Never too Late by Danielle Steel is another one of her wonderful novels. We meet Kezia Cooper, who has lived in San Francisco, California for a long time, but after her husband died, she spent 5 years on his board and now decides to sell her place and the business and move to NYC. Kezia’s grown daughters both live in NYC, and with her 60th birthday upcoming, she wanted to try something new, and enjoy life in New York City, as well as be able to see her daughters. Kezia's two daughters were very different, especially with Kate being 14 years older.

Kezia arrived in NYC in June, settling into her new midtown penthouse, awaiting more of her furniture, but she is happy to start out fresh, living on the 60th floor; and enjoy everything in the city. Her youngest daughter Felicity, is 23 years old, and a very successful model; currently in Paris for Fashion Week. Kezia has a warm close relationship with Felicity, who never let her success go to her head and was very well grounded.

Kate has always been more complicated to deal with. She wants to write a novel, and felt she needed to learn more about her biological father, and why he wanted nothing to do with Kezia and her pregnancy. Kezia married Andrew when Kate was very young, and he treated her like his own daughter, and he adopted her. When Andrew died (5 years ago) he split the inheritance between Kezia, Kate and Felicity. Though she was close to her adopted father, Kate needed to learn more about her biological father. She decided to go with her boyfriend to Africa and meet him.

With both daughters away, Kezia sits on her Terrance watching the July 4th fireworks, and she meets Sam Stewart, a movie star; he lives on the terrace next to her, which has a hedge plant dividing them. Sam lost his wife two years ago. He manages to get into the hedge to talk to Kezia, as they watch a horrific attack in New York City, with bombs exploding at the Empire State Building and Hudson Yard. Both Kezia and Sam volunteer to help hospitals, police, who are understaffed.

In a short time, the friendship between Sam and Kezia slowly turns into love and happiness. Felicity is happily in love with her boyfriend, and she accepts his proposal of marriage, making Kezia very happy, as plans begin for a wedding. Kate after her return from Africa, recognized that her biological father, was nice but she knew he was never there for her, and her adopted father was always the one who loved her. Kate will also break up with her boyfriend, and find love with Sam’s son.

Never Too Late was a compelling, inspiring, captivating and engaging story that kept our attention from start to finish. The story follows the main characters as they find love, second chances and discover that it is never too late to pursue happiness.

Never Too Late is another amazing Danielle Steel book. It is about family , friends and new beginnings.
Kezia ends up moving to New York to be close to her grown daughters after selling the business of her husband who has been deceased for a few years. She finds herself becoming friendly with a movie star who lives next door in the middle of a tragedy. Kezia tries to balance being there for her girls and deciding where her own life if heading .
This book is another must read. Thank you NetGalley and publisher for a copy for my opinion.

what a great book and i loved reading this author. . loved the romance and how the couple came to be. Loved that they worked through their issues and found love. Loved this mystery

The principal event in Never Too Late is a July 4th New York City attack even greater than 911. Although I'm not excited to entertain the notion of another attack on that scale, the rest of the book was pretty enjoyable. The family dynamics and the formation of friendship under such circumstances was interesting. Eye opening to see the things that might be holding someone back and the idea of it never being too late to follow your dream, change your path, start a new chapter, or go in a new direction is definitely inspiring 👍👍

This is the story of two recently widowed people, Kazia and Sam, who weren't looking for love. Just as Kazia is moving into her New York townhouse, next door to Sam, a tragedy worse than 9/11 happens right outside their balcony. This tragedy brings them together as they both volunteer to help the victims. Both their families are brought together in the after math and it is a pleasant surprise proving it's never too late to have a fresh start. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I enjoyed it!

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Triggered Warning: 9/11; terrorist; bombing, catastrophic loss of life

This book started as a typical Steel book

Girl (Kezia)moves across country after her husband dies to be closer to her daughters.
Meets a gorgeous man (Sam), who, by the way, is a movie star. He also lives in the penthouse next door.

