Rating: 
Summary: A Book for All Women
Review: This book was absolutely wonderful. Danielle Steel's novel, Mixed Blessings, is a beautifully written novel that is just that. She could not have picked a better title for a novel that tells the stories of three women and their new husbands. She takes the readers inside the lives of three very different women as they fight uphill battles followed by reward and disapointment. Danielle Steel introduces the couples on their wedding days, which is the only link connecting the couples. She also does a wonderful job introducing the couples as she provides a vivid description of each character's family background, education, likes and dislikes, and their overall disposition. Through her colorful descriptions, Danielle Steel creates characters that seem so real and complex. I found it impossible not to feel as if I related to them or knew them. Because the couples were so diverse, any reader is bound to find one character that they understand and connect with. This book especially appeals to women as the author ties in common dilemmas and turmoil that women tend to face. The first couple, Diane and Andy, are a young couple who appear to all as the picture perfect couple envied by all. This couple desires nothing more than to start their own family, but that just doesn't seem to be in the cards for them. Every attempt to become pregnant is followed by failure and pressure falls on the marriage. This couple's story kept me turning the pages as they fought to have a family and in the end, just to keep the marriage together. I enjoyed reading about this couple because in the beginning I wasn't able to understand how having a baby could be so important above all else. The further I read, the more I was able to see from a different point of view. I enjoyed reading about Pilar and Brad the most. Pilar was a character that I understood from the beginning and a character that most represented me. This couple is very career devoted and successful. To Pilar, having kids was never something to consider. A life that was so set suddenly takes a major turn when Brad's daughter has her first baby. Pilar begins to worry that she has missed out and she fears she will regret not having her own. Danielle Steel takes you into this character's mind and heart as she decides whether she should have a baby or if it's too late in life. I felt so bad for Pilar as she tried to make the big decision. I gave this book only four stars because I did not see the importance of the third couple. The third couple's marriage was filled with deception and built on stability and lust rather than love. Because there was not enough focus on this couple,I never felt like I understood them or what they wanted. I almost feel like they were not an active part of the story. I didn't like the outcome of this couple's story. Regardless of the third couple, this beautiful novel ties together diversity in life and the luck bestowed upon different people from all walks of life. Page after page played upon my emotions and pulled at my heart strings. This is a must read book for all women, especially mothers and mothers to be.
Rating: 
Summary: A little too repetitive
Review: This book was okay, but I thought Danielle Steel could do better. All three stories were too repetitive. They all had to do with people having babies and people being sterile. I also think that the story of Diana and Andy was too far fetched because she got pregnant even though she was presumably sterile and had a one in ten thousand chance of getting pregnant. I think D.S. fans should consider reading it though, because everyone has their own opinion.
Rating: 
Summary: the worst book I 've ever read
Review: This is a really bad book.
Everything is blown out of proportion the characters are hysterical self-centered individuals who are either very bad or very good (according to the authors standards).
There is the guy who had asthma and nobody wanted to foster and he marries this bad bad girl who does not want to have family and children dumps him and then before finding the next perfect girl goes around thinking along the lines that he is sterile and he doesn't deserve to be married. Not even soap operas go that far...
As for the others, there is the drama of an ex neglected child now lawyer who decides to have a baby while her husband is over 60 (now the fact that when the kid will be twenty the guy will be definitely over eighty and probably dead is not of major concern to anybody). An interesting part is when the gal has a miscarriage and the doctor mentions something about "dead tissue" in which case she screams saying: "This is not dead tissue this is our baby" or something like that.
And last but not least we see the other couple who the woman gets completely bonkers because she hasn't got pregnant after twelve moths drives everybody crazy and finally adopts a baby whose parents miraculously look like herself and her husband and then gets pregnant herself. Of course coming from a family with two sisters baby breeding machines the hysteria is hardly surprising but things like the sister fight in Thanksgiving not only doesn't look as a hooligan fight (I presume the author has never attended any...) but is rather hilarious especially the dialogue.
So the message is: get marry early and breed early. Stay home produce as many babies as possible be as hysterical and egocentric as you can and live happily ever after.
