Happy Birthday by Danielle Steel {Book Review}

After reading another Danielle Steel, Miracle, earlier this year and feeling slightly disappointed by it, I decided to try another one. Maybe, just maybe, the next one would be better.

I have a rule about new authors-I usually read three books before deciding if I’m going to continue reading their books or move on to someone else.

Even though I’ve only read two of her novels, the Danielle Steel journey has ended for me, this being my last review of any of her books.

I’m also realistic about the fact that it’s not a strong genre for me, except I would have placed her books in the Fantasy genre instead of Romantic Drama.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the books are more quantity than quality, and I don’t want to spend my time on something that really won’t stand out to me anymore.

Click on the image to read the Miracle review.

DISCLAIMER: This review could contain possible spoilers based on my opinions. All opinions and views are my own.

Book review: Happy Birthday by Danielle Steel #bookreview
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Plot:

April Wyatt is turning 30; she’s single and doesn’t have time for dating. She’d rather invest her time in her successful restaurant, and in reality, that’s all she really has time for.

Valerie Wyatt, her mother, is turning 60 on the same day and is conflicted about her age and how others will view her.

She has her own television show, a rival to Martha Stewart. She’s worried about how her career in the limelight could be affected if her real age is reveal to the public. Her psychic gives her some insight into what the future holds, which she finds unbelievable judging by her current situation.

Jack Adams, a former football star, is a sportscaster and works for the same network as Valerie. He too has his birthday on the same day as the Wyatt women. Turning 50 turns out to be problematic to him and he needs to rethink his lifestyle.

When a terrorist group takes up hostages, including Valerie, in the network building, Jack does all that he can to assist, leading to some romantic interests between him and Valerie.

April receives some shocking news that will change her life and she needs to decide how she will approach the situation further and if she is involve another person in it, or handle it all on her own.

With three birthdays that bring life changes and situations bringing more hard choices, will each one of them find the happiness they seek?

My Opinion: Positive Thoughts

It can come across as an easy and quick read, even though it was filled with heavy drama and dealt with grief in many forms.

My Opinion: Negative Thoughts

The hiccups in the plot are way too easily overcome by characters and created the unreal sensation in comparison to real-life outcomes. This made the plot feel shallow to me.

The focus was on bringing forth book emotions instead of letting the reader feel the emotions, which causes issues with relating to any of the characters and their situations.

The characters lacked depth and seemed a little too generic.

Valerie is probably the most non-relatable character in the book; highly annoying with her whining and she reeked of vanity. She was the one that made me want to put the book down at some stage, and just not pick it up again to finish reading it.

The constant descriptive sections scattered throughout the story were repetitive, even though the exact same wording wasn’t used. At some point you just keep skipping them because it’s pointless information.

Overview:

What more would you expect but an entirely happy ending from Danielle Steel? Everything ends on a sweet and comfortable note, and you’re dreading your own realities because why can’t everything just be that perfect too? Fiction aside, the plot and ending should have some relation to real-life, especially if the book focuses on specific themes.

The book had a preachy tone to it, and put me off wanting to even complete it, but I managed to get through it. Besides, you don’t really need to get far into the book to predict how it will end.

My Rating:

The book has a rating of 3.83 on GoodReads. I gave it a 2.

The fact that there was constant repetition, lack of relatable characters and the perfect ending made the book hard to complete, hard to relate to any real-life situations and that lowered my rating for it.