Patricia Cornwall's same depressing formula is getting very boring. Dr Scarpetti will once again not be allowed a shred of happiness. Her only long term relationship is with her equally long suffering niece. If you've read one, you've basically read them all.

I couldn't wait to get my hands on the latest Scarpetta novel. I have read all of the Scarpetta books, and I have to say this was a bit disappointing. I enjoyed the technical aspects of the story, and found that interesting. The characters however, have not grown much over the years. Kay is still insecure about her status with Benton and seems stingy with the emotional follow-through in that relationship. Lucy is still the lonely genius with an attitude. Speaking of Lucy, why is it still such an issue that she is gay? Wasn't that covered in the last few books? Marino is still the cynical cop, looking for love when we all know it's Kay he truly wants. I would like to see these characters move forward a little. The plot was fine. Overall, this was not my favorite, but being a Cornwell fan....I had to finish it. Hopefully the next book in the series gets back to Cornwell's earlier work - which was much more interesting and left me intrigued.

I love Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series! Every book is so interesting. This book is as terrific as the rest, however, I was just as shattered as Kay, Lucy and Marino regarding the final victim of Carrie Grethen (or it is her final victim after all???). I was so angry and hurt! A testimony to the affect and quality of these novels on this reader, and, I'm trying to say this without giving anything away, is that I cried unabashedly for the last three chapters and then, was unable to even start the next book. I may have to wait a few months to take on Black Notice without, again, sobbing through the book. I am easily sucked into the worlds presented in books, but rarely are my reactions this intense.
One thing, though... Hey Patricia Cornwell! Is Kay Scarpetta EVER going to be happy???

After taking a one-book break from fiction's favorite Medical Examiner, Patricia Cornwell returns Kay Scarpetta to us in UNNATURAL EXPOSURE. Despite the often gruesome circumstance of the Scarpetta series, they are always a fast and fun read. Cornwell's latest is no exception. This time, an outbreak of a never-before seen pox virus infects some people on an island located off the Virginia coast. Even the remaining torso of a horribly mutilated homicide victim in Kay's morgue shows signs of having had the disease. Dr. Scarpetta, her overweight, irascible police investor friend Marino, and FBI agent niece Lucy are baffled. Where did this disease come from? Will the outbreak call for a national emergency? How can a cure be found if no one knows exactly what the disease is? Why was the murder victim chopped to bits if she was going to die of this horrible illness anyway? In true Cornwellesque fashion, these questions are answered with broad hints along the way. After reading some truly depressing novels in recent weeks, UNNATURAL EXPOSURE came as a pleasant diversion

you will like this book. Dr. Kay Scarpetta is a medical examiner and FBI consultant. She is witty, real and full of your typical character flaws. She is also smart and knows her job well. Patricia Cornwell fills this book with fascinating crime scene and autopsy information that loses me while it fascinates me!

I found this book to be extremely interesting. "Unnatural Exposure" is a quick moving page turner! I had no idea who the killer was. It was a good surprise for me.

This is my first Patricia Cornwell book and I am really looking forward to reading more of her novels. This book is intriguing and I am eager to read more about Kay, Benton, Marino and Lucy.

In short - great book ... I recommend it with vigor!

Patricia Cornwell is one of the best suspense writers i have read in a long time. Her knowledge on her stories makes it all the more better. The characters are very well written. I have read many of her beginning books and i think that some of them get better but some don't. This book was one that didn't get much better from her previous novel. I think that when she writes a book, she really knows how to pull you in and keep you wanting more, but in this one a lot of the situations dragged on. I still enjoyed the book and am looking forward to reading more!

This book is a rigorous rebuttal of the lies and half-truths I have been told about my country since high school and throughout college so far. This book isn't motivated by hate for the left, but by love for America. It is a very uplifting and funny book whose main theme is why America is worthy of our love.

The left thinks we are a classist, patriarchal, environmentally destructive, oppressive empire. If they were right about these things, they would be right to hate us. Luckily for us and for the world, they are wrong -- and Flynn presents the facts to prove it beyond any reasonable doubt.

