[amazon template=image&asin=0440242045]I thought I would entertain you today with a book review I wrote in November 2011. The book being reviewed is H.R.H. by Danielle Steel.     

Oh boy. This book was bad.

I picked it up from the top of a trash can in a bus station. I was in a desperate situation. I had almost 24 hours more on the bus and nothing left to read. I didn’t have high hopes for this book, but I really, really, really needed something to help me pass the time. I’m not a big Danielle Steel fan, but I had to read something, so I was glad to find a free book.

The plot is weak. A sad, noble, unspoiled little rich girl princess (literally) can’t have the life of freedom she wants, but is allowed to volunteer in Africa with the Red Cross for a few months. In Africa, she meets a commoner she is not allowed to marry. In the last twenty (or less) pages of the book, tragedy strikes, allowing her to live happily ever after.

The writing is weak too. Ms. Steel must have been getting paid by the word, because there is a lot of repetition, many examples of the reader getting the same information in an only slightly different way.

May I give examples of two of the worst sentences I have ever read?

“The drinks were made by an African company, and tasted sickly sweet, but they drank them anyway, as it was hot and they were thirsty, although it was winter in East Africa, but the weather was warm.” I figure that sentence really consists of three sentences strung together with commas. Has this Steel woman never heard of a run-on sentence? Any of my high school English teachers would have failed a student for writing a sentence like that! The last clause, “although it was winter in East Africa, but the weather was warm” is so awkward that I cringe whenever I read it.

Here’s my second example: “Or how hard they worked, they all did, and he had, too.” All I can say to that sentence (?) is WOW.

I am amazed that someone actually paid money for this mindless piece of poorly written fluff. I’m grateful I found this book when I needed it, but I feel sorry for the person wasted her/his money on it