It has been quite a while since the last time I read a Danielle Steel novel - after a while they tend to become rather predictable, same type of plot over and over, happy ending and the works. This book was a disturbing but strangely refreshing change (just because it’s different; certainly not for the subject matter I assure you).
This is the story of Grace Adams who is the victim of several different kinds of abuse. It begins at age thirteen when her mother is sick with cancer and can no longer sleep with her husband. To appease the abusive father (who ironically is a pillar of the community) the mother makes Grace have sex with her father; she even holds her down for the first few times. This abuse goes on regularly for four years. On the day of her mother’s funeral he attacks her once more - she feels that she can no longer put up with it and during this particularly brutal attack she reaches for a gun and kills him, right there on top of her.
Grace has to spend time in jail and is further abused there. Even after her release there is one incident after another. My only complaint is that after the Nth time something happened to her I started thinking ’’okay, I think we’re going a little too far here, enough of the victim thing - we get it we get it!!!! which began to make the character a bit unbelievable.
I will say that this was one that kept me up late reading because I didn’t want to put it down. It is well written, as most of Steel’s novels are. Definitely not a run of the mill Danielle Steel novel - the first chapter was extremely difficult to read. If you are like me and have sort of given up on her novels as being too predictable and unrealistic you may want to give this one a go.