Was difficult to start with, not having maternal instincts. But understand how if you've never had love or hugs you'd not expect to feel. Didn't feel like a STEEL book at first but did succeed into one!

This was a really lovely story of resilience. The story follows Allegra, a young woman plagued by abandonment throughout her life. The brief moments of “joy” in the book (as told by the title), were my favorite parts. The love stories between Allegra and Shep, and then Allegra and Henry were well developed and endearing. However, these moments of joy were too brief. I would’ve loved to see more of these relationships develop and wish there was more about the novels that Allegra wrote.

I received a complimentary copy of this book and the opinions expressed are my own. Joy is a story about a child being rejected by her mother and left with her maternal elderly grandparents while her father was in active duty army intelligence. She finally found love wnen she met Shep only to lose him also to the rigors of war just like she lost her father. With no one left, she moves to LA where she takes a job as assistant to a composer and film score writer. Their relationship eventually goes from business to love and marriage and she is finally happy. However, when he dies, she had to figure out how to let go and find happiness again. I strongly recommend this book. It is a book of courage and resilience that you can make it through any situation. Kudos to Ms. Steel for another well written book.

I've been reading a lot of Danielle Steel lately. She was an author I read years ago and recently started again. I'm a bit on the fence about this novel. Allegra, our main character, has been deserted by her parents. She is thrust onto her paternal grandparents and then, her maternal grandparents. She keeps to herself to not cause any trouble or interrupt the flow of her grandparents lives. At 16, she meets the neighbor boy, Shep, whose family has a house in Newport next to her maternal grandparents. She and Shep have a close friendship for years which develops into a love relationship. After college, they marry but Shep is following in the steps of Allegra's military father. Shep has seen and done things during war times and is sucked into that life, leaving Allegra alone and divorced. She moves to LA and finds a job working for a famous composer 30+ yrs older than herself. Over time, the two fall in love and after several years, Henry succumbed to cancer. Can she find love again? My heart went out to Allegra because as soon as she found "joy", it was taken from her. In regards to relationships, I found a lot of parallels to Steel's novel Second Act.

Joy
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 Stars)
Tags: FMC, General Fiction, Women's Fiction, Contemporary Romance

Growing up close to a military base and having ties with military personnel, my interest is typically peaked whenever I read a book description that mentions the military. The description of Danielle Steel's "Joy" peaked my interest enough that I had to give it a read, and I was not disappointed.

The story follows the main character, Allegra, on her journey to find a missing piece in her life - joy. We follow her through the heartbreaking emotional neglect and abandonments she experiences throughout her childhood, and all the difficulties she experiences in her marriage and continuing throughout her life.

Be warned: This book was heartbreaking, and even had me crying at one point. Contrary to the name, this book is definitely not a "feel good" book!

Pros:
-Written in 3rd person. I cannot remember the last book I read that was not a first person point of view! I found the 3rd person POV to be surprisingly refreshing since I was able to know what was going through each character’s mind all at once. I didn't have to guess or wait until later on to find out.
-This book was beautifully written and brought me to tears at one point. Although it is not what I would consider to be a "happy" book, you could easily curl up around a fireplace with this book. It was a simple and quick read. It was easy to get lost and read 10% of the book without noticing.


Critiques:
-Long chapters - however, bonus points for having section breaks within the chapters. I've said it once and I will say it again, I am a fan of short chapters as it makes me feel more accomplished when reading. However, I will note that this book had a lot of section breaks, which made it feel as if the chapters were a lot shorter.
-Uneventful storyline. While I enjoyed this book, I found it to be a slower read, in that I kept waiting for something 'big' to happen, but it never did.

Overall, I did really enjoy this book and it was my first 4 star read of 2024. While I found this book to be a slower-paced read, I think it would be perfect for a cozy day to curl up with, or a “nightstand book” that you read on to wind down before bed. The chapters/subsections do not end on a cliffhanger, so you do not have the internal struggle of trying to decide when to pause your reading.

Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.


As requested per email:
-Reviews posted to 1) Goodreads (posted 01/07/2024) and 2) Barnes and Noble (posted 01/07/2024 - currently in review)
-The link for the Goodreads post has been included below. As of time writing this review, Barnes and Noble has not yet approved the review (same as Goodreads) to their site, so the personal URL is not yet available.

