In the interest of not beating a dead horse or only repeating the same monotony complaint other reviewers have covered - I'd rather talk about the other problems with this book. Not to say it wasn't monotonous (it was) and that alone made it a 'scan' read. A book you don't read every single word on the page but rather scan paragraphs for some dialogue or action that is doing the job of moving the story forward.Tanya the perfect mother and wife has the perfect husband. And he encourages her to go live out her perfect fantasy in her perfect career. (Rest assured all of the perfects are told to you painstakingly again and again) He assures her he has things under control. Step one for disbelief when Steel sets this same husband up to fall into her best friends arms within three months of her being gone. My husband and I have a similar (though not perfect because it is reality) relationship as this couple. He went to work out of country for nine months and I was okay. I know without a shadow of a doubt in a reverse situation, I would not come home to find him sleeping with my best friend. Especially in such a short time span. So stop telling us it was perfect and start explaining to your reader how the marriage had actually broken down. Give us some real reasons to believe that this man would do this. Don't just make one of the main plot elements completely out of character for your characters with no reasoning. And the only reasoning to progress this plot was the big C. Really? That is the best you can do after all these years Ms Steel? Furthermore, Tanya's first boyfriend didn't like kids. We all got that drilled repeatedly into our thoughts. But her kids were not kids. Not even close. They were all three in college! That is young adults. What man would be too frightened to relate to them at all? I mean he couldn't even carry on a conversation with them? This suave, debonair, classy man whom works with young actors and actresses all the time, could not make a normal conversation with two college kids when they attempted to start one? That doesn't even make sense. At all.Predictable. Sappy. Over told. Repeated. Could forgive all those faults, might even enjoy some sap. Can not forgive how you just built a story to do everything you wanted it to do but did not build your characters or their reality into the plot at all.Bungalow 2 is the biggest fail I've ever read from Danielle Steel. And this is sad because some of her earlier work was pure magic. But readers reading this for the first time would never be inspired to read the real Danielle Steel. I even asked myself if this was a bad ghostwriter. I can't believe this is from the same author to give us Kalidescope and Thurston House.
Tanya Harris is a forty-something mother and homemaker, and a part time, moderately successful writer of short stories and soap opera scripts. Tanya is a beautiful woman with stable, happy teenagers, a fulfilling and sexually active marriage, a career she loves, and no desire for any other life. She has long given up on her dream of someday writing a screenplay, but then her agent calls with an offer that's very hard to refuse: a major director wants her and her alone for a new high profile film. Tanya's first reaction is distress -- her daughters are just starting their senior year, how can she leave them, even if she could be home on weekends? Her long and detailed deliberations are cut short by her attorney husband, who convinces her that this is her big opportunity, and she goes off to Hollywood reluctantly to find that everything about Bungalow 2 at the Beverly Hills Hotel is perfect. She's cosseted in every possible way by her director and producer, she takes to the work immediately and without a hitch, she learns to appreciate room service and the luxurious perks that come her way. But she misses her family. The weekend trips home aren't enough, and her worries turn out to be well founded when her husband falls prey to a lonely neighbor (165). Steel follows Tanya as she copes with the disappointment and pain of separation and divorce, all the time pushing ahead with her screenwriting career, always returning to Bungalow 2 when she starts a new project. A series of relationships, each seriously flawed, result in an epiphany that sends her back home, where what she was looking for comes to find her. Steel's characters spend a lot of time debating and contemplating problems, and Tanya is especially good at wringing her hands, a modern day and forlorn Dorothy torn between Oz and Kansas.
What do You think about Bungalow 2 (2007)?
I just started reading this book last night. I got it becuase it sounded like an interesting plot. Who doesn't want to read about the rich glamourous life of celebrities? So far it's been a let down. I don't know if I can finish it. I got about 100 pages in but it took me about 3 hours to do it, because, it does not keep my attention at all. I think (so far) it has been poorly written. I don't need to read about how much she loves being a housewife or how good her sex life is 20 times a chapter, tell me once and I'll believe you. You don't have to keep repeating everything. So far it's been very repetitive and boring. I don't know if I'll finish it but I may try if I have nothing better to do.OK, I actually finished the book (it took a LOT of will-power). It never got better. Don't waste your time with this one.
—Stephanie Miles
I just finished reading this book and I think it's one of Danielle Steel's worst books yet! The first 75% of the book goes into too much detail of Tanya's marriage, life in Marin, Douglas's personality and her doomed relationship with Douglas. The last 25% hurriedly covers another flopped relationship and finally her romance with Phillip is tacked on at the very end. There is little description of Phillip's personality and it's hard to get to know him as a character. He seems like a quick aftert
—Karen A
This was the first book I've read in my lifetime that I wanted to return to the store for a refund. I also contemplated burning it to spare others the agony of picking it up and reading it. The characters were shallow and self-centered, but the worst was the doormat mentality of the "heroine" in the story. Danielle Steel should be ashamed of herself for offering up the same tired storyline in every book and selling it to the gullible. I would give this book a negative five stars if Goodreads would allow it.
—Kimberly
