The cast by Steel_ Danielle
Book starts out with Kate and she's leaving work, turned in her column, had a drink with colleagues and left to get a tree to help decorate her huge apartment.
Kids and granddaughters were to arrive the next day-she'd cook the day before Christmas so they could all sit back and enjoy.
Loved hearing of the past relatives and how they survived = especially baking cookies, then cakes, etc.
Love that Kate is in her 50s kids live around the US and other countries and she's happy with her live-without a man...
Like how her friends throw a new year eve party and she attends, meeting one who puts the idea of writing about her family, casting it for a tv movie. like hearing the process of getting the show written, casted and filming..
With the blizzard she starts writing the scenes and meets with Zach later that week-he loved it...
Everyday drama occurs and Kate is the one to fix it all...
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device). ( )

I generally find Danielle Steel’s novels great reads, particularly for midweek business. The Cast was a novel I enjoyed even more but it’s hard to put the finger on why. Perhaps it’s because it doesn’t cover a huge time frame (about a year compared to a life time). Maybe it’s because it is even more plausible in terms of plot and characters (nothing too zany). Whatever. It was a great read combining everyday life and some very cool parts of life, like writing a new TV show.

Kait Whittier is a magazine columnist who is known for giving wise advice. In her own life, she hasn’t been as successful with two failed marriages. Still, she has her adult children to worry and care about. But is that enough? Her children are scattered across the world and on reflecting on her own childhood at a New Year’s Eve party, it’s suggested she have a go at writing the basis for a TV series. Kait’s grandmother was a woman of determination and grit, and the ‘bible’ Kait writes incorporates those features (but not her life, which was a great plot twist). Kait’s bible falls into the right hands and it’s all go as they find just the right people to play her characters on screen. But nearly every actor or actress comes with their own baggage. On set, the cast become Kait’s second family with their dramas to sort out. But when real life tragedy strikes, it’s the cast who come together to support each other.

Sometimes I feel Danielle Steel’s novels can be bit stop/start and gloss over chunks of the characters’ lives. I didn’t find that all with The Cast. Her writing really flows in this one and with the shorter time span of the novel the reader is there for all of the action. Her characters are quite unforgettable too – Agnes, the former screen queen, now recluse; Maeve, the actress who lights up the screen but who is losing the love of her life and the frustrating, immature but still strangely likeable Charlotte. Not to mention cheating Dan, naïve Abaya and secret weapon Nick. I think each of these characters could quite easily carry their own story!

Definitely a great winter read or one to take to the beach – The Cast will leave you delighted.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan for the copy of this book. My review is honest.

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