For those of you know that read my stuff, this review might come as a bit of a surprise. It surprises me that I read all of it to since I was groaning and close to vomiting a lot of the time.
The only reason why i decided to read this is because I started reading again recently in order to try to help with my insomnia (I found another trick that works better than reading by the way) and I had recalled a list I made a while ago of the richest authors on the planet. Danielle Steel was on the top 20 of the list and at a net worth of $375 million, i figured she must be pretty good at this writin' business!
She has made a ton of books and has been at it since 1973. Since around 2015 she pumps out around 5 books a year and when I was reading The Mistress i gotta say, this high output kind of shows.
This book, and all of her other books (so I"ve heard, I've not read all 150 of them and am not going to) are family-friendly romance novels. When I say family friendly I mean there is sex in Steel's books, but she doesn't describe it in a fashion that would make grandma blush.
I've read one of those racy romance novels that is basically softcore porn and Steel does not do that. Instead, and here is where my opinion begins, she writes corny and not at all difficult to predict romance stories that have an absolutely massive buildup and character development. Also, not much happens.
There isn't much intrigue or mystery: The Mistress is just about a Russian billionaire and his very young mistress. During dinner one night Natalia (the Mistress) meets someone around her own age that is an artist.... aaaaaaannnnd we spend 250 pages while the 2 of them get together.
You'd have to be exceptionally naive to not see the ending from a mile away. I shouldn't judge an author's entire body of work by one book, I know. However, this was enough for me and I will not get involved with her work in the future. At least it was easy to read and extremely easy to follow. I finished it in 3 very unexceptional nights.
Have you read any Danielle Steel that was exceptional? Because this book certainly wasn't and I don't recommend anyone repeat my mistake.
