Daddy Takes Responsibility (Daddy - Danielle Steel)

Member Name: luckyarchers

Product:	Daddy - Danielle Steel
Date:	24/12/07 (193 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I felt like I understood the feelings of the two main characters.

Disadvantages: A bit boring. Too much repetition in first half of book.

This is chick lit, and the first Danielle Steele book that I have read, although as she is a prolific chick lit author (I know of 65 published books), I have been aware of her existence for many years. I read this one on the recommendation of a friend who enjoys mainly women authors, but as diverse styles as Martina Cole's thrillers to any Mills & Boon romance.

I made the mistake of reading the book cover first. This gave away at least the first half of the plot, and the plot wasn't strong enough for me to enjoy it much after that.

In case you still want to read the book, against my advice, I won't spoil the plot for you. I will tell you that the main Daddy did quite well when forced to take on all of the day-to-day parenting, but there are also two co-starring Daddies in the story as well. I would expect any man who waded through this to think more than once before deliberately becoming a Daddy himself.
There seemed to be a lot of repetition of the way characters felt through the whole of the book, but especially the feelings of a mother who may not have had any children if no pressure had been put on her to conform. This repetition of emotions meant that I felt I knew the main characters quite well, but I prefer to get to know characters in a more interesting way.

In contrast to this repetition, I think it odd that the weddings and honeymoons included involved very little detail.

Another thing that the book lacked for me was any sort of sense of humour, expect for the last sentence, which made me smile. I don't expect to laugh much during bad times, but I think a sense of humour is essential for me personally to get through them, so I found parts of the story very depressing.

As the one time the book made me smile was the last sentence, you will probably assume that it has a happy ending. It does, but the way it was left makes it possible for a sequel to be written if the author felt inspired that way.

The only reason that I bothered finishing this book is the recommendation of my friend. I kept hoping it would become less boring. I did find the second half of the story more interesting than the beginning, but it was still an easy story to have a break from.

I would only pick up another Danielle Steel book if I had nothing better to read. I think the strong competition there is from authors that I enjoy more, means that I wouldn't read anything else from her.

My favourite female fiction authors include Sophie Kinsella for light, laugh out loud reading, and Jodie Picoult for deeper fiction based on a lot of factual research. While I wouldn't describe the later as a comic writer, she does show us how a sense of humour can help us through difficult times, unlike this Danielle Steel story.

If you still want to buy this book you could currently get it from new from tesco.com for £5.59 or try to get a bargain on eBay.


Format: Paperback 320 pages
Date of publication: 01/01/1991
Publisher: Corgi Adult
ISBN: 9780552135221
RRP: £6.99

Summary: Tale about the role of parenting.