Many leftists can't believe anything that doesn't fit with their brainless, America-is-evil ideology. But Flynn has provided extensive endnotes to show us where to look for more information. Crazies like Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, and Gore Vidal (and those silly, black-clad, rock-throwing anti-capatalist protesters we see more and more of) make wild accusations against the US without any proof whatsoever (e.g., the war in Afghanistan was motivated by our greed for oil!?). In contrast, Flynn shows us the respect of meticulously citing his facts.

This book completely lacks malice. Leftists are wrong and dangerous, but just kind of silly. By the end of the book you feel sorry for them because they don't see all the good that America does in the world.

They are convinced that America is a force for bad. Flynn proves them wrong. It's very uplifting, and often very clever. This book reminded me of real, proven reasons to love my country and to defend it against leftist slander and foreign attack.

Well folks, the critiques have already started. No doubt the swarms of America-hating, Chomsky loving, Rage Against The Machine listening, mental-midgeted, pseudo-intellectual radical degenerate leftists will proceed to bomblast this book, give it 1 star but in paranthesis put(I wish I could give it zero stars, huh huh!) and continue in giving defending the rights of dictators. The cruel irony of course, is that if any of the aforementioned complacents ever lived under the economic and/or governmental systems they purport, they would be the first to be killed for speaking against the government. In America, they can commit full-fledged sedition and then hide behind our precious First-Amendment for amnesty. This book backs up this sentiment of mine quite well, and this should be required reading for EVERY PARENT TO YOUR CHILDREN (another thing the radical left hates-the family unit). IT WHOULD BE REQUIRED IN ALL COLLEGES, IN BOMB-PROOF GLASS CASINGS!
If you think I'm exaggerating, read on...
One of the best summations Flynn provides is the history of how Fascism...I mean Communism ;-) found it's roots in American academics, media, economics, and Hollywierd, and then manifested itself to degenerate our society. Flynn also expounds upon the lack of reason and logic by the radical left in how they blame America for it's past ills and transgressions and then go to bat for terrorists and dictators who are far more guilty of perpetrating crimes they blame America for committing. Concerned? Beleive me, it gets worse.
But that is something for you to read when you pick up this book. As my title suggest, if America ever goes the way of Rome (Rome was defeated from the inside out-scary parody we may face), this book should be put in a time capsule to lay out the blueprint for how it happened. In the meantime, my thoughts go out to Flynn for this alarming piece. Maybe we can start a fund dedicated to making 'Why the Left Hates America' a fire-proof text. Berkeley Republicans will relate...

Modern American political books have left much to be desired. The best of them are either very well written and fun to read but fail to establish the factual basis for the conclusions they contain or they drone on with a litany of fact after fact with little art.

This book is well written and engaging but also supports its thesis with meaningful evidence.

The content of the book is stellar. It points out the various anti-American arguments and demonstrates their inadequacy. Comparison is made not only to the relatively unattractive real world alternatives but to the common ideals our country has established for ourselves through the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Federalist Papers.

At the same time it debunks false and disingenuous complaints the book fairly accepts arguments about America that have merit in the spirit of fixing the problems our country faces.

I am a product of public education. At several points through the book Mr. Flynn made assertions that ran so contrary to what I was taught that my immediate reaction was disbelief. On further research I found much of my public education to be highly skewed, at times outright false.

I highly recommend this book, especially to my fellow Americans in high school or college, that are likely to be confronted with a harmfully twisted view of America and its history.

This book has one strong point and two weak points.

The strong point is its abundance in historical evidence about the Holocaust. I rarely come across a book that produced such a great number of facts and figures of the Holocaust. In that respect, I found this book highly informative.

On the other hand, however, the style it's written in makes it difficult for a non-historian like me to read the book from cover to cover. Seeing this is not exactly an uplifting topic to write about, I would have liked a more lucidly written analysis. As it is, long sections of the book are depressing AND dull. There are numerous reading refrences in the appendix of the book which should have been written down in footnotes and/or worked into the bulk of the text.

