Who is most important to you? Has there ever been someone or something you cared about so much that you can barely breathe when you're with them? Time just seems to slip away and then before you know it everything has changed and all you ever cared about is gone. In the book “Johnny Angel” by Danielle Steel, Johnny Peterson had the perfect life, the seventeen-year-old Johnny Peterson could light up a room, fill his mother’s heart with pride, and inspire the best in those around him. A star athlete with a football scholarship that promised him an incredible education. He was class valedictorian, tall, lanky Johnny had a future filled with promises. It is his senior year of high school and things couldn't be better. He was getting good grades, had a date to prom with his girlfriend Becky, and had a good roof over his head with people that loved him. Johnny was the best kind of kid you could ever ask for. He was the type that always remembered his manners, did as he was told, and helped anyone at anytime when someone needed assistance. The night of prom, he had a good time and was headed home with his girlfriend when another car with a bunch of kids challenged him to a drag race. Johnny refused and kept on his way. A few minutes later there was a big crash and they didn't even know what hit them. Becky was taken to the hospital to be checked out. While Johnny did not go to the hospital or home that night or any night. A firefighter went to Johnny's house and told his mother that he was pronounced dead at the scene. That night, lots of tears were shed for the life that once was. No one was more upset over Johnny's death then his mother. Johnny meant everything to her. His mother Alice went into a very bad depression. This lead to her becoming very ill and had to be rushed to the hospital to be treated. While she was in the hospital, Johnny started coming back to her in visions and helping her get through it. Johnny actually was becoming an angel in Heaven but he had to earn his wings. To do this he had to accomplish something on earth, but he didn't know what. The only other person Johnny would appear to is his nine-year old brother Bobby. He was a child with special needs and was locked in a silent world. Johnny always seemed to understand his little brother. Bobby never spoke after he and his father, Jim, drove off a bridge. A stranger saved Bobby, and Jim managed to get out just in time. Bobby was on life support for two weeks, and ever since Bobby hadn't spoken a single word. Jim his Dad , is so consumed with guilt that every night, while Bobby is locked in his silent world, Jim drinks himself to sleep in front of the television. Then as Johnny begins to appear to little Bobby he starts to talk. Johnny's high school sweetheart, Becky had lost her father 2 years ago when he died. Her mother works for most of the day, so Becky has to take care of her four brothers and sisters while maintaining two jobs and schoolwork. Becky did not get the scholarship that she hoped for, so now she can't go to college and has to begin to work full time at a local drugstore.
1 STARS"Johnny Peterson could light up a room with a word or a smile. He had a future filled with promise--until he stepped into a car on prom night and, in an instant, it was all taken away. In the months that followed, Johnny's family and his high school sweetheart, Becky, struggle to put together the pieces of their shattered lives. No one is more devastated than Johnny's mother, Alice, but amid the heartache, something miraculous is about to happen. When a sudden illness sends Alice to hospital, a glorious vision comes to her--there, standing before her, is Johnny himself, gently urging his bewildered mother to be strong for her splintered family.Through a season of hope and healing, Johnny will walk by his mother's side, leading his parents, his girlfriend, his sister and his brother out of their grief. But as Alice is about to discover, Johnny has returned not just to help those he loves, but to uncover a purpose even he cannot comprehend--one that will change them all forever." (From Amazon)Originally when I read Danielle Steel novels I would have rated them 3-4 STARS, but now I would classify them as 1-2 STARS. These are great for those who like mild sex, unrealistic dramatic romances and grand plots.
What do You think about Johnny Angel (2004)?
Johnny Peterson was the perfect son and boyfriend. He was smart, handsome, athletic, and well-behaved. All of that was taken away right after a horrific car crash that took place on the night of his senior prom, causing him to die at seventeen. After hearing about his untimely death, his parents, his younger siblings, and his girlfriend, Becky, are completely devastated. When Alice, Johnny’s grieving mother, was taken to the hospital, she finds that her whole world is going to change. Johnny appeared to her as a ghost and told her that she was going to make things right for his loved ones, whose suffering was tearing them apart. Will Johnny be able to correct everything that was wrong with his dysfunctional family? Can his loved ones learn to move on without him in their lives?
—Jen Selinsky
A "perfect" 17-year-old dies in a car crash then comes back to help his family and loved ones deal with his death and cope with other challenges. I didn't find this book compelling or even very interesting. The word boring comes to mind when I think of this book. It took me longer than it should have to read, because reading it was often such a chore. The characters are flat, the plot predictable and lack-luster and dialogue banal. I gave the book got two stars because to me the idea of a "dead" hero helping the living through hard times is one that could be interesting if well-done, but in this book it is not. This was my first Danielle Steel novel. I have heard that her books are pretty good, but after this one, I will wait awhile until I read another.
—D
Reading Johnny Angel brought tears to my eyes. This book is not about the story or the character or the ending. It's just about relationships. A relationship between a husband and wife, a mother and daughter or her son, two teenagers. Its how one accident really burned lives. Its about the living people after someone so close to them had died. Johnny Angel is all that.In this book I loved the special bonding between Johnny and his mother. Soul mate is the person we can be ourselves with. For Ali
—Sababa
