NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The lessons our children teach us are the hardest ones. What do we do when our children don’t pursue our hopes for them? In this riveting new novel, Danielle Steel explores how families can evolve and grow in unexpected ways. A senior partner at a prestigious New York law firm, Kate Morgan couldn’t be prouder of her three grown children. Tamara, Anthony, and Claire all … Tamara, Anthony, and Claire all went to great schools, chose wonderful career paths, and would have made their father proud. A single mother for years after the death of her husband, Kate keeps a tight rein on her family, her career, and even her own emotions, never once asking herself if she truly knows her children . . . or if her hopes for them are the right ones, and what they want. She is about to find out.
During one hectic summer in Manhattan, Kate’s world turns upside down. One child has been keeping an astonishing secret while another confesses to an equally shocking truth. A wonderful match and picture-book wedding are traded for a relationship that shakes Kate to her core. A totally inappropriate love affair and an out-of-wedlock baby complete the chaos. Challenged as a mother and as a successful independent woman herself, Kate struggles to keep up with a dizzying and escalating chain of events, and begins to realize that she has a part to play in the chaos. Because Kate too has kept secrets from her children.
Sometimes the surprising choices our children make are the right ones . . . better than what we wanted for them. More often than not, parenting is about letting go of our dreams and embracing theirs.
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Child’s Play by Danielle Steel is a story that parent’s will be able to understand and relate to. Parents have certain expectations for their children. We forget that they must make their own mistakes and follow their own path in life. Kate Morgan always set the bar high for her children and worked to be a good example for them. Kate is in her 50s and a senior partner at a law firm in New York City. After her politician husband passed away in a helicopter crash nineteen years previously, Kate went to law school while taking care of her kids with help from her mother, Margaret. Kate is proud of her children with their successful careers. She is unprepared when Claire announces she is having a child out of wedlock. Kate has old-fashioned ideals which she passed along to her kids. Claire, though, seems happy to shock her mother. Then Anthony announces he has broken off his engagement which paves the way for Tamara’s news. We see Kate struggle with each new announcement while juggling her clients. I found Child’s Play to be just the right length and it was easy to read. I quickly devoured it in a couple of hours. The characters are developed and realistic. Kate is an intelligent woman in her 50s who is also beautiful, sexy and vibrant. I like that Danielle Steel is giving us this type of mature character. Margaret, Kate’s mother, was my favorite. She provided keen insights and did not let her grandchildren’s news shake her. Kate could have let her children’s revelations alienate her from them, but we get to see how she adapts. Families continue to evolve as people mature as we see in Child’s Play. I liked that the main feature of the story was on the family with romance being secondary. There is some repetition of details which seems to be a trend in this author’s recent works. This repetitiveness is unnecessary. Child’s Play had the type of ending we look for from Danielle Steel. Child’s Play is dramatic family story with a spoiled sibling, shocking secrets, a lackluster lover, a boring bridezilla, a driven daughter, and a surprising suitor.
Child’s Play is about Kate, a widow, successful attorney and partner in a law firm, and her three adult children. I love reading a Danielle Steel book and Child’s Play is a perfect example of her fantastic writing style. The characters are well developed and the story is filled with family drama, high expectations, secrets, unconditional love and twists that make this story that much more believable. I loved how Kate and all her children get their own HEA’s. Great writing, believable characters and a finding yourself journey make this a must read.
Kate is a no-nonsense lawyer with 3 grown children. She lost her husband nineteen years ago. Due to insurance she was able to go back to school to study law and raise her children alone. She is a perfectionist with high expectations for herself and her children. This book deals with many now accepted ideologies that have evolved and still may create differences of opinions between generations.
Danielle Steel keeps your interest from page one — as always.
Awesome book
I’ve read and enjoyed so many of this author’s books. She’s a great author and knows how to draw in an audience for her different genres of books. This one was about family, love, loss and moving on finally.
Kate’s husband and the father of her three children was killed when the children were small. Kate worked very hard to do something with her life. Yes she did have many advantages to get to do this but she was not left a ton of money from her husband. She worked hard. She went back to college at an age where others were much younger. She graduated then went on to work at a prestigious law firm and became a lawyer who didn’t like to lose. She could be relentless. She wanted the best for her children just as any mother would. Kate didn’t want to remarry and go through the pain of losing anyone else like she did her husband. She spent her time making a life for her children and working hard to get somewhere in life. To show her kids that you can survive in the face of tragedy.