The other weakness is the fact that the author's main point -numerous Germans, who weren't Nazis, willingly supported the Nazis in their mass murder of Jews - is not exactly new - or logical, at that. What Goldhagen does is simply translating what is the mainstream chit-chat, about Germany and the Holocaust in Britain and America, into an academic language. Let's face it: don't most people in Britain believe that the Germans are all Nazis deep inside? And don't the Americans think the same way? Was it really necessary to convince us, the English-speaking world, of something that we were already convinced of?

It is easy to see why Goldhagen¡¯s book generated so much controversy, both in academic circles and in the popular media. Goldhagen is anything but subtle in getting across his main thesis, which seems to be that the Nazi rise to power unleashed an already-existing ¡°eliminationist anti-Semitism¡± that was unique to Germans and their culture. After introducing his thesis, he spends the first part of the book giving an historical background of German anti-Semitism. He then focuses on particular (and often overlooked) aspects of the Holocaust to support his argument. For example, one part examines German police battalions in depth, focusing on how the participants were generally not Nazis, but ordinary Germans who zealously participated in murdering Jews.

Yet, despite his efforts, there seems to be something missing in the end. While he seems to argue that the Holocaust was something that could have only arisen in Germany, many historical facts (which he seems to conveniently overlook) contradict this. For one thing, it is generally well-documented that while Jews had been fairly integrated into German society by the 1930¡¯s, Jews in many Eastern European countries suffered terrible discrimination and were largely relegated to ghettoes. Moreover, while emphasizing the activity of ordinary Germans, Goldhagen overlooks the fact that many of the people who ultimately killed Jews during the Holocaust were not Germans, but passionate anti-Semites from much of Eastern Europe.

Nevertheless, despite obvious shortcomings, the book is worth reading for any serious student of the Holocaust. While his thesis was ultimately unproven in the end, I still felt that I had learned a great deal from reading the book. Having taken a couple of college courses that dealt with the subject of the Holocaust, I had often been left with the impression that most Germans were just pawns in a nation dominated by a small number of overpowering Nazis. Yet, after reading Goldhagen¡¯s accounts of how so many Germans voluntarily and enthusiastically took part in murderous organizations like the police battalions, I was reminded that there is a great risk in de-emphasizing the guilt of ordinary Germans.

One of the most controversial and thought-provoking books of recent years. Goldhagen challenges the accepted view that the Nazis were an aberration & were solely responsible for the Holocaust. Instead he argues that the virulent eliminationist anti-semitism that fueled the Holocaust was a unique and intrinsic part of German Culture and that the entire society voluntarily participated in it's enactment.

Goldhagen's demonstration of the guilt of "ordinary" Germans seems pretty incontrovertible. One section of the book focuses on a single police unit to show that the perpetrators of the Holocaust were average Germans and not fanatic Nazis. He shows that they could refuse orders they disagreed with and not suffer dire consequences, but in fact they did not choose to challenge the orders to round up and slaughter Jews. Indeed, they willingly share the news of what they are doing with their families & have candid photos taken when they are performing their duties. They hardly seem like unwilling parties.

On the other hand, Goldhagen's single-minded focus on Germany and the eliminationist anti-semitism of the Germans seems too limited. After all, even setting aside the Eastern Europeans, the French certainly seem to have been eager participants. Wasn't this a function of French anti-semitism? If so, how can we say that German eliminationist anti-semitism was unique? Goldhagen has done a great service by refusing to absolve the "ordinary" German from guilt in the Holocaust, why absolve the rest of Europe?

Moreover, there's a certain blithe assumption that modern Germany is fundamentally different from Nazi Germany and that such a thing could never happen again. One need only look at the current ethnic tensions in Germany and France to see that this assumption may be to hasty. Is it really that difficult to imagine France and Germany slaughtering their current immigrant Arab populations? I think not.

These caveats aside, this is a terrific book, one that is fundamental to understanding the Holocaust.

GRADE: A

Fans of Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series are in for a treat with Scarpetta's Winter Table - a novella and cookbook that picks up where the last Scarpetta book, Point of Origin, left off.

Cornwell brings Kay, Lucy, and Marino together at Kay's house on the day after Christmas. It's interesting to see how each of these characters struggles with the ups and downs of the holidays. Readers get a rather rare glimpse of Kay's softer side in a domestic (and very charming) holiday setting. And aside from this book's unique look at some of the Kay Scarpetta series characters, it's also a wonderful cookbook with great recipes, many of which will delight year-round. After all, Pete Marino's last-minute chili isn't just for Christmas!

The suggested retail price seems a little steep for a novella, but this just might be the perfect gift for Scarpetta fans. So fix yourself one of Lucy's Bloody Mary's, and give Scarpetta's Winter Table - and the chicken soup recipe in particular - a chance this holiday season. With this heartwarming and delicious combination, you won't be disappointed.

I can't believe all of the other comments. I absoutely love Kay Scarpetta and the others. I've read all her books. I found Winter Table in the library and was thrilled to see it. I went home, read it in an hour and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was fresh and fun. I called a fellow Cornwell fan and recommended it highly to her. Can't you others take a moment and just relax? Kay's stories are great...but they do get a little grizzly once in a while. This sweet book showed Marino to be human; Lucy's "friends" as you're all so concerned about are co-workers who risk their lives every day and had some time off and were "chilling" together. Not necessarily life long friends...just people who are in the same line of work who needed someone to spend the holidays with. If they have the same lifestyle as Lucy, they may have "lost" their families and need someone they can be real with. Lighten up everyone. It was a great book!!!

Just in time for holiday shoppers seeking that perfect gift for the legions of adoring readers of author Patricia Cornwell's crime novels featuring Virginia's intrepid Chief Medical Examiner Dr.Kay Scarpetta, this absolutely beguiling little cookbook (in the form of a warmhearted novella) is jampacked with "shoot-from-the-hip" recipes. The opening chapters are set around a traditional day-after-Christmas gathering of Scarpetta's small "adopted family" consisting of niece Lucy Farinelli, special agent of the ATF, and Captain Pete Marino of the Richmond police. This garrulous party features MARINO'S CAUSE-OF-DEATH EGGNOG and SCARPETTA'S HOLIDAY PIZZA. One of many things that make this happy-go-lucky little collection memorable is that the pizza, omelet, soup, stew, pasta and dessert recipes are flexible and diabolically plotted to utilize the cornucopia of leftovers commonly overflowing shelves of post-holiday refrigerators. These savory dishes are mostly down-home, mouthwatering table fare, well-calculated to delight any number of unexpected-but welcome-guests who are the lagniappe of the wintry season. While Aunt Kay is fulfilling her annual seasonal duty with a visit to her mother and sister in Miami, Lucy whomps up a pitcher of LUCY'S BLOODY MARYS as the apertif for an eggy brunch of LUCY'S FRIENDLY GRILL which she serves the merry gathering of her off-duty ATF buddies. For dinner, she cooks the ravenous snowbound agents a kettle full of SCARPETTA'S WHOLESOME CHICKEN SOUP. Scarpetta's brief annual Miami pilgrimage rekindles painful vestiges of familial dysfunction which find healthy outlet in SCARPETTA'S BAD MOOD PASTA PRIMAVERA, a palatable pourboire of kitchen psychotherapy. The episodes recounting Marino's adventures as the unwitting overnight surrogate father of a 10-year-old male snowball terrorist, inadvertently-abandoned by his harried, snow-marooned single mother, are highlighted by a macho supper of MARINO'S LAST MINUTE CHILI and breakfast of MARINO'S SOUTHERN-STYLE NEW JERSEY OMELET. Serendipitously, we encounter SCARPETTA'S CHILDHOOD KEY LIME PIE and a to-die-for batch of LUCY'S FELONIOUS COOKIES...and Kay's super-secret cappuccino bread. In this fashion, the lighthearted little narrative gambols merrily through ten chapters ending with SCARPETTA'S FAMOUS STEW, which the kindly forensic pathologist concocts to celebrate her homecoming just in time to sabotage the gang's best New Year's diet resolutions. Reviewed by Brewster Milton Robertson

Okay. I read books while riding an exercise bike in the morning before I go to work. If it is a good read, I'll pick up where I left off reading when I return home. In the past, Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series has often been that type of book. But . . . not this time. The padding (and lack of a courageous editor) is obvious. Kay's repeated musings about "poor me" and inward entreaties became tiresome within the first 50 pages, yet the pattern continued to repeat throughout. The whining about personal relationships got so bad that I thought I was reading Elizabeth George! Also, every short trip, whether by car, SUV or helicopter in and about the Richmond vicinity could not pass without detailed, trivial, irrelevant descriptions of cars, scenery, etc., little of which added to the story. PLEASE, Ms Cornwell, quit cannibalizing your old books for plot lines and characters, and concentrate on your story (if you have one).

Patricia Cornwell's first few books were great. I read each with great anticipation, to learn about Kay and Lucy and Benton and Marino. Then, her books started to get weird. They were angry and bitter. The story became unimportant. What became important was the interplay between Marino and Kay/Kay and Lucy and neither of these relationships was rational. In the Black Notice, the weirdness was taken to an extreme. I looked forward to the Last Precinct and for the first half of the book, I was not disappointed. The story of Kay's emotional catharsis was excellent and well written. I thought that we were on track to getting back to the story and getting rid of the anger. Well, the 2nd half of the book does not hold up to the promise of the first half. There were plenty of opportunities to make the 2nd half great, put Kay in a strong position for future books and take the story to a new level. Ms. Cornwell fails to achieve that. Too bad. I would certainly read this book if you are a Kay Scarpetta fan. Just dont expect the excellence of the first few novels.

Despite having never read any previous stories in Patricia Cornwell's 'Kay Scarpetta' series, I was in the mood for a good old-fashioned best-seller type of murder mystery and decided to give The Last Precinct a try. The promise of a good mystery supported with fascinating forensic science was too good to pass up.

Being unfamiliar with the previous adventures of Ms. Scarpetta, I had some trouble following the story at the beginning. Undoubtedly, things would've come together faster had I already been familiar with characters such as the grotesquely disfigured wolfman-like murderer Jean-Baptiste Chandonne, Diane Bray (one of Chandonne's recent victims), and Anna (Scarpetta's trusted old friend). However, a little perseverance on my part paid off and I was able to quickly become engrossed in the story.

It starts with Dr. Scarpetta, chief medical examiner of Virginia, having just survived a horrifying attack by Chandonne. From there, Scarpetta investigates other seemingly unrelated murders and finds herself all too closely involved in one of them. Like all good murder mysteries, the heroine must figure out which of her associates she can trust to help her solve the mystery and escape danger and which she cannot. Although the formula may be familiar, Cornwell's ability to hold the reader's attention throughout (especially by the use of graphic autopsy details) makes it an exciting read.

Having gotten completely caught up in the story, I anxiously awaited the end so all of my questions could be answered and I could relax again. Of course, I should've known better than to expect a nice neat ending in the 11th installment of such a popular series. Some of the questions were answered but answers to plenty of others will apparently have to wait for the next installment.

All in all, The Last Precinct is fast-paced and enjoyable, even for Scarpetta newbies.

I have read virtually every Danielle Steel book out there. In fact, for many years, the minute I saw the book on the shelf, I was a bit lighter in my pocket for having bought it. I've been really disappointed in much of her later works - feeling that they were extremely repetitive and worn out plots. The Cottage is the best of the latter works I have read. I enjoyed the characters, though I would have liked to see more of the interaction between Alex and Jimmy, as well as Mark and Taryn. Overall, a light, enjoyable read.

I began reading this book and felt like I was walking in quicksand. Next, I felt like I was going round and round in circles. I said "I've been here before". DS kept telling the same thing over and over about the characters and each of the different life styles.

I would have rated the book a 3 but the story got better after "the accident" which takes place about midway the book. I started enjoying the book at that point. The main character,Cooper Winslow, leaves a lot to be desired by most women.Cooper has one relationship after another with women young enough to be his granddaughters. His relationship doesn't last very long with any of them. Cooper refuses to acknowledge that he is not a young man any longer.He will not take movie roles that don't portray him a leading man. Cooper doesn't realize he should be playing the roles of a father or a grandfather.

Cooper's poor management of money and his vanity threatens his financial future.His self-centered,egotistical,selfish personality made me gag. It took two special mature women in his life to turn him around.

Yes, that is a strong statement, but I believe THE COTTAGE to be the best novel written in English. And English is a rich language, overflowing with worthy works from both sides of the Atlantic, India and beyond. The only novel as a close contender on my list is Jane Eyre, with its fearsome symmetry and romantic passion.

Danielle Steel has been the bane of students everywhere who suffer reading LEAP OF FAITH in high school. But later on, you, like me, may develop a taste for the classics and this book will reward you richly.

The first few chapters are tedious and overwritten; I nearly gave up at some points but I always thought, "I got this far, I might as well go further." By the end of the book, I was sorry I had finished it and sad that I would no longer read about these characters who had become so intimate to me. That's my measure of a masterpiece. I felt as if I'd lost some friends in the main characters when I closed the book.

The main reason I was bored in the first few chapters was because I found Cooper Winslow so unbelieavably "good" and "pious." I could not relate at all to the character who seemed one-dimensional. And I was not surprised or sorry that he had dwindled his fortune down to nearly nothing, and had to take on roommates. But I believe now that Danielle Steel's early depiction of Coop sets us up to realize that we all often are foolish and close-minded when we are old and ought to believe passionately in "saving the world." Even with the best of intentions, as Steel shows, we often fall short because of societal restrictions and mistakes we make in life. In the final analysis, Danielle Steel makes her point well: we can inspire people and change their lives with one act of kindness and by doing good in our community in our quiet ways. I started out rolling my eyes at Cooper and ended up wanting to emulate him in my own life.

I love Danielle Steel's style of writing - beautifully and distinctively eloquent and expressive, and with such observance and skills in depicting the depths and complexities of human relations and the demands and passions of the heart. The book also explores the issues of "class," "money," "politics," "scandals," and even "murder" - all portrayed brilliantly in high drama and with engrossing suspense.

I am surprised that so many people think the story centers around Cooper. What makes this novel so compelling and fascinating is Danielle Steel's accomplishment in creating an entire village with complex characters so different and yet so similar to each other. I would say this story is as much about Mark Friedman, Jimmy O' Connor, Alex et al as it was about Cooper.

In my copy of the book, there is a quote by Virginia Woolfe that says, to paraphrase, that this book is a great English novel written for adults. This is so true! I am a die-hard Jane Austen fan, but the one major flaw I see with Austen is that she writes about courtship and ends at marriage so it can be easy to write (though in my wildest dreams I could never write as brilliantly as Jane Austen). Courtship is often exciting, romantic, and idealistic. But marriage, and any long-term relationship, involves compromise, trials and tribulations, tests of a couple's strength or the events that reveal the weakness of their bond. This novel examines the full range from courtship to marriage and the difficulties within all relationships. Through all the events, you find yourself sympathizing with each character, even while you realize you loathe what he/she is doing, his/her point of view. What's amazing is that within this complex set of characters lies complexity within each person.

Leap of Faith is an enjoyable story split between the cosmopolitan France, and down-home Iowa. It is a fast-paced well-written jaunt into the life of a young woman, Marie-Ange.

Her life is turned upside down by a tragic car crash, and she is sent to live with her aunt in Iowa. Unfamiliar with the midwest, Marie-Ange has much to adjust to. Her aunt's eccentricities make life no easier for her.

However, Marie-Ange's story does not end with her upheaval as a child. The story follows her life and the people she meets along the way, good and bad. It becomes an engaging story of a young woman and the trials of her life.

If you enjoy Danielle Steel you will certainly enjoy this book as well. It is well-written, engaging, and interesting. It will leave you guessing, and keep you reading with the roller-coaster ride of a story it offers... Enjoy!

Leap of Faith, a fictional novel written by Danielle Steel, is a compelling example of how a person can succeed in life, regardless of betrayal and hardships. The story vividly describes each character to the extent that the reader is able to feel a part of the situation. When the first chapter approaches to an end, and the storylines turning point comes forward, it becomes a book you will not want to stop reading.

