Title: Blessing in Disguise
Author: Danielle Steel
Published: May 14th 2019
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Pages: 320
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance
RRP: $29.99
Rating: 3 stars
Isabelle McAvoy is a private art consultant who started her career as a curator in an important downtown gallery in New York. Now she has her own clients who range from famous collectors to the newly rich, hungry to buy to show off their wealth and impress their friends.
Her career is soaring, but her private life is messier. She has three children, each with different fathers: dreamy Theo, fierce and resentful Xela and kindly Oona. Isabelle only wants health and happiness for her children, but life has a habit of making things hard. And as she navigates the loves and losses of her children, can she ever find happiness for herself?
Review:
Blessing in disguise: an apparent misfortune that eventually has good results.
When we reflect back on our own lives, our trials and tribulations, I am sure there are many moments that we can mark as “blessings in disguise”. Often these obstacles present us with complex problems to solve or overcome, but they ultimately make us stronger. Blessing in Disguise, the aptly titled new novel from worldwide bestselling author Danielle Steel, is about one woman’s journey through life. We meet the book’s lead, Isabelle McAvoy, in her early twenties and we follow her through to retirement as she deals with love, life, motherhood, relationships, health issues and career highs/lows. It is a full life, defined by plenty of high drama and feeling, from the queen of women’s fiction.
Blessing in Disguise is another tender hearted page turner, that focuses on the life of independent protagonist Isabelle McAvoy. As a young girl, Isabelle has known heartbreak, she lost her mother when she was just a child. Now it is time for Isabelle to spread her wings and when we first meet her, she is just starting out in a career she has longed for – working as an intern for an art gallery. This lucrative entry level position is located in Paris and it brings an influential character into Isabelle’s life, a wealthy but recluse owner of a chateau in Normandy. A whirlwind affair ensues, with long lasting implications, but Isabelle was never destined to settle down with this man. Isabelle returns to New York after her French sojourn and after the dust has settled on her past relationship, she enters a new romance with a man who says all the right things. However, things coming crashing down, leaving Isabelle with yet another broken relationship. Finally, hoping she will be third time lucky, Isabelle falls head over heels for a dependable man, things are steady and happy, but tragedy comes knocking yet again for Isabelle. Blessing in Disguise is about chances, fate, decisions, secrets and family bonds.
Danielle Steel has a tried and tested formula that clearly works. She has fans all over the globe, eagerly waiting her next book. If you are a diehard fan of Steel’s work the wait for the next book is never long. Steel knows how to both entertain her fans and keep her audience happy. Blessing in Disguise is another solid woman’s fiction title, filled with moments of romance, family reflection, long standing secrets and of course, that lovely happy ending!
Steel’s main protagonist this time around is Isabelle McAvoy. I felt quite sorry for Isabelle from the onset of this book’s journey. She was brought up by her father after the loss of her mother to cancer. This is a life defining event that will haunt both Isabelle and her offspring. I admired Isabelle’s sense of resolve, she was determined to succeed in her destined career, despite some pretty major setbacks. However, the knocks this poor woman received again and again – it did make me wonder how much more can a person take! It was almost unbelievable! Steel did seem to want to emphasise the whole ‘blessing in disguise’ fact, the message of this book, but the amount of suffering Steel issues her main character with seemed almost unfair.
The bulk of the plot of Blessing in Disguise is based on the big secret Isabelle withholds from her family and the impact of this decision in the long term. The secret is tragic, but not uncommon, so I am sure there are many readers out there who will be able to relate. Steel offsets this major plot thread with a focus on family. There is a strong focus in this book on the changing nature of mother and daughter relationships. Isabelle has three daughters and each daughter is completely contrasted to the other. We follow Isabelle’s early days as a new mother, coping on her own at many points with the challenges of parenthood. Steel looks at the progression and evolution of parental relationships. We also see how each of Isabelle’s offspring relate to her later in life. There were moments of realism in these sequences. Steel also balances out the joy of life with the low moments that we must face at various points. In the end, despite the setbacks, which work to strengthen both Isabelle and each daughter’s sense of agency, they rise above it all.
My final word on this book is to mention the setting. Steel is definitely the master of well travelled settings, there is always a global feel to her location bases. In Blessing in Disguise Steel whisks her reader from the US to France, to Italy and beyond. I enjoyed these setting interchanges, it was the perfect way to escape the winter blues!
Blessing in Disguise is a book about relationships, choices, trust, faith, sacrifices, hindsight and life’s obstacles. Turn to this latest offering from Danielle Steel if you are after a mellow read.
Blessing in Disguise was published on 14th May 2019 by Pan Macmillan. Details on how to purchase the book can be found here.
To learn more about the author of Blessing in Disguise, Danielle Steel, visit here.
*Thanks extended to Pan Macmillan for providing a free copy of this book for review purposes.
