Summer's End

Slow and steady wins the race love.

This is the first Danielle Steel book I picked up upon receiving great reviews from many booklovers out there about how incredible her novels are. So obviously, I didn't fall in love with the front cover. It was simply too boring to look at. Front cover plays a main role in deciding if potential readers pick up a book. In this area, Summer's End has completely lost appeal (to me). I thought twice before purchasing it at a book sales last month.

"Deanna believed she had everything she'd ever wanted. Diamonds, a beautiful home, a handsome successful husband who adored her. But Marc-Edouart led a jet-set life as an international lawyer and for three months - all summer - Deanna would be alone. Until Ben found her. And together they found happiness on the sun-drenched beaches. But they knew their dream had to end. They also knew that they couldn't live without each other. But Deanna and Ben hadn't foreseen the devastating changes that would happen to them by the time they faced... summer's end."

And so, at least the short synopsis at the back of the novel captured my attention. Summer's End is a slow story of a beautiful love between two individuals who knew from the very start that they shouldn't be falling in love with one another. But they can't help it. Who can when Love strikes? And so as her husband travelled throughout the summer, Deanna willingly let herself fall in love with another man with hope that when summer ends, she can let go of this love and pretend it is a dream. However, could True Love ever be just a dream?

Danielle Steel unfolds this story in a very slow pace, capturing every small detail from how Deanna meets someone new and falls in love. Every chapter along the way she paints a detailed image of the characters from their physical appearances to their deepest soul. She places all of them in place so that you get to see the whole picture from the very start of the story. However, it turned out to be a little too straighten-out for me as the story reads more like a movie script than an engaging novel. It felt dragging from the third chapter onwards. And captions of French words and sentences in between the pages were quite a distraction for a non-French reader like me.

All in all, if you are into a slow romance story that's rich with emotions and details, Summer's End is the book for you. Otherwise, go pick up something else.