Danielle Steel has been my go-to author. I have been reading her books for over 20 years. I always know that when I pick up one of her books, I will not be disappointed. Joy was no exception.

Joy was a sad but also uplifting story of survival, independence, and personal growth. Watching Allegra endure so many instances of trauma was painful. However, I was truly rooting for her to be able to succeed and thrive.

This was a quick read that kept my attention throughout the book. However, I do wish there was just one more chapter or an epilogue. The ending had the reader guessing what her future would bring.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read the advanced reader copy of this book.

This reads like a Danielle Steel of old days! It's a quick and easy read about Allegra, and her life over many years. It was an interesting premise and I enjoyed the characters.

In many way, Joy is typical Danielle Steel.. There is loss, sadness, wealth, love, second chances. There are the usual well-educated central characters, for whom great wealth does not always bring lasting happiness. Everyone is beautiful and talented with impressive abilities. But for Danielle Steel fans, the familiar is comfort food, which in many ways is what a lot of readers want and need. In Joy, Steel takes on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The war sections are superficial, but it is the emotional toll of war that soldiers and wives must endure. At time Steel becomes preachy and heavy handed, but the topic itself, is important.

As always, the central female character, Allegra, is beautiful, smart, and talented. The men are handsome but not always worth Allegra's attentions. It takes a long time for the joy in the title to show up in Allegra's life. Steel makes the point that Allegra's childhood of neglect is not uncommon. As is true for most Steel novels, there is a romance and several men, not all of whom create much joy in Allegra's life. Allegra is given the opportunity for second chances, which not all women find as easily. Money helps, as Steel suggests. Could not stand Jordon, loved Henry, and wondered what happened to Shep.

I always enjoy a Steel novel and read them right away. I can count on them being true escapist reads. Thank you to the author, publisher, Random House - Ballantine, and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC. The above comments are my true opinions. If not a Steel novel, I might give this novel 3 stars, but Steel is not another author. Her fans will likely enjoy this novel, as they do every Steel novel.

Thank you for the advanced reading copy. Danielle has written so many books and I have enjoyed several over the years. Joy was a good story. A very quick read, but the ending fell short.

The book was a quick read. The ending didn't wrap up nicely. I would have liked to found out what happened to her first love.

A woman whose mother abandoned her when she was 6 and whose father was in army intelligence and never hardly home, is raised by grandparents who didn't really want her. She was sent to boarding school when she was 11. Her parents families were well to do and summered in Newport and lived in New York, so she got things she needed, but wanted love.

I always look forward to new Danielle Steel books and immediately read them. She is just one of my authors that I know I am going to love, no matter what she writes. "Joy" is another great story that we get from Danielle Steel that does not disappoint.

Allegra has been dealt her fair share of bad luck and of no fault of her own. She was born to a mom that had no interest in being a mom and a dad that was too busy with his career to be a real dad. Poor Allegra was shuffled from one place to another and then finally put into boarding school so no one would have to deal with her. Her mom never really came back after she left Allegra when she was young. I can't imagine how Allegra felt knowing that her mom and dad didn't want to really have a relationship with her.

When Allegra finally meet someone that cared for her, they married before he left for the ARMY and decided not to tell anyone until he got back from his tour overseas. Allegra was faithful to her husband and waited for him to return from the deployment only to be shattered by his PTSD that he was experiencing. Shep decides that the only place for him is back in the deployment zone and goes back for another deployment. Allegra knows what the ARMY can do to soldiers because of her father. She doesn't want that to happen to Shep but she can't get through to him and their relationship eventually goes south as well. Allegra has more heartbreak, as if she hasn't had enough already in her life.

You will have to read this story to find out how things end for Allegra. You won't be disappointed though. Allegra finally has a run of good luck. i really enjoyed this book and the ride that we got to go on along with Allegra. Danielle Steel did not disappoint with this story.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book and all opinions are my own. Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an advanced copy of this book.

It is a truly rare and precious thing to come across a story as powerful as this one; as beautiful, as intensely emotional, as evocative and unique. This book represents the reason I love to read. It’s the diamond in the rough. It’s the book that, ten years later, you think of and your heart skips a beat. It’s a master piece of storytelling. I hope Danielle Steele never stop writing books because as long as she keeps writing them, I will be reading them.

