Rating: 
Summary: Horrible
Review: When you read more than one of Ms. Steel's books, its like deja vu, the same story written with different names! This was no different. It just seemed like the same old story with no new adventure or romance. Slow moving and not very interesting, I wouldn't suggest picking this one up off the shelf!
Rating: 
Summary: OOOOO---OOOOOO---OOO
Review: This was a wonderful ghost story by this author. I loved how she wrapped the love story around what is ordinarily a scary theme. In this case it was a love theme. After all love overcomes all. Read if for yourself and see what you tthink. This is another Steel winner novel!!! Beverly C. Sanders
Rating: 
Summary: To anyone who says "this is the best book I've ever read,"
Review: May I suggest to you a book you can REALLY sink your teeth into? Try The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. Her characters, so unlike the "churn 'em out in a month" variety created by Ms. Steel, have real depth, emotion, humor, and are so real you can see and hear them vividly in your mind's eye---even YEARS later! But this is supposed to be a review about GHOST, by Ms. Steel, so let me get down to that. I finished the book last night, having purhased it about six months ago. I had a difficult time with the Charlie stoyline--I just found it incredibly dull. So I would read a few pages and put it away for several weeks before picking it up again. (I'd read several stories by other authors in between)
About two weeks ago, I had finally gotten to Sarah's diary. Ah-ha, I thought, so *this* is the "remarkable woman" I keep hearing so much about. I began reading in earnest, expecting this character to really grab me. Unfortunatly, she never did. Perhaps if Ms. Steel had spent more time developing a unique character, and not just the sterotypical beautiful woman who every man falls all over himself for, I would have been more interested. As it stood, I could never quite form a clear picture of the woman in my mind's eye. She just seemed another cardboard cutout of every other character written in haste. And I never really understood why everyone thought she was so "remarkable." Nearly every character who came in contact with her reiterated this fact to the reader, but other than being a survivor (and there were MANY in her day, or we wouldn't be here, folks) the character failed to show me (by her ACTIONS, not WORDS planted in another character's mouth) that she were anything more than a rather foolish young girl who took a gamble and won.
There were other odds and ends that left me wondering, such as what was the significance of the child and the widower who proposed to her on the boat? Was this just another contrived way to reinforce to the reader that Sarah is so "remarkable?" Yet ANOTHER man (this one with his wife barely ten days dead) was powerless to the "remarkable" charms and beauty of Sarah Ferguson. (We are told that constantly throughout the book, and are expected to believe that Sarah is completely unaware of it.)
And Ms. Steel's wrapping up of the characters of Edward and Haversham, was much too "tidy" for my tastes. I wanted justice, but Steel didn't deliver.
I am undecided on the character of Francois. It irritated me that Steel obviously wanted her heroine to fall in love with an Indian, yet wimped out and made the character a European who was conveniently "taken in" by the Indians. Other than that, he was a strong, attractive hero who was pretty likeable. Perhaps it's just me, and maybe I no longer appreciate the genre as I once did, as a result of having read books by authors whose plots aren't predictable, whose characters are fully "fleshed out," and whose attention to detail and historical accuracy give me a different appreciation of the art of storytelling. If you think you'd like that, then take my advice and read Gabaldon.
Rating:
Summary: Two stories in one!!
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book.
It starts with an architect named Charles, who lived in London with his wife. After his marriaged ended, he moved back to New York. He took a leave of absence from his job and decided to go skiing in Vermont. On the way there he stoped in a small Massachusetts town and met an elderly and sweet widow. He rented her lake house, which belonged to a woman(Sarah) who died two centuries before. There he found a precious tresure: Sarah's diaries. This is when the story within a story starts. Danielle Steel mixed past and present in a brilliant way. Charlie fell in love with Sarah's story, and got caught between the two worlds. Her story is like a gift for him, and helped him find his own way.
This is a great book, timeless. I recommend!
Rating:
Summary: Lousy title
Review: I didn't actually read this book. I am rating it low because it goes on my list of "Worst titles for books". If you want to find this book you can't because there are so many other books with the same title.
