My mother came to stay with my husband and I recently. She always insists on reading, wherever she goes. The book she brought with her was Danielle Steel’s ’The Wedding’ and I have not heard her complain about a book for such a long time! Personally, I can never understand what she sees in this type of book but then it is each to their own!
The story centres on a twenty-nine year old attorney for the ’stars’, Allegra Steinberg. The plot is complicated, showing how her life becomes involved in theirs. How, day or night, she is at their beck and call. Eventually as with any romance novel, Allegra meets a writer from New York. The man of her dreams and her life changes forever. She has her ups and downs but as always, love conquers all. There are many sub-plots within the Wedding, making this book a little long winded from time to time.
A personal favourite sub-plot, however, is the adoption dilemma. Recall the Welsh couple and ’the Internet twins from America’ and what happened when the tabloid press became involved. Steel looks at personal feelings as well as from the general public point of view and also, of the prospective adoptive parent’s feelings. Steel explores lying and cheating to try and get to a desired result. There are conflicts and underhanded story telling to discredit the mother and thus Allegra family in the process.
’The Wedding’ is the forty-eight best-selling novel written by Danielle Steel. It reflects prominent Hollywood, glittery show biz weddings. The traumas and the joys, the loves and the hates are all explored though the lives of Allegra and her prominent, well known family. The main plot, at times, becomes confused with the many sub-plots. I could be over analysing this book, but the flowery and wafferly writing style only adds to the confusion. I wonder if this is what Steel had in mind when she wrote the story; the confused writing style reflecting in Allerga’s life?
I will stop now before I really bore you, suffice to say this book of 401 pages and twenty-three chapters is really long-winded and not really an ideal bedtime read, but rather a beach holiday book. There is comedy and tragedy incorporated into the plot of ’The Wedding’, but as to a clear story line, forget it!
I would recommend a good old Mills and Boons for bedtime reading, because at least it has a beginning, middle and end. ’The Wedding’; seems to loose track of this idea, causing the reader to become frustrated at times, and have to put the book down to give the mind a chance to recover, (as I have had to after writing this opinion!) I think you may have gathered by now, I did not like it.
Publisher BCA, London
Ref. CN 3208