by Danielle Steel
No doubt Steel's intentions were good in using her clout as a mega-selling novelist to shed light on the horrors of child abuse. And the scenes in Road where young Gabriella Harrison is beaten up by her socialite mother are so harrowing that they will likely provoke serious thought among Steel's readers. Yet there's something vaguely unsavory about a novel that uses that haunting beginning as simply the first in a series of trials poor Gabbie must endure before she is transformed into one of Steel's typical romantic heroines. By the time the character has been tossed by her mother into a convent, seduced, victimized by a con artist and more, it will be hard for most readers not to feel manipulated by all the melodrama. (Delacorte, $25.95)
Bottom Line: Decent start turns into a romantic muddle
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