Review- MORAL COMPASS by Danielle Steel * *

 

Title: MORAL COMPASS

Author: Danielle Steel

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Rating: * *

Publishers: Delacorte Press 

 (Jan 7, 2020)

Hardback: 288 pages

ISBN: 978-0399179532

FTC Disclosure: Copy provided by the public library.

Copy provided for the purpose of providing an honest review.

 This does not affect my opinion of this book.

Saint Ambrose Prep has been the school of choice for the sons of the great and the good for over a hundred years. Now, for the first time, Saint Ambrose has just enrolled its first female students. While many of the kids on the campus have all the privilege in the world, some are struggling dealing with family, insecurity and loneliness. In such a heightened environment, even the smallest spark can become a raging fire.
The day after a Halloween party, a student lies in the hospital, seriously injured and with a dangerous level of alcohol in her blood. Only the handful of students who were there when she was attacked know what happened, and they have closed ranks. As parents, students, staff and the media attempt to establish the truth, no-one at Saint Ambrose will escape the fallout.
As the drama unfolds, those involved will reach a crossroads where they must choose between truth and lies, between what is easy and what is right, coming to rely on their own moral compass.

First let me say, I've read Danielle Steel books since the mid 70's and loved them. Very few left me disappointed. However, that was not the case with MORAL COMPASS. This book had so much potential. It was timely and could have been great but it fell boringly short. The characters were flat and the story was dull. There was no build up, no suspense, no feelings at all. 

The facts were pretty much done as an info dump in the first three chapters and it only got worse as it went on. I never empathised with any of the characters at any point in the story. They were dull as cardboard cutouts. If this book had been written by anyone other than Steel, I'd have quit by page 50 but I did read the whole thing as I kept expecting it to take off and actually entertain me. Possibly, if this had been a mystery type of book, it would have been better but it read basically as going from point A to B to C  and not only did you not care about point A, B or C , you didn't care about the journey. I don't think I've ever been so relieved to get to the end of a story. I'm not sure that this story actually deserved two stars instead of one, but out of sentimentality for DS, I gave it two. 

Danielle Steel has sold 650 million copies of her books internationally, and every one of her books is a bestseller. She is published in 69 countries and 43 languages.Steel has written more than 163 books, 139 of which are novels; 18 children’s books, including Pretty Minnie in Hollywood and Pretty Minnie in Paris about her white long-hair teacup Chihuahua.

She also founded and runs two foundations, one named in honor of her late son, The Nick Traina Foundation, which finances organizations involved in mental illness, child abuse, and suicide prevention. The second foundation was established to assist the homeless.  She lives in Paris and San Francisco and is the mother of nine children.