Then. On July 4th, while watching fireworks, the unspeakable happens in NYC. Again.

Kezia & Sam are both on their own terraces, separated by a large hedge.

Sam does come over when they realize what is happening.

Kezia is a former nurse, and they both go to the site to help out.

The book has some highs and lows, gets a little off track with Kezia’s oldest daughter Kate.

Happy ending. Blah blah blah.

The book comes out March 5, 2024
I would borrow from the library and not purchase personally.

This is the second book I've read recently by Ms. Steel that makes me think there is a ghostwriter or multiple ghostwriters are creating her newer books. (According to Google, there are no ghostwriters, only assistants!)

This book does hit all the correct buttons for a romance...very formulaic, but with a very creative story. This time, there are three romances to watch. Two sisters and their mother!


I was a little put off by Ms. Steel using an almost exact copy of 9-11 to push her idea of a sort of 'meet cute' situation.

What truly drove me to distraction was the repetitiveness that shows up not only in the same book but sometimes she repeats herself on the same page. It does make for a lot of filler.

*ARC supplied by the publisher Delacorte Press/Penguin Random House, the author, and NetGalley.

A fine, fast read for the beach.

This story is about finding love when you least expect it! I enjoyed the characters and seeing them find happiness… some after heartbreaking loss and others for the first time. This was a quick read, but quickly caught my attention! Fans of romance will love this one!

A nice story about family and love with an unexpected twist! It makes you think about what could happen in the future. I enjoyed it.

Kezia feels she has fulfilled her late husband's dream, and decides to sell and move to New York City to be close to her grown daughters. After she gets settled there, there is a bombing, and she meets her neighbor, Sam, on the other side of the big plant on the terrace. They decide when they hear on the TV that they desperately need help, with medical, and Kezia was a nurse and still had her license. While they worked together helping the victims of the bombing, they talked, and they found a connection doing it.
Kezia has two grown daughters, Kate and Felicity, and Sam has one son, John, all about the same age. After the bombing, things began to change for all of them. We see that their journey's after the bombing, wanting a human connection, wanting things different than they were before. Things happen, so you stop to think about things, and you discover by the things you have been doing lately, isn't who you were before. Then they figure out who they are now, what they want, and how to get it. Danielle Steel will take you through it all, and it is amazing to read. You will see what the title, Never Too Late, means.
I received an ARC from Delacorte Press through NetGalley.

Although I liked the characters in Never Too Late, I felt like the length of the book prevented them from being fully developed. It felt like I was reading a condensed version of the book. Sensitive readers may not be comfortable reading about another terrorist attack on NYC. However, I did enjoy reading a story about it never being too late for new beginnings. Thanks to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for an advance copy to read and review.

This story starts with a catastrophic event in New York City on July 4th. It brings together 2 widowers and their families. As the summer moves towards fall, relationships begin that lead to new and unexpected love. This is a story about love, family and second chances. I received a complimentary copy of this book but was not required to leave a review.

I have been reading Danielle Steel’s novels since I was twelve years old (I had read all the books in the children’s room, so I headed to the adult section). I find her stories easy to read and a nice break from reality. In Never Too Late, I liked the characters, but there were too many of them. The secondary characters lacked development. The details about the characters were repetitive (did the author think we would forget a detail since she mentioned it in the last chapter). The author has a tragic event occur that will bring up terrible memories for many people. I thought it was too deep and tragic for this story. The incident is over quickly and wrapped up neatly. The whole thing left me feeling uneasy and distressed. The author could have found another way for the main characters to meet and bond. There was something that occurred between two secondary characters that is reminiscent of another book that I have read by this author. The story jumps around between the characters too much. I feel the author tried to put too much into one short book. I like that we get to see older protagonists getting another chance at love. While I was not a fan of Never Too Late, it will not keep me from reading the next Danielle Steel novel (I have read all her books, so I am not about to stop now).

