This wasn't love either, just another of Alex's self serving ways. Brock was the only character in the book that had substance and Steel got rid of him "very conveniently." When Alex went back to Sam, she insulted all "womankind." Love didn't prevail here, stupidity did. Some considered this book as reality, well sorry folks, if I wanted nonfiction I would have picked another book. We deal with reality every single day so I don't want to read about it too.