WANDERLUST

* As you may have notice, I am writing this review in English. Before starting the review itself I would like to make that point clear. As I am going to be using this as a kind of diary where I write my impressions about all the books I am reading, I find it very interesting to make a little effort and write each review in the language in which I have been reading the book, merely because I am going to have better words to describe my feelings towards them.

Author: Danielle Steel

Title: Wanderlust

Publisher: Dell

Number of pages: 506

Synopsis:

Audry Driscoll is an orphan lady who lost both her parents when she and her sister Annabelle were just two little girls. They lived in Hawaii and moved to San Francisco after their parents’ death in order to be raised up by their grandfather. Audry’s duties were basically look after her very spoilt younger sister and run her grandfather’s house, but what she really hoped was to be able to wander and see the whole world just like her beloved father did. One day she decides to break her miserable life and go on a trip to Europe to rediscover herself. This trip would be full of adventures and would change her life completely: she will meet Charles, a British journalist that would turn into the love of her life, and Violet and James, who will become part of her family. She will have to deal between her deepest desires and the weight of her responsibilities.

Review:

I bought this book in a little jumble sale at the Biblioteca Pública de Guadalajara and it cost me just 1Euro. I decided to buy it because it was a great opportunity to read something purely romantic in English and because Danielle Steel is an author worldwide famous in her genre. Of course my preconceived prospects have been reached.

The good things about this novel are basically, first of all, that it is fun. In my opinion all the drama floating around the story makes it even funnier. And second it is extremely easy to read. I would recommend this book to someone who is learning English and has never dared to read something larger than the school books or maybe to someone who is on vacation and does not want to be careless with their English.

But, and this is very important, do not expect anything high quality in literary terms. I need to point this out because something that really shocked me about this novel was the fact that the author was constantly repeating some structures, like for example: “a great deal” which appears more than twenty times. There was a constant anguish while reading the book because the main character is always fighting against what she really wants and then, out of nothing, she makes big decisions that contradict her previous thoughts, but I guess those are the reasons why you can’t stop reading.

Finally I would add that the novel is set in the years of the II World War, which is one my favorite subjects but in my opinion the field is treated very slightly (maybe because the World War II interests me “a great deal” as Danielle Steel would say).