These characters were mostly likable. With the exception of Claire and even Amanda, they were all truly good and caring people. Kate to me was great. A strong woman who fought for what she wanted. Her mother who was always there for her and supported her emotionally as well as her grandchildren. Amanda was engaged to Kate’s son and she was in my opinion not really in love with him. She was in love with the idea of spending a fortune on a wedding and then wanted to start having babies right from the start. I was so glad to see her gone. I didn’t like her at all. No one bullied her or treated her badly. Anthony, Kate’s son, was right to not marry her and it was truly best for them both. Never marry for all the wrong reasons. Tammy, Kate’s oldest daughter was probably my favorite. She worked very hard and had a huge secret of her own. I can’t give it away here so you’ll have to read this book for find it out. But she’s very likable and when she tells her mother her secret, which I figured out quickly, I think Kate handled it very well. Claire, I totally detested her. She was a spoiled brat who needed very badly to grow up. I mean for goodness sakes she is 26 years old and acting like a little kid whining and acting like the world revolves around her and her alone. Each of Kate’s children are old enough to be married and have families so the part that did bug me was how the grandmother acted like they were still young children. I mean a 29 year old man who should wait to get married until he is grown. He is grown!! But he is a good man and after a couple of months of big mistakes he does the right thing. I liked him. I liked Tammy and I liked Kate but I did not like Claire. At least not after her big news came to light. I loved Kate’s mother. She was a very likable person.
This story is a good one that takes us into the lives of a family with a bit of drama going on. They depend on their mom for a lot but they also know what they want and finally go for it. Some of the scenes in this book made me laugh. Some made me mad. But overall it was a very good book. It deals with a mother’s fears for her children which in my opinion we never stop having and she helps when she can. She steps back and lets them work things out too. She also decides she does need a life of her own but will she find that? I think Kate is a great mother, great daughter and really a very very likable woman. So she is possible well off. I would not say she is a privileged white woman as I read in another review. She worked very hard to have what she does and be able to give her children a good life. I mean all alone. Yes she was able to do that but I certainly do not begrudge her that. I could never have done it. I didn’t have the support, emotional support, to. So yes I liked Kate. I admired Kate. I think she should have told her youngest to either grow up or not come back until she could act right and treat her the way she should have. I don’t believe anyone bullied or picked on Amanda like another reviewer suggested. Maybe it looked that way to them but in reality Amanda was only in the story for a short while so I disagree with that assessment entirely.
I truly enjoyed this book. It felt like a real family with real problems and possible the right solutions for each. I think the characters were great, again except Claire. Very likable and did what they needed to be happy without hurting others. Even a broken engagement is necessary at times.
Thank you to #NetGalley, Random House-Ballantine and Danielle Steele for this book. This is my own honest review.
I give it 4 stars and a high recommendation!!
I did not enjoy this book as I thought I would for two reasons. One was that there were few or no surprises. The second reason is the definite liberal leaning of the book, in which being gay is touted as perfectly acceptable and normal. As a Christian conservative, these views that were pushed on the reader were totally unwarranted. For these reasons, I did not like this book much and can not recommend it to other unsuspecting readers.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I checked this book out from my local library. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own.
Love,love,love Danielle Steele.. This book will not disappoint you.
Kate has the perfect family, with the perfect children and is perfectly happy……or is she. As her family changes and secrets are revealed Kate must take a look at perfection and decide if it is worth it or not.
Raising Adult Children
This wonderful bit of Women’s Fiction explores that part of a mother’s life when she quits making decisions for her adult children and lets them fly from the nest. And then, what she chooses to do with her new life. This is a totally engrossing book that makes the reader want to talk to the characters and straighten them out. It is such a good story, I hated to see it end and will probably come up with new scenarios in my mind. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.
Another easy, breezy enjoyable read. Kate is a widowed, mid 50s attorney with three children who keep her on her toes with lots of relationship and life drama as she tries to keep her “perfect” life and family moving forward. When each child brings changes into their own lives, it shakes up Kate’s. (You have to love Kate’s mother who is the true rock in the family.) Nice to continue to see Kate, a character of “a certain age” portrayed as sexy and vibrant. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
4 1/2 STARS!
Danielle Steel’s latest release CHILD’S PLAY brings us the story of an accomplished woman who portrays the perfect life and how it all plays out when the perfect things in her life turn out to have crumbling foundations. It shows the emotion a person goes through as things in life don’t go exactly as planned, but also has a very strong foundation of loving no matter what. I really enjoyed it and found it to be pretty fast paced.
