I should have listened to the advice of one of my friends that I should have finished Sidney Sheldon during my school days itself. Now I have realized I could have saved a lot of time and utilized reading something else. Not that I want to bring any disgrace to Sidney Sheldon, but the only thing I want to state that I got bored out of the same monotonous storyline again and again.
The Stars Shine Down: Like most of Sidney’s novels, the story of TSSD revolve around a woman. Lara Cameron steps into the male dominated world of real estate development and very soon sky rockets to the riches. It’s predictable what, as a woman, Lara has to go to become the ’Heroine of America’. It’s entertaining to read about the struggle and success of the protagonist. She awaits the love of her life and succeeds in finding one too.
The similarities between this book and other of Sidney’s novel:
1) Female protagonist (except few of his works of course).
2) Unexpected start.
3) Unexpected end.
4) Fast paced.
5) Either it’s about showbiz or it’s about corporate world. (This time it’s the latter)
6) Larger than life portrayal of everything.
I could have written the same about any of his novel. Writing this about this book is what I would term as ’incidental’. The other thing I struggled with this book in particular is that there are too many characters. I was never good at remembering the names of every character that is introduced almost every second page, but Star Shines Down has one characters too many. Generally a writer would resort to using so many characters if he/she intends to deepen the suspense. Unfortunately there ain’t any suspense involved here.
The plot is predictable. Maybe because I am too used to reading Sidney now that I may just be able to predict what is going to happen next. The Star Shines Down in a way has disappointed me, again maybe because I have been reading too much of Sidney off-late. Still if I have to describe this book then I would say it’s still wonderful.
Why would I still recommend it?
It’s always a pleasure to read things that you could finish off in few hours time, enjoy while reading and forget it as soon as you finish. Certainly not one of Sidney’s greatest works, but I recommend go ahead and read this one, especially if you are Sidney Sheldon fan (which I am!).
Happy Reading.