Wine And
Thorns
The very
prolific (164 books and counting!) Danielle
Steel’s new novel, Fairytale is about
a modern-day Cinderella, who has to deal with a vicious stepmother and two
nasty stepbrothers.
In her usual
rushed style, Steel races through the romance and marriage of Christophe and
Joy Lamennais, their setting up of a successful winery in the Napa Valley and
the birth of their daughter Camille.
It is
interesting to read about how the business of wines, and life among the vinters
of the region, their connections and traditions—apart from Christophe, there is
his best friend Sam, his wife Barbara and son Phillip.
Soon, Joy
dies of cancer, and Barbara does too. Camille throws herself into the work of
running the winery and supporting her grieving and lonely father. Then, into
the tightly knit social circle of the Valley, comes the glamorous French widow,
Maxine de Pantin.
She
makes a play for Sam, who is not taken in by her charm, but Christophe is
bewitched. She uses her polished seduction techniques to hook him and before he
knows it, she is married to him and installed in the chateau that Camille’s
parents has built with such love. She
gets her tentacle into the business and summons her wastrel sons, Alexandre and
Gabriel to the Lamennais
home and starts throwing her weight and her new husband’s money around.
Like the
evil stepmother of the classic fairytale, she is horrid to Camille and does
everything she can to get her hands on the chateau and the winery. The fairy godmother
turns out to be Maxine’s own delightfully French mother, the independent and
plain-speaking Simone.
In popular
bestsellers there is usually no veering away from the formula so Maxine’s
unsavoury past is exposed and her spoilt, greedy sons defeated; it is
interesting and funny to read how. This
one has more plot and substance than some of Steel’s other recent books—a quick
and entertaining read.
Fairytale
By Danielle
Steel
Publisher:
PanMacmillan
Pages: 288
**********************
Jagged Edge
Just before
Fairytale, Danielle Steel’s The Right Time was released—about Alexandra Window, who has a
talent for writing crime novels. Because her single and sexist father tell her,
“If you’re going to write mystery books, you’ll either have to write cozy
mysteries, like a woman called Agatha Christie, or if you write crime stories
like I and a lot of men read, you should probably do it under a man’s name,”
that’s what she does. She writes bestselling crime fiction under the name of Alexander
Green, and insists that her agent and publisher keep her real identity a
secret. She has to go to great lengths to cover up for the lie; when one of the
books is turned into a film, she has to pretend to the assistant of the
eccentric, reclusive writer.
She
gets used to the double life over her time of studying, working, travelling and
meeting very unsuitable men. Again,
Steel rushes through the story without much character development, and one
never sees a sample of these wonderful chart-busting thriller Alexander/a
writes, one simply has to take Steel’s word for it, that the books are suitably
‘manly’ to fool the most perceptive reader. But all this subterfuge for what
purpose? Once she has proved herself there seems to be no reason for Alexander
to remain ‘male’. Like all Steel books,
this one too can be read in one sitting.
The Right Time
By Danielle
Steel
Publisher:
PanMacmillan
Pages: 336
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