Kate Morgan was an easily redeemable character. She kept parts of her life secret from her kids until a time when it seemed it might be a stepping stone to show them she understood how life can sometimes get away from you no matter how much you try to stay on course. She showed great restraint when faced with adversity and showed a beautiful side of a parent’s love supporting their child no matter the decisions and mistakes they made.
Eldest child Tamara came across as a bit distracted and cold to a bystander, but she was supportive of her mother and siblings and once we got to enter the true sanctuary of her world, her true side emerged with a softness that made her shine.
Middle child Anthony seemed like the one with the biggest heart and put in the most effort with the mom he adored. His fall from grace was a bit spectacular and redeeming him took a bit of work.
The spoiled baby of the family Claire quickly turned into a nightmare of an attitude. She was never totally redeemed but she was relaxed a tad towards the end.
Overall, I highly recommend this story to anyone looking for a close-knit single parent story that showcases her devotion to her kids and her support as they live their way into their happily ever afters before she relaxes into her own.
I loved this books storyline and all of the characters! Each time I think I know Ill love this book as I love everything Ms.Steele writes, then I read another one of hers and I love it more than the last! This was an emotional read for me and I read it in a day! I Cant wait to read the next book! This page turner will keep you page flipping til the end! A fantastic and amazing must read!!!
As always, Danielle Steel did not let me down. One of my “pet peeves” is spelling and grammatical errors when reading published books and I am always pleasantly surprised to find that her books are so well written and edited prior to publication.
I found Kate’s heartache followed by her love, strength and endurance, when faced with the realization that her children were not perfect and made mistakes or had secrets, to be both heartfelt and inspiring.
I am the proud mother of a homosexual son and cheered for Kate when she accepted the same, about one of the characters in the book, with an open mind and heart.
Her children may have gone about decisions in the wrong way, but ultimately, I feel, as it appears Danielle does, that a person must be allowed to live their own life and make their own mistakes in order to grow. I only wish that, in similar circumstances, I can be as strong as Kate. I found myself rooting for her to get her own Happy Ending. She earned it!
Finally, I would like to say that I have been reading Ms. Steel’s books for about 40 years and she has never let me down. I will highly recommend this book to everyone! Thank you for another great book. Keep them coming! Can’t wait for the next one!
Meet Kate Morgan, a beautiful, efficient corporate attorney, widow of a prominent politician, and mother of three adult children. Widowed 19 years earlier, Kate raised her children to be good upstanding adults and seemingly perfect in her eyes. Meet the children; Tamara, 32 year old senior vice-president of a prominent fashion house, Anthony, 29 year old technology guru building video games with a prominent tech company, and Claire, the youngest at 26, an attorney with a prominent New York firm. This family seems to have it all; beauty, good jobs, and a good family relationship.
As in most families that look perfect on the surface, there are underlying issues and cracks. Kate has no idea that her perfect children have underlying currents and some very major issues going on in their life. The first of the upheavals appear in Kate’s life in the form of an unwed pregnant daughter with a mind of her own. Rebellion in one seems to grant permission to the other two to lead life as they choose instead of following mom’s conservative lifestyle. Anthony cancels his high society wedding just in the nick of time and Tamara brings a long standing secret to the forefront of her life instead of hiding it in the shadows.
One rebellious incident is all it took to change Kate Morgan’s life considerably. As she struggles to deal with all the changes in her seemingly perfect world, Kate also runs into major conflict in the form of opposing attorney, Scott White, in her current big case. Kate. As with all good romances and family dramas, a little conflict is necessary.
As Kate begins to accept her new norms, she realizes that life is about dealing with the issues we are handed. She learns some important lessons about being honest, forgiving our differences, making choices, and the true meaning of family.
A very enjoyable read! Very relevant issues to today’s modern families! And a reminder that normal is what you make it!
This ARC copy was received from Delacorte Press and Netgalley.com. The above thoughts and opinions are wholly my own.
#ChildsPlay #NetGalley
A truly unremarkable, bland story. The central character Kate Morgan, finds her perfect world rocked by her children’s life styles and decisions. Honestly, the worst is her daughter’s immaturity and bad behavior, which escalates as the story builds. The book is not a bad read, just slow, without much pizzazz.
Everything