Beautiful by Danielle Steel: Book Review
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Beautiful by Danielle Steel turned out to be a very different book from the one I expected to read. From the premise, I thought a novel about a successful supermodel might be a little fluffy. I was very wrong.
Instead, Beautiful became one of the more thought-provoking Danielle Steel novels I’ve read, with much more to say about beauty, identity, resilience, and what really matters in life than I anticipated.
My Take: I expected Beautiful to be a fairly light read about the glamorous life of a supermodel. Instead, Danielle Steel gave me a surprisingly emotional story about what happens when the life – and identity – you’ve always known changes in an instant. What stayed with me most wasn’t the glamour or even the dramatic event at the center of the story. It was the book’s larger question about what it really means to be beautiful. My verdict? Read.
What Beautiful Is About
Veronique Vincent is a successful 22-year-old supermodel whose career has taken her around the world. Despite the glamour surrounding her, she prefers a quieter life away from the celebrity scene.
Everything changes when Veronique is caught in a terrorist attack at Brussels Airport. Faced with devastating injuries and a life that looks nothing like the one she had before, she must begin the difficult process of rebuilding – physically and emotionally – while reconsidering how she sees herself and what she wants her life to become.
Beautiful by Danielle Steel- What I Liked
Beautiful ended up being quite different than what I expected.
For some reason, it was one of the most thought-provoking books I’ve read in a long time.
What did I like about this book specifically? The book has a deeper meaning (if you allow yourself to really think about it) than the actual story that is being played out by the characters in the book.
What’s really important in life? This book made me dwell upon that for a very long time.
External beauty is superficial, and this book really drives home how little someone’s appearance can tell us about what’s happening inside. Physical beauty can conceal inner beauty, strength, fear, pain, and all the things that actually make someone who they are.
People can have physical scars on the outside of their bodies, but do external scars make you less of a person?
One of the things I loved most about this book is that it’s about finding the inner strength to overcome physical and emotional challenges that seem completely insurmountable and coming out the other side as a stronger, whole person.
Another is that this book will make you reconsider the notion of complaining. About anything. Instead, it’ll have you thinking about the blessings in your life and will leave you with something like shame and embarrassment at the thought of complaining about all the common, random stuff we probably complain about daily.
In the end, this book is about the beauty of life. No matter how scarred a person may be inside or out, they are still beautiful. Life is beautiful. And life is worth living no matter what.
What exactly does beautiful mean to you?
Beautiful by Danielle Steel – What I Didn’t Like
I can’t think of a single thing that I didn’t like about this book. It offered so much more than expected.
Beautiful – Read, ReRead, or Reconsider?
What is my opinion of Beautiful by Danielle Steel?
A definite read!
Beautiful offered far more than I expected when I picked it up. It’s an emotional story, but what made it memorable for me was how much it made me think about identity, resilience, and what we mean when we call someone – or a life – beautiful.
You can check out Beautiful by Danielle Steel along with all of her other books here on my list of Danielle Steel books in order.
Is Beautiful Worth Reading?
Beautiful surprised me. I went into it expecting one kind of Danielle Steel novel and came away having read something much more reflective than I anticipated.
The story asks some big questions about how much of our identity we attach to appearance, career, and the life we expect to have. For me, that’s what elevated Beautiful beyond its premise – and why I was still thinking about it after I finished.
What To Read Next
- Flying Angels by Danielle Steel – For another Danielle Steel novel with resilient women facing extraordinary circumstances.
- The Wedding Planner by Danielle Steel – Try this for a more contemporary, relationship-centered Danielle Steel story.
- Suspects by Danielle Steel – A good next choice if you’d rather have more suspense in your Danielle Steel.
- Danielle Steel Books in Order – Browse her enormous backlist and see where Beautiful fits among her novels.
- Explore Romance – Find more romance authors, series, and reading recommendations.