As for the language it looks more like a 10 year old's essay rather than a novel.
This was the first and last book I will ever read from the author but I would expect a best selling author to do better than that.
Rating: 
Summary: Another story, another topic
Review: This is another one of DS books where she tackles a topic & writes a story. It's a good read. I read it years ago, and I can still remember parts of it, that's really amazing for me!
Add it to your DS collection.
Rating:
Summary: Another story, another topic
Review: This is another one of DS books where she tackles a topic & writes a story. It's a good read. I read it years ago, and I can still remember parts of it, that's really amazing for me!
Add it to your DS collection.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating!!!!!
Review: This is classic D.S. and it was a good read!!!! This is about the pros and cons of children in today's day and age!!! Steel captures the essence of all characters involved.
Rating:
Summary: This was my first Danielle Steel novel
Review: This is the first Danielle Steel book I ever read and I think it's one of her best. The situations the three couples face are scary and yet very realistic. You really feel for the characters and what they're going through. As someone who plans to have children I know exactly how Diana feels. I want my children to be a big part of my life and not having any would probably hurt me too! This is one of my favorite books and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Danielle Steel.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Read!
Review: This is the first DS book I've read, and it's bound to be the best! "Mixed Blessings" is a great book with several surprises. Sometimes it can get kind of repeated, but otherwise good. I was always looking forward to the next bit about Diana and Andy. Looking for a sequel! Can anyone reccomend a good followup?
Rating:
Summary: the worst book I 've ever read
Review: This was a very poorly written book, reading more like a fertility manual than a novel. Danielle Steel leaves nothing for the readers imagination. We are told the same things over and over. Pilar doesn't want children, she never got along with her mother, she never had good family relationships, etc. In a very short period of time, she goes from being vehemently opposed to having children to going to a fertility specialist, receiving in vitro fertilization, miscarrying, repeating in vitro, becoming pregnant with twins, losing one baby, resolving conflicts with a step daughter, etc. Barb (Barbie, Barbara)does not want to have a child, her husband does, she is impregnated by some one else, tells Charlie after he has learned that he is sterile, divorces him, he finds a girl to marry who already has a child, and soon adopts a son from the same orphanage where he himself was raised. Diana and Andy are unable to conceive, miraculously adopt a baby available to them through an old aquaintance of Andy's, and immediately Diana becomes pregnant, and quickly repairs the dastardly relationship she has with her two sisters, who are walking baby factories. While I am sure these problems present in any relationship would be major life events for most, there is no depth to any of the characters beyond these issues. They have no concern for anything other than their ability to produce babies. Their reactions to life events are consistently more dramatic than the average person in real life. Steel should spend time developing her characters and show us the real angst of couples who go through these challanging situations, rather than giving readers simplistic answers to very hard life events.
Rating:
Summary: Mixed Blessings
Review: This was a very poorly written book, reading more like a fertility manual than a novel. Danielle Steel leaves nothing for the readers imagination. We are told the same things over and over. Pilar doesn't want children, she never got along with her mother, she never had good family relationships, etc. In a very short period of time, she goes from being vehemently opposed to having children to going to a fertility specialist, receiving in vitro fertilization, miscarrying, repeating in vitro, becoming pregnant with twins, losing one baby, resolving conflicts with a step daughter, etc. Barb (Barbie, Barbara)does not want to have a child, her husband does, she is impregnated by some one else, tells Charlie after he has learned that he is sterile, divorces him, he finds a girl to marry who already has a child, and soon adopts a son from the same orphanage where he himself was raised. Diana and Andy are unable to conceive, miraculously adopt a baby available to them through an old aquaintance of Andy's, and immediately Diana becomes pregnant, and quickly repairs the dastardly relationship she has with her two sisters, who are walking baby factories. While I am sure these problems present in any relationship would be major life events for most, there is no depth to any of the characters beyond these issues. They have no concern for anything other than their ability to produce babies. Their reactions to life events are consistently more dramatic than the average person in real life. Steel should spend time developing her characters and show us the real angst of couples who go through these challanging situations, rather than giving readers simplistic answers to very hard life events.
|
