20 March, 2014

#BookReview :: Until The End Of Time by Danielle Steel

Bill is a dedicated young lawyer working in New York. He leaves everything he trained for to follow his dream to become a minister in rural Wyoming. Jenny, his fashion stylist wife, leaves the milieu and life she loves to join him. The certainty they share is that their destinies are linked forever.

Fast forward thirty-eight years. Robert is a hard-working independent book publisher in Manhattan, looking for one big hit novel to publish. Lillibet is a young Amish woman, living as though in the seventeenth century, caring for her widowed father and three young brothers on their family farm. In secret at night, by candlelight, she has written the novel that burns within her. When it falls into Robert's hands, he falls in love first with the book, and then with the woman he has never met.


In the hands of bestselling author Danielle Steel, these two remarkable relationships come together in unexpected and surprising ways, as lovers are lost, and find each other again. If it is true that real love lasts forever and lovers cannot lose each other, then Until the End of Time will not only comfort and fascinate us, as destiny does her dance, but it will give us hope as well. Love and fate are powerful, irresistible forces, as Steel proves to us here, in a book about courage, change, risk, and hope.and love that never dies.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17307834-until-the-end-of-time



Until the End of Time is essentially two love stories over a period of time.


On one hand we have Bill and Jenny - a lawyer and fashion stylist living the big-city life. In love and very sure about their entwined destinies together, Bill takes up the post of a Minister in a small town in Wyoming and Jenny follows him their. They are happy in their lives together until a tragedy strikes. Fast forward a couple of decades and we meet the couple of the second story, Robert and Lilibet. Lilibet is an Amish girl who has secretly written a book and meets Robert, who is a publisher, while trying to get it published. As they meet and fall in love, there’s the twist in the tale that creeps up to the readers.
Danielle Steel certainly has mastered the art of story-telling. I always find her narration engaging and interesting. Her characters also have a wide range and often offers some surprising insights to people. In this case though the two couples a very different on their own rights. I loved reading about Bill and Jenny and adored their story which was quite enchanting. But I failed to connect with Robert and Lilibet. I wish the author would have given us proper insight into the Amish culture that I am very curious about. Also, the second story felt quite rushed and didn’t have the  same feel as that of Bill and Jenny’s story.
Now about the twist in the end… Without giving out any spoilers, I can only say that it is a well explored concept both in literature and in movies - especially Bollywood movies. So when offering such a concept to the readers, I would expect an author to put her own little twist/take on it that would make it stand apart from the so many other artists who have explored it. Instead Danielle Steel plates up the same old concept in the same old manner and thus leaving me a bit disappointed at the end.
Overall, not the best Danielle Steel work but enjoyable still.





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