Search - Coming Out

Very predictable. Quick read since I actually skimmed it as it wasn't very good at all. Silly conversations, no real plot, just how important this debutante ball was again and again. Characters aren't developed so you don't really come to care for any of them, though could be due to the short length of the book. Definitely not one of her best, though her newer books pale in comparison to her old ones. I can't say I recommend this one, though not as bad as Impossible was.

Another book by Steele about the rich and privileged, where the main problem is whether "coming out" at the debutante ball is too old fashioned, socially or ethnically biased. Oh my, to have such a problem! All to be decided while jetting to Aspen over Christmas and Europe in the summer! Every few years, I forget and read one of her books and it amazes me that she remains so popular.

It had been years and years since I picked up a Danielle Steele book, so I decided to try this one. Now I remember why I stopped reading her novels! Her sentences are short, she "tells" everything but "shows" nothing, and the premise is paper-thin. I knew the way the book would turn out by the third page. It makes me wonder: How in the world did this woman get published in the first place?

If you want an example of how NOT to write, this is the book for you.

A story of an womans strength to keep her family on an even keel amist three teenagers stretching their wings and finding ways for the entire family to "Come Out "in their way.

From Booklist
In her sixty-seventh novel, Steel sticks to what she knows best, the lifestyles of the rich and glamorous. Here "coming out" refers to an exclusive debutante ball in New York, to which the twin daughters of attorney Olympia Crawford Rubinstein have been invited. Olympia, a blue-blooded spawn of New York's upper class, has three children from a previous marriage and a five-year-old son with her current husband, Harry. To Olympia's surprise, the invitation has caused turmoil and chaos in her household. Ex-husband Chauncey, a stereotypical polo-playing upper-class lout, is demanding that the girls attend the ball and has threatened to withhold college tuition if both girls do not attend. Olympia's current husband Harry, the son of Holocaust survivors, and a hard-working man with liberal tendencies, is violently opposed to the event, which he finds racist and elitist. In addition, the twins have their own ideas, with Veronica, a passionate liberal, refusing to attend, and Virginia already shopping for a dress. Olympia, who fondly recalls her own debut, is upset by her husband's feelings but thinks he'll come around and gently encourages her daughters to attend. The entire plot of this fairly short novel is focused on the resolution of this family dilemma, and as usual, everything works out for the best in the end.

I have never read a Danielle Steel book before. I thought that it was excellent. I was into it within the first couple of pages and finished it in one day.