Amazing Grace

By Danielle Steele

 

Imagine that the unthinkable happens.

A disaster strikes. Your entire city is affected.

Imagine tens of thousands of people dead.  Hundreds of thousands homeless.  You and your family are safe, but help is needed in your area.

Would you lend a hand?

In the new audio book, “Amazing Grace” by Danielle Steel, few do. They’re mostly interested in appearances, love, and staying out of jail.

Because her firstborn spent time in the neonatal unit of a San Francisco hospital, Sarah Sloane knew it was time to give back. Sarah spent considerable time putting together a benefit at the Ritz-Carlton ballroom in the hopes of raising several million dollars to help the hospital.

 

Sarah’s husband, Seth, a financial expert who wowed his customers with his savvy, made it possible for Sarah to have time to devote to this benefit.  Seth made millions for his customers, and they paid him well in return. 

The Sloane family owned several properties, cars, jewelry, a plane … and Sarah hoped to have the winning bid to capture the donated Range Rover at the evening’s auction.

Performing at the benefit was highly-talented 18-year-old Grammy winner Melanie Free, whose singing fee was high but whose performance was off-the-charts. Sarah knew Melanie would be worth it.  Sweet Melanie was certainly someone that everyone wanted to see, and big entertainer equaled big donations.

 

Photographer Everett Carson wasn’t happy about being sent to this kind of shindig, but a paycheck was a paycheck.  Everett had some bumps in life and when he found himself in a prostitute’s bed in another country, he knew it was time to dry out and get back to work. This gig wasn’t exactly his “thing,” but it was a good start to re-employment.

All her life, Sister Maggie Kent wanted to be a nun.  She loved being married to God and she wore her religious wedding band with pride. 

Caring for the people in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District was not just a calling, it was what she loved to do.

 

Feeling like a fish out of water, Maggie was helping out at the benefit at the Ritz-Carlton. It was all another facet of her life of service.

And then the earthquake hit. Tens of thousands dead.  Hundreds of thousands homeless. And five lives changed forever.

Hoo, boy.

Several words came to mind when I was listening to this audiobook.  Implausible.  Insulting.  Irritating. Never-ending.

I generally listen to audio books in my car while I’m running errands. “Amazing Grace” made me want to stay home. Author Danielle Steel populated this novel with characters that are either so completely self-centered that I wanted to cover my ears, or are so impossibly angelic that my teeth hurt.

 

The only character that does anything you can imagine anyone actually doing is so hatefully selfish that you want to reach into the CD player and do violence to him.

If you’re a big Danielle Steel fan, buy the book and run far away from the CD version of this novel. 

“Amazing Grace” in audio is an amazing disgrace.