My son rented a beach house in the New Hampshire at the end of July 2002. The house had a library in it. I found a book, without a cover or any credits, titled, “Mirror Image” and devoured it while sitting in the hot (97 degrees) sun. It was a story of a woman in a near fatal plane crash who was mistaken for another very wealthy woman, and entered her alternative family. The story was incredible. However at the time I was an occasional reader and my knowledge of Danielle Steele was that she was a writer of sappy novels. I also didn’t know that she was the author of the book without a cover. End of story. But not really. After five years or so I researched the book and learned that she wrote it. I couldn’t believe it! My preconceived perceptions of Ms. Steele were completely wrong. Since then I’ve read a number of her works, including “The Ring”, about the horrors of the Nazis and “The Long Road Home”, a story of horrific child abuse – the first fifty pages were so brutal I couldn’t stand to read them, not because they were poorly written but because it was too hurtful learning how horribly the little girl was treated.
Today I have so much respect for Ms. Steele because of the fantastic stories she tells (with ‘good feeling’ endings), the multiple genres in which she writes and the prolific number of books she has written – she publishes 2 books a year, at the age of 79! (I suppose there’s still hope for me, lol). She is synchronous with the adage, “You can’t judge a book by its cover”, with a slight modification, “You can’t judge a book by its author.”
I hope you enjoyed my review of a truly great author.
Frank Sett 