Rating: 
Summary: Very Excellent Read
Review: Journey was very well-written and address the issues about abuse very well. Kudos Danielle Steel she hit a home-run was this book
Rating:
Summary: Why should she be alone?
Review: Just because the central character, Maddy, was in abusive relationships doesn't mean she is supposed to spend the rest of her life alone without a man.Maddy is written as someone who is very beautiful and popular. Of course she would have all kinds of men asking her out. The key is to find one who doesn't abuse her, and that man was Bill. This whole book felt very realistic to me. It is very possible that there are men like Jack Hunter around, in the pressure cooker environment of Washington D.C. in which Jack owns a television station and is very arrogant, egotistical, and eventually abusive. Maddy couldn't leave her situation with Jack because she was paralyzed with fear. This doesn't make her stupid. It doesn't make her an idiot. It does make her someone who is in trauma and never dealt with the first abuse. Again, Bill is the one who pursues her. And Bill is a very nice man. Just because someone has been abused doesn't mean they have to swear off all men. Men are going to naturally find Maddy very attractive, and this is how Maddy is written.
Rating: 
Summary: manuels on tampons are a better read than this
Review: Like a (very wise) previous reviewer said everthing was just too 'convientent.' People walked into her life at exactly the right moment and disasterous things happened at exactly the right time. Ok, putting that issue aside there's another reason that caused me to loath this book. Danielle Steel's world is too fairy taley. Everyone's evil or good, no in betweens. And of course that makes complications for the whole thing with the reader sympathizing or connecting to the characters. What I mean to say is the main character, Maddy, is too damn perfect to be real. Yea sure her temper flares up but other than that there's little to no flaws, which makes it hard to connect with her. On sympathizing she's portrayed as the undeserving, poor(but filthy rich), innocent victim of a chauvanist sadist. Boohoo. And at no point in the story did she become a truely independant woman but all throughout she needed a shoulder to 'lean on'(make them carry her). But of course like any other story it did have it's good points and it's theme was worth thinking about(which is why that 1 star is there) but I ended up reading it in disgust just so I could finish it and start on my next book but what did you expect from Danielle Steel?
Rating:
Summary: I WANT THOSE HOURS OF MY LIFE BACK! This book is dangerous!!
Review: Luckily, I listend to the audio tape version and was spared the "grammar" issues. However, I feel sorry for the poor reader who had to wade through this garbage (grammar errors and all). This book is the most insultingly dangerous collection of bovine excrement that I have ever read. Any woman trapped in an abusive relationship SHOULD NOT take the advise of the so called "expert" in the book. I was so sick of the main character's inability to come in out of the rain, that I contemplated not finishing the book several times. This is a poorly written, boring and frustrating book. I was highly recommend reading the back of a cereal box before picking up this piece of mindless...
Rating: 
Summary: You'll hate her husband!
Review: Not Steel's best works, but a poignant story. What kept me reading with enthusiasm was hating the husband & wanting to see him get what he deserved! I think the story meant well, but it just didn't seem to mesh for me. If you're looking for something good by Steel, I'd recommend Message from Nam, No Greater Love, Safe Harbour or The Long Road Home- They're all about over-coming & surviving.
Rating:
Summary: You'll hate her husband!
Review: Not Steel's best works, but a poignant story. What kept me reading with enthusiasm was hating the husband & wanting to see him get what he deserved! I think the story meant well, but it just didn't seem to mesh for me. If you're looking for something good by Steel, I'd recommend Message from Nam, No Greater Love, Safe Harbour or The Long Road Home- They're all about over-coming & surviving.
Rating:
Summary: Controversial Subject
Review: Of course Danielle Steel amazes us with her powerful way of writing but this book gets so caught up in the political scene of Washington DC that if you flip a couple of pages you're still on the same conversation as the previous pages. It does touch on domestic violence that ought to be brought more attention to the public. The book is a little graphic at times including hints of domestic rape. Not as good as her other books but still thought provoking.
Rating:
Summary: Sublte forms of abuse
Review: The salient feature of Danielle Steel's "Journey" is that it not only brings up the topic of abusive relationship, but also the more subtle forms of abuse. Especially the latter, together with the description of the ambivalent feelings Maddy had had towards her more subtly abusive second husband gives the story depth and makes it close to reality. An abusive relationship is not that easy to "get out", as it appears to some bystanders. One could even become "addicted to it". As for Maddy, she had become the one constantly looking and longing for Jack's love AND approval. (For Jack, approval and love will go out hand-in-hand. Maddy knew that.) Of course, most importantly for a romance novel, Steel told the story as a true love story and it is enjoyable to read. The story, specifically, Jack's character, will be more credible if Steel can give a less abrupt course of development of Jack's abusive behavior. For example, some subtle put-downs from Jack could be hinted or implied sporadically in the first half of the story, so the readers can be more prepared for Jack's ugly side to show up later.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect for travel reading, pleasant but you will want more
Review: The story of the awakening of Madeline Beaumont Hunter is a journey of personal growth and courage. Madeline is the wife of Jack Hunter, handsome, rich, powerful, and poltical heavy weight. Madeline grew up poor, married young to an abusive husband and was "rescued" by Jack. Maddy grew under his tutelage into a polished, accomplished, anchorwoman in Washington. But behind the perfect couple facade is a marriage pushed to the brink with jealousy, anger, and power. Maddy's story is complex and unfolds bit by bit as her marriage is crumbling. This book compares physical abuse with mental and emotional abuse well, although sometimes repetatively. I wish Maddy would not run from one man to another man to another, but could see that on her own she is strong and valued. The topics in the book are hauntingly topical in todays society. All in all, it was a good book, just not great.
Rating:
Summary: I've read better
Review: This book is a good read . You feel like you really want to Shout down Maddy's ear when she doesn't realise that jack isn't the victim and and that it wasn't a figment of her imaginatiion As it is described in the book 'Gaslights'. I also found the book was very repeditive as kept touching the same things I must say when i read the blurb I didn't think it'd be like that. All in all it was a good read to take my mind off things.
| 