Thank you random house and NetGalley for providing me an advanced copy of this book to read. I am a big Daniel steel fan. I enjoyed this book which was all about family relationships across multi generations. It was interesting seeing how families intertwined I especially enjoyed reading about strong women Persevering through bad relationships. The only thing that I didn’t enjoy reading was about the terrace attack of anarchy in New York City. It was too close to the sadness from 9/11. It was an excellent book and I would recommend reading it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Danielle Steele for allowing me to read and rate this advanced copy.
In the latest of Ms. Steel’s creations we follow widowed Kezia as she starts her life again in New York City to be closer to adult daughters. Just after moving into her high rise penthouse apartment the unthinkable happens…again. A terrorist attack on July 4th crippling the city. Along with her neighbor Sam, Kezia makes her way to one of the blast points to see if she can use her rusty skills as a nurse to help.
As the days pass we learn more about the bombers and who they represent. We also have a front row seat to Kezia and Sam’s budding romance. Throughout the book we learn more about Kezia’s daughters Kate and Felicity and also Sam’s son John but they seem to be just window dressing for the main story of their parents lives. Taking into consideration the monumental disaster that brings them together it all seems to fall in place too quickly. Sadly this is one of Ms. Steel’s shorter books and lacks more dimensions when it comes to the children and the attack.
I rate this one a 3⭐️

Thanks again Net Galley.

It is frightening to think that the premise of this book is based on an attack to New York City worse than the one on 9/11 and that it could so easily happen again. I enjoyed how the characters were developed around this catastrophe and how it strengthened them.

A good Danielle Steel book is a like a palette-cleanser between other books. This is a quick read, but a bit overly-complicated with a lot of characters, and repetition of details. Part romance, part family drama, part terrorist attack. A strange combination of plots, but a solid Danielle Steel novel.
Thank you, NetGalley, and the publisher for access to this ARC.

Slow crawl for me.
Kezia Hobson moves to NYC to be nearer her two grown daughters after 5 years of living alone in San Fran since her husband;s death. She finally decides she wants the excitement and energy of NY and to be close to the only family she has left.
Her daughters both have very successful careers and fast paced lifestyles, but are happy to welcome their mother to their NY.
Kezia makes friends easy and begins to see a man who lives across the rooftop from her -in the penthouse next to hers in the luxury condo bldg that she has moved in to. He has a grown son who fits in well and adds some interesting guile along the way.
Conflict arises when an unsettling situation from Kezia's past is brought to the present and that is where it started to lose me.
The story drags a bit and the daughters, while one, Felicity, is loving and distinctly kind and newly engaged to a fine man, the other, Kate, is living with an undisciplined whiney sort who Kezia has a hard time relating to. And her daughter is difficult as well. The story has no real interesting conflict and is actually a bit boring at times.
Steel is usually right on target with her stories - which always seem to be uplifting, and easy reads. This was a "put down and go back to later" for me.
And hers are never usually that.
Here's to the next one.

Although psychological thrillers/mystery/suspense are my favorite genres, I have been a Danielle Steel fan since the 1980’s when my grandmother first introduced me to her books.

Let’s start with what I loved: Kezia’s storyline and her personal rediscovery with moving to NYC, Felicity’s humbleness, Kate’s journey to Africa and Sam/Kezia.

For me, the negative, is the July 4th fictional tragedy chosen to bring Sam and Kezia on their path. Explosions in NYC, especially for those remembering the horror of September 11th, are a very sensitive subject. In addition, this storyline from the first description of these characters arriving in NYC to the discovery of the perpetrators, did not make sense to me and felt rushed (perhaps it was the ARC). Other than Kezia returning to her nursing background, this fictional July 4th event was disconnected from the family stories; Sam and Kezia, as wealthy neighbors sharing a hedge, could have met in so many other ways.

If you are a Danielle Steel fan, it is another quick read, but note the trigger warning about the fictional July 4th events. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine, Delacorte Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Rating: 3.75 stars
Publication: March 5, 2024

easy read set in a ny during a terrorist attack that I could have done without sure the story could have been focused on other events