Allegra Dixon has grown up without any one in her family loving her. Her mother deserted her, her dad is in the military and has been gone most of her life. Her grandparents have taken care of her out of necessity but have not shown her love. She thinks she has finally found love when she marries Shep Williams. He is in the military and soon after they marry he is sent to Afghanistan. When he returns he has changed and thinks he must keep going back. Allegra finds herself alone again but is determined to move on and find joy again.


Thanks to Danielle Steel and Random House Publishing group-Ballantine

Deprived of any affection by her neglectful family from birth, Allegra spends decades searching for a safe outlet for a lifetime of dammed up love she has stored inside her.

Verdict: not much of a love story, this book is a quick, relatively dispassionate retelling of a series of human connections made and severed.

Danielle Steel's ubiquitous logotype on the cover of a book has somehow become synonymous with romance, much like Nora Roberts or the other great prolific romance novelists of their generation. And yet, similar to how Roberts actually writes primarily crime thrillers, Danielle Steel's books seem to be perfunctory at best about their love storylines, while focused mostly on overcoming personal trauma. This is not a real romance in spirit or in execution, and it is not a coming of age story, either; the storytelling style is too detached for that. I would probably class this as contemporary fiction (or "women's fiction," a patronizing moniker I detest).

In terms of the plot, it reminds me a little bit of Honey Moon by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. But one of the odd distinctions about Danielle Steel novels (with the caveat that I haven't read many, and the ones I have read are recent releases) is the great emotional distance between the third-person narrator and the characters. Joy is written in a cool and remote third person voice, albeit a benevolent one, as though describing a bird's eye view of a human life from a great distance. Intimacies are stated rather than shown. The body of the book, in my personal opinion, delivers little of the emotional payoff expected in the "Romance" section of a library or bookstore. And likewise for the ending.

TLDR: This novel is not truly a love story but rather the story of a woman determined to be hopeful in the face of emptiness and abandonment, and its gentle yet detached writing style strips away most of the emotional satisfaction commonly associated with the romance genre. It would probably find more success marketed under a different category.

Thank you Random House for the ARC; I always look forward to seeing what the great names of the fiction world have up their sleeves, and this was no exception.

Review appeared as a blog post here: https://warmfuzziesonly.wordpress.com/2024/01/02/advance-review-joy-by-danielle-steel/

Another novel by Danielle Steel. I finished it because it was a quick read but I didn't enjoy this one. The plot was too simple and a repeat one of hers. I gave it 3 stars because it was a quick read and basically the plot was a given. Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy. #NetGalley #Joy

The book titled "Joy" was surprisingly lacking in joy and rather dismal. The narrative revolves around Allegra, a strong-willed woman who endures a difficult childhood, a troubled marriage, and a generally bleak existence for the majority of the book. The fleeting instances of happiness were insufficient to uplift the overall tone of the story. However, it is a quick read. I would suggest opting for a more uplifting read instead. In summary, "Joy" does not live up to its name.

In Joy, Danielle Steel brings us the story of a woman who has gone through pain, neglect, and love. She is the neglected child of a career military dad and a mother who leaves her at the age of six. She is passed around from grandparents to boarding school to grandparents again. She meets Shep. They fall in love and plan to marry once she is finished with school and he leaves the army. Unfortunately, that don't go as planned. Allegra makes a bold decision to leave New York and head to California. Will she find the joy? A simplistic ending was definitely a choice, but Steel opted for more complexity, emphasizing the strength Allegra developed.

#netgalley

This was my first DS novel — but not the last! It was a slow start, but it kept me interested enough to keep going. I’m happy she has a robust catalog of work to keep me reading all year.

Danielle Steel delivers another entertaining novel although the title might be a little misleading. There is a strong undertone of sadness as Allegra’s story unfolds from early childhood to midlife. A major theme of abandonment/rejection/neglect dominates most of her significant relationships and yet her resilience shines through as kindness, hope and dedication. There are moments of joy as she experiences the love she longed for and finally received. Ultimately, she begins to understand that the joy arises from within as external sources are transient.

While this novel has all the classic elements of Steel’s work – a strong female protagonist facing challenges, achieving success, and finding love, it was a bit difficult to embrace after reading her most current historical novel, Only the Brave. The contrast between the latter book of such power and emotional depth and this more superficial contemporary story left me wanting more.

My thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the privilege of reviewing this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This review is being posted immediately to my GoodReads account and will be posted on Amazon upon publication.