Rating:
Summary: One of her books I read over and over
Review: 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 book is really enjoyable but I must admit I was more interested in Sarah's story who was a character I could relate to. I was disapppointed in the ending of her story - it was a bit abrupt ... I would have liked to hear more about her children and what she did in her later life. What a strong and courageous woman for the time. I admired her. A book most Danielle Steel fans will enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: MIXED EMOTIONS --
Review: This has to be rated as an excellent book when the secondary story is even better than the main story.
Was very dissatisfied with the abrupt ending of Sarah's story -- What woman who spent years keeping journals would not mention, in passing the little details of her children.
I can only assume that her son returned to France and her first daughter got married. It was uplifting that Charlie was affected, as were we, by Sarah's story and he drew Francesca into living again. But to take 42 years to realized that he was a little self-centered? Not very mature of him. I joined the ranks of the ones who became a bit emotional at the end and will willingly admit, although not a D. S. fan, this book should not be passed up.
Highly Recommended, other than the bit of adultery no matter how sugar coated, -- ????????? morality going to hell in a handbasket. [grin]
Rating:
Summary: 420 Pages of Total Enjoyment
Review: The Ghost was only my second book by Danielle Steel. I enjoyed ever page of the tales from the present to the past of love ending and around the corner a new one beginning. Being thrown back and forth from the love of Charlie and his ex wife Carole. But that was gone now... a new love was just around the corner, Francesca. With the turn of the next page Ms. Steel threw you back into the 1800's with her tales of Francios and Sarah. Through her symbols of love and hate, old and new, Danielle Steel created a great read. A novel of which I could understand and perhaps become a part of. This novel focused on the other side of love though. Perhaps through that I have learned more myself about the male species. Steel's focused upon Charlie's point of view and through the journals she made him want to love again, want to be happy again, and finally find someone to give his heart to. I, myself, enjoyed this book very much. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves a good tearjerker!
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Great! A nice tale of long lost love...
Review: Two stories in one! Ms. Steel has blended two great stories into one. Both of yearning love lost and found. I cried at the end, definately worth 5 stars! ~Charles Waterson's life has been turned upside down with his recent divorce and his loss of his job. Forced to move to NYC for his job, Charlie must learn to move on with his life, but how can he when he still is madly in love with his ex-wife? When the company decides he should take a leave of absence, Charlie takes a long drive to go skiing to Vermont, but gets stranded in a small Massachusetts town filled with history. He meets an elderly widow who intrigues him with her tales of a woman who fled England from her abusive husband, an Earl to live alone in Deerfield, Massachusetts. The woman has become such an obession for Charlie, that he asks to rent the little Chalet built by the woman's love over 200 hundred years ago. On Christmas Eve, Charlie sees the woman, or her ghost, he is pushed to find her journals. Immersing himself in the long lost woman's journals, Charlie is taken back 200 years and relives her tragic life. She inspires his life in turn and gives him the courage to move on with his own life. Charlie finds love again in a most unlikely place and changes his life all because of a ghost, a long dead woman that lived a most remarkable life and inspires courage and love in Charlie and his new love...
I loved this story and the way she moves back and forth so fluently between two stories, two hundred years apart, yet they are connected. Definately worth the time! The one really surprised me! Tracy Talley ~@
Rating:
Summary: Captivating.....
Review: I am not a Danielle Steel fan, and I have to admit that I've written some unfavorable reviews about her here. But the storyline of this book sounded interesting to me, so I decided to try it. At first, I couldn't say I was overly impressed, until the character of Sarah Ferguson entered the picture. Then I was hooked. The author did an incredible job of weaving the two stories together, of making Charlie and Francesca learn to love through the story of Sarah and Francois. I also liked the way she didn't bog me down with a lot of characters to try to keep straight. Both of the stories were fairly simple. The characters of Sarah and Francois were much more exciting and likeable, but Charlie and Francesca grew as the story continued. However, I do feel that the author could have cut the beginning part of the book in half. We were pretty much able to figure out that Charlie was miserable on the first page, but it seemed like this kept going and going...I would rather she made the end a little longer, by dealing more with his romance with Francesca. But regardless, this was the best Danielle Steel I've read since Mixed Blessings.
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