Customer Reviews

Remembrance

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been reading Danielle Steel's books for over 15 years now. Sometimes they do get a bit "all the same" with most of the characters being important, successful, beautiful people who live in "stately homes" and wear "important jewels and furs". Sometimes I think the characters are more about what they have then who they are. Despite this, I always enjoy her books - they are easy to read, romantic and make you forget about everyday life for a couple of hours while engrossed in the book. Personally I think her earlier books are more enjoyable and get more involved in the characters than some of the later books she has written.
This is one her fabulous earlier books. The characters are well devoped and the story goes through her entire lifetime ... what a wonderful, terrifying and romantic journey we are taken on. If you want to start reading Danielle Steel - this is the one to read.

Set in some of the most exciting cities in the world (Venice, New York, San Francisco, Athens) Ms. Steel weaves a tale that lures you in, and doesn't let you go until the final word is read.

Her best book of all times. The characters come alive, you love some, you hate some, you cheer, you cry, you worry, and you laugh. Every emotion you could possibly have will come to you while reading this book.

It's a MUST HAVE for any library!

Buy it, read it, cherish it -- never loan it out, you'll never get it back!

Read this book! It might start off a little slow, but after 50 pages, you'll be hooked. DS writes books that get you so involved in the story, you forget about what time it is, what you have to do....be prepared, set aside some time, you won't regret it

This book shows the struggles of war, life, and love. The young Principessa shows courage and an inner strength to continue on after all the hard blows of life that she is dealt. The book was fast paced and was written so clearly that you felt as if you were with the characters. A truly enjoyable book.

This book is so good. I couldn't put it down and I advise everyone to read it. This book surprises you and the plot is so exiting. I can only say positive things about this book.

This book felt like it should have been a true trilogy rather than all quickly packed into one book. Sometimes within the span of 1 chapter weeks and months would pass with a sentence or two given to major events that occurred. I will admit that romance is not generally the genre I read in, but at a local used book sale I picked up a few of Danielle Steel's books to try. I first read "Changes" which I enjoyed and was impressed with the realism of, the feelings and conflicts between the characters and the true rollercoastering of a real romance.

I have to say I did not feel that in this book. Oh, it was a page-turner, and I never felt like not finishing it, and that is partly why I went ahead and gave 3 stars despite my complaints.

Now I will head into specifics here so a spoiler warning is due.
________________________ SPOILERS BELOW___________________________

I will start with the good.

1. The introduction of the plot was interesting and engrossing. The death of Serena's parents was truly tragic, and her riches to rags story was touching and believable.

2. Serena's journey back to Italy after the war I felt was well done, and it was also realistic in how she found things the same and yet all changed. Her emotions and struggles with suspicion and withdrawal from others rang true.

3. BJ Fullerton was a well-realized character with a strong personality. His personality remained consistent I felt, one of the few who did.

4. Serena's reaction to Teddy when he came back from the Korean war was one of the few realistic scenes in the story. How she had imagined him almost to be Brad because she couldn't see him, and how when he finally arrived she realized this and that she could not ever have a romantic relationship with him.

Now to the "bad"

1. Character inconsistencies, especially Serena: This is probably my biggest gripe. She started out this independent, strong-willed young woman who knew what she needed and she did what it took to do it. Even when she met Brad, she trusted and followed her instincts and did not seem to struggle with shame despite her prior prejudice towards soldiers. And then suddenly she does an about-face when Brad's fiancee shows up and she overhears them talking. She becomes this sniveling child-like woman who is always weeping and martyred. She runs away and terrifies everyone, and then she's even willing to destroy the happiness of the man she supposedly loves because she doesn't even trust him to do what is best for himself for his happiness. I wanted to slap her. And then of course after he leaves the first time when she refuses to marry him, she languishes away and it's up to others to come to her rescue and save her from herself. After they do finally marry and come home to face Brad's family, she again becomes the martyr, poor little Serena suffering all this enmity on her own, never telling others, others having to "read" her face and behavior to figure out what is going on. Again she shows distrust in her husband by not confiding in him because she's afraid of what he will do and that it might "hurt" him.

2. Serena is a Mary Sue. She's just so amazingly beautiful that all men immediately love and want her and the women are impressed and/or threatened by her. It's played up way too much. She never commits "human" mistakes, even her martyrdom behaviors seem to come off as her being sweet and selfless. She seems to have no vices, she's always the victim of cruel circumstance.

3. It was rushed. So many things happened in this book and so much of it was rushed through with only a few sentences, leaving the reader feeling like people found their true love and were happily married with kids on the way within a bare few pages. Again, I feel that this book could have been 3 complete books and more fully fleshed out. Give the characters more realism, their faults and foibles, their arguments and conflicts. There is argument and conflict but none of it between the people who love each other. No, the lovers are always perfectly understanding of the other and can instantly tell when something is wrong just by the look on the other's face. It just not that way in real life most of the time.

Read this book! It might start off a little slow, but after 50 pages, you'll be hooked. DS writes books that get you so involved in the story, you forget about what time it is, what you have to do....be prepared, set aside some time, you won't regret it

Like most ds novels, the heroines are weak and have no gumption. The heroine in this story (Serena, the Principessa)has absolutely NO backbone. She is completely and totally dependent on EVERYONE and lets just about EVERYONE walk over her.

This book could have been a great book but it failed miserably because it left the reader cheated.

SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON!! *******



Why don't the antagonists ever get their comeuppance in ds novels? The wicked MONSTER-IN-LAW here never gets her just desserts and is allowed to get away with unspeakable evil. Same with the other daughter-in-law...the jilted one.

WHen the Principessa is killed off in the last half of the book, the author hurriedly rushes off to finish the tale of her daughter Vanessa (who has been traumatized at witnessing the death of her mother at the hands of a junkie drug addict husband)who falls in love with her mother's brother-in-law (from her second marriage), a man twice her age (as most of the women in ds novels....they always fall in love with men 20 or 30 years older than they are).

I was so frustrated with this one that I almost didn't finish it. What started off promising and with a bang ended with a whimper and failed miserably.

This was my first Danielle Steel book and I found it hard to put down! I thought it was a great book, except I found the last few chapters to be a little "odd". Other than that, I felt Danielle Steel did a wonderful job capturing my interest and anticipation with the unexpected events in Serena's life.

Danielle steel is my favorist writer and her book remembrance is one of her best best novels.I enjoed reading her book very much