Helpful Score: 2
Heart-wrenching book that really makes you feel and understand the characters. Wonderful and touching story. A must read!
Helpful Score: 1
It's been about 25 years since I read a Danielle Steel book. And I probably won't read another one of her books for another 25 years, if I live that long. Too many other readings I want to do. I found the romantic elements in her books too schalmtzy (for those not from the Northeast, this translates as "yicky" or even unrealistic)and something I had outgrown. Also Steel's writing is at about an 8th grade level and I was trying to improve myself. Now, I don't care nearly as much and I read almost anything that floats by. At first I found "Johnny Angel" so unrealistic as to be laughable. Actually I was annoyed. Johnny is too good to be true - a "perfect" teenager: easy going, always willing to help, attached to only one girlfriend who he plans to marry; working to pay for college while maintaining a good grade point average, adored by his parents and finally, an excellent all around athlete. He's a one-dimensional hero. It is only after his death in a car accident that Johnny becomes more multi-dimensional. Through his quiet intervention Johnny is now able to positively effect the lives of the living, especially those who are devastated by his death. But the "too good to be true" changes and opportunities given to the living don't appear as unrealistic as in the beginning. Johnny leaves his family when his "Mission" is done but not before having pulled some miracles that leaves those closest to him much happier than when he first arrived. I don't want to give away any of the plot not described on the flyleaf of the book. Yes, the ending was just as unrealistic as the beginning but I was sucked in nonetheless by the second part of the book. It was as if I was reading a fairy tale geared for adults. Danielle Steel is a whiz at creating plot and characters we can relate to at some level which is why I suspect she's had so many bestsellers. If you like Steel, you won't be able to put this 180 page book down.
Helpful Score: 1
A moving story of a mom who loses her son much too soon. We all hope for that one last hug, or a chance to say goodbye. This was a very touching book.
Helpful Score: 1
Truely heart touching. I cried my way through the entire book.
Helpful Score: 1
In the 1962 rock ballad, Johnny Angel isn't an angel, but an angelic young dreamboat. In Steel's book, the titular hero is both-as well as class valedictorian, a football/track star, a faithful boyfriend and a college scholarship winner who holds down two jobs to help out his family; on top of it all, he has "great teeth." Killed in a car crash after his senior prom, 17-year-old Johnny Peterson is sent back to earth as an angel. His mission: to fix certain troubles left unresolved at the time of his death involving his girlfriend, Becky, her impoverished mother and his dysfunctional family. The plot may strike TV viewers as little more than a warmed-over Touched by an Angel rerun, but the theme-the healing power of love-is classic Steel. Unfortunately, the story is flawed by clunky characterizations. The sticking point isn't that Steel reveals her characters' problems through authorial proclamation rather than action and dialogue-that bluntness is simply her style-but that she explains those problems repeatedly. The first time readers learn that Johnny's dad drinks himself into a stupor every night from guilt over causing the accident that traumatized Johnny's brother, Bobby, into muteness, it is necessary information. The second repeat can be justified as emphasis. But multiple further repetitions are downright tedious. Still, Steele's heartfelt depiction of the central relationship between Johnny and his mother is touching, and few readers will get through the revelation of Johnny's final gift with dry eyes.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW
