The Cast: A Sparkling Celebration of Women's Strength and Creativity from the Billion Copy Bestseller

WARNING: This Review contains spoilers for The Cast The Cast is probably the first Danielle Steel novel I’ve read (I have vague recollections of another book that may either be from Sidney Sheldon or Danielle Steel and I can’t remember NO MATTER HOW MUCH I TRY.) (Life Before Goodreads. Sigh.) I have two other Danielle Steels’ currently sitting on my TBR, but I picked The Cast up first because of its ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS COVER. Like how STUNNING is that? The Cast is essentially the story of a middle aged woman, who through hard work and a little bit of luck, gets a bible picked up by a big time executive producer and suddenly her life changes. It’s also about her family, and her three children. MY THOUGHTS: 1. If I were to describe this book in one word, or an emotion that I feel looking back at it, it would be ‘Disconnect.’ Told in third person, I not once felt connected to the variety of characters in the book, or even felt anything like happiness or grief when Kait Whittier, the main character, went through events that cause her either. 2. I mean, KAIT’S DAUGHTER WAS BOMBED AND KILLED WHILE MAKING A DOCUMENTARY AND HER GRIEF WAS SO… PAPER THIN. All I read was “Grief threatened to overtake Kait” but I never once felt it. 3. Also, everyone in this book was just so MECHANICAL. There were always logical, mature choices being made for EVERYTHING, but does life really… work like that? Especially in Hollywood, when it comes to family and DEATH of a child? 4. If I put aside the fact that this book was entirely mechanical, I did like a few things including - THE PLOT OF The Wilder Women, which is the TV Show Kait wrote. It had such a wonderful story, and I honestly would love to see Women in Aviation during WW II on a real TV screen. - Kait and Zach had this ultra-adorable romance, which I loved and I also loved how her kids teased her about it. - I loved Maeve, Agnes and Kait and the supportive, constructive relationship they had with each other. VERDICT: Connecting with SOMETHING in a book is probably the most important thing for me while reading, and so I don’t really recommend this unless you’re already a Danielle Steel fan, and I probably won’t be picking up another book from her for a while now. 2.75 stars.

I have drawn immense pleasure from the characters in many of her books