Reviews

Safe Harbour by Danielle Steel

tmsiu's review against another edition

2.0

Predictable, slow and boring. And why does the author have to repeat several times the same ideas?

booklover4887's review against another edition

adventurous challenging lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

rebr_04's review

hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

tlwd's review

So. This book was not for me. There are 2 main reasons why:

1. I try not to dick about grammar because firstly, I don't know how to grammar myself, and secondly, I love it when writers use unusual grammatical constructions to build tone in their books. That's super cool. But it felt like this book shrugged and gave up on copyeditors. There were comma splices everywhere and none of them were used to build tone. They just happened. Everywhere. And it annoyed me. Half the time when one happened, I'd have to re-read the sentence a couple times because it made the sentence not make sense. I'm pretty sure that's not the goal.

2. This book is mainly sterile, stagnant, circular narration. Even half the dialogue is the characters just narrating past events. I'm all for good, plot-supporting narration, but this narration was dry, usually did little to advance plot, and generally repeated things over and over. It gave the distinct feeling of being told a story, rather than being in one and living through it. Not my cup of tea.

I'm sure Danielle Steel is a superb writer. She's got lots of fans and has written more books than God. This is only the second or third book I've read of hers, and so far, I've found that I don't jive with her style. Maybe it's a personal thing.

kleinkid7's review

1.0

This was not a good book. It was a bad book.

sanjana1510's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

crazylady4's review

4.0

I often forget how much I enjoy books by Danielle Steel. Then I read one and am reminded, this book however was a sweet, sad, shocking story and really drew me in to this story of Pip and her mom. Sometimes I found the story skipped ahead quickly or took very little time on some aspects and seemingly excessive pages on mundane. Either way I recommend this book. Side note, for a romance book, there wasn't really any focus on the typical passionate bedroom scenes which was a nice change.

between_colorful_chapters's review against another edition

4.0

- "Tudom, ez mindkettőnk számára megrázkódtatás, de olykor a legnagyobb csapásokról derül ki, hogy az élet legszebb adományai."

🇭🇺 - Egyszer a szüleim régi könyvei között nézelődtem és megláttam ezt a könyvet👀. Megtetszett a címe és elhatároztam, hogy elolvasom. A könyv Ophelie és lánya Pip életét öleli körbe. Szerintem egy elég egyedi történettel rendelkező könyvről van szó. Voltak benne megható részek és olyan csavarok, amikre nem is számítottam.🙊 Voltak a könyvben sajnos unalmas részek is. A narráció 3. személyben írodott, ezt pedig én annyira nem szeretem könyveknél, tehát emiatt lett lepontozva a könyv.

booktrunks's review against another edition

1.0

I have given myself a few days to process this book, and my most prevalent thought is still what the hell did I just read?! This has got to be the weirdest realistic fiction I have ever encountered, and you could have convinces me that a spiteful divorced man wrote this, not Danielle. I am so tempted to try another Steele book to see if it's always like this, even though I did not enjoy this experience.

I don't feel that bad doing minor spoilers here because this book came out a while ago. So right from the getgo, Matt is dropping tiny bits of dialogue and inner thoughts about wishing he was in a position to have more control over Ophelie and her decisions, and he sure does try to exercise that more and more the closer they get, it was weird. Also weird was the relationship between him and Pip, that just was quite inappropriate, even ending with her saying "I do" along with her mom at the wedding. And don't even get me STARTED on intimate scenes that start with the woman literally shaking and saying "I'm so scared," that has got to be the least nice thing I have ever read.

Overall, obviously not a hit for me. At times, I was slightly entertained, but I audibly cringed and gasped and laughed at some of the things Danielle chose to put out there! I recommend to those who think Ezra Fits and Will Schuster are good characters!

vance_31's review against another edition

3.0

After reading that god-awful The Long Road home, I didn't read any DS book for the month of March. This April, I gave DS another go. I'd say, this book is better. I kind of like it (A character being an artist is a factor. I'm an artist too.)

The things I don't like much about this book:

- Too much good things happen.
- All problems are solved easily.
- I don't like the intimate moments. I'm not a romance enthusiast. I don't know if too much use of I-love-you's is okay for everyone. It's not okay for me. I hate it. The I-love-you's are only less than 10 (not sure), but I think it's still excessive.


There's something about DS's writing that I think I'll never like. But there are still moments when her writing is good and effective.