Danielle Steel delivers again with her 74th novel, Amazing Grace. In a San Fransisco ravaged by a devestating earthquake, Steel brings together a cast of disparate characters, including Sarah and Seth Sloane, a wealthy young couple whose civic-mindedness and charitable endeavors have earned them a reputation as rising stars; Sr. Maggie, a dedicated nun who has spent two decades working with the city''s homeless and destitute; Everett Carlson, a famous photojournalist slowly regaining his professional reputation after a long bout with alcohol; and Melanie Free, a grammy-winning singer whose career is just taking off. They are all drawn together at a gala charity event organized by Sarah for the benefit of a local children''s hospital, each for their own reason. All of their lives are irrevocably changed when the earthquake brings the event to a sudden and disastrous end. Cut off from the outside world and even from their homes and, in some cases, families, each of them will face personal crises that are exacerbated or revealed by a city in ruins. How their lives gradually entertwine is classic Steel. The novel takes the reader from the first dislocating weeks following the earthquake and through the next several months as each of her characters faces their personal crisis and attempts to work through it,often with the help of their new friends.
While Steel''s novels may not be the stuff of great literature, she, like Charles Dickens, is able to capture the fabric of the social milieu that is the background in which her characters'' lives are revealed. Fans of Danielle Steel will not be disappointed and readers new to her novels may be pleasantly surprised at how quickly they are drawn in to the plot.