Marie-Ange is the main character, and the novel revolves around her growing up and making it through all of the challenging obstacles she had to overcome by herself. The beginning of the book shows Marie-Ange living with her family in their Chateau de Marmounton in France. Life was perfect. They were an incredibly wealthy family, until something devastating happens and Marie-Ange's life is forced into a whole new direction causing her to leave everything she has ever known behind. She leaves France and moves to Iowa, where her Great-Aunt Carole lives.

The book carries on with how life was like living with Carole, which was far more different from what Marie-Ange was used too. Marie-Ange was fairly miserable due to the way Carole treated her and she had aspirations of someday returning to her family's Chateau de Marmounton to get away. Her dreams didn't seem like a reality given the circumstances she was under, until one day a knock on her front door changed everything.

This knock meant a new life for Marie-Ange, and a chance to live out her dreams of returning to France. Once she went back to France, her life picked up in speed greatly. She met an astonishing man who was prosperous, and coincidentally, lived in her childhood house. They fell in love, got married, and even had two children together. However, her newly found perfect life takes a startling turn. Marie-Ange is forced to find courage and faith to save her life and her children's lives.

Leap of Faith is a true Cinderella story with many more twists. These little changes in the book's plot cause the reader to become more and more involved with what the next page brings. This was a wonderful book that shows that things aren't always what they seem and that good things really do happen to good people in the end.

Leap of Faith is a great read. Danielle Steel has written a wonderful book. The main character, Marie-Ange, is likeable from page one. The reader is guaranteed to feel her joy and pain as she feels them. Marie-Ange is faced with tragedy at the young age of 11. She is forced to leave her home country and live with a relative who doesn't really show any emotion except hate, of everyone and everything. I literally had tears in my eyes as I read of the horrible things that happened to Marie-Ange when she went to live with her aunt. Hurrah for Billy. He was definitely a blessing from the first meeting between him and Marie-Ange.

This book reminded me of the earlier Danielle Steel books. It seems as if some of her more recent works were not quite as emotional and interesting as her older works. Leap of Faith is an excellent book. It has a good story line and moves at a good pace. The reader doesn't have time to get bored. I felt like I couldn't read this book fast enough. Even though it is a short 202 pages it is packed full of all the ingredients that make a DS book good to read. Definitely a book that you'll want to read now and again in a few months or years. This is a lasting DS novel. :)

I've only read a few of Danielle Steel's books and some, like The Gift, I've liked and others, like this one, I thought were terrible.

This book breaks a cardinal rule of romance novel writing. It gives us an unlikable hero. Joe is a first class jerk. And that's one of the cleaner terms I use to describe him. He can't commit to Kate and she finally leaves him. She marries Andy and has a baby. That's when Joe waltzes back into her life and busts up her marriage. When she finally gets her divorce and marries Joe he let's her know in no uncertain terms that he does not want children. When she gets pregnant he treats her horribly.When she gets into a car accident and loses the twins she's carrying, Andy is the one in the hospital with her. Joe is nowhere to be found. Despite her depression over losing the babies he let's her know he does not want her getting pregnant again. He constantly leaves her alone while building up his company and when she complains he gets mad at her. He doesn't even try to meet her halfway. He basically tells her to live with it.

The reader has to have some idea of what motivates the hero and heroine to act the way that they do during the course of the story and we have no idea why Joe treats the supposed "love of his life" the way that he does. He's happier with his planes. Kate should have left him to them. I can understand how hard it is to be without the person that you love, but Kate should have learned to love herself just a little bit more. She put up with Joe's crap for years and I found it very irritating.

And I agree with a number of the other reviews that DS repeats things over and over. I've noticed that in her other books.

Ever since i picked this great book and started reading it i couldn't put it down. If you look for a great romance book this is one for you. I seriously couldn't put the book down. I read it all in one day and enjoyed every moment of it. READ IT!

I thought the novel was a great read. Once I got started I couldn't put it down. I really liked the characters of Joe and Kate. Sometimes we all do things when we are in love that most people looking in from the outside don't understand. In the end they found out what each other were really about.