Review by Wanda: BIG GIRL by Danielle Steel **Spoilers

A chubby little girl with blond hair, blue eyes, and ordinary looks, Victoria Dawson has always felt out of place in her family, especially in body conscious Los Angeles. Her parents are disappointed by their daughter’s looks.Later in life, the one thing Victoria knows is that she has to get as far away from home as possible and, after college in Chicago (which her parents disapprove of), she moves to New York City. Landing her dream job as a high school teacher, Victoria finds joy and excitement working with her students by day--and by night continues to wage war on her weight among the sleek and buff at Manhattan’s fitness clubs. Victoria keeps a lifeline open to her family through her close relationship with her sister Gracie. For though they can’t be more different the two sisters love each other unconditionally. By contrast her parents, though across the country, still have an emotional hold on Victoria and instinctively seem to know just what to say to bring her down. Victoria knows she has been a disappointment to them all her life. No matter what she does, she can never win their approval.When Grace announces her engagement to a man who is an exact replica of their handsome, materialistic, narcissistic father Victoria cannot help but feel even more ostracized, and like a failure once again. Ahead is a challenge and a risk: to accept herself as she is, celebrate it, and win the victories she has fought so hard for and deserves. Big girl or not, she is a gem!

 

Ok so here's the story... I have been a huge fan of Danielle Steel since I can remember. She was my favorite author as a pre-teen and a teenager. I have soooo many favorites by her
such as "Daddy" One of the most heart warming books and yes it made me cry. I believe Alan Thicke played in it when it was made into a movie..."No greater Love" "Jewels" all great books… However; Big Girl didn't impress me much at ALL! I was actually disappointed, because I predicted the book from the start. She made Victoria into such a victim throughout the whole book, that whenever I read about her in another scene, I already knew. So Victoria was born to two college sweethearts. Her father is such an A**... Because his daughter was born with blond hair and blue eyes and didn't look like them, he always made fun of his daughter and basically told her in such little words that she was ugly, also flat out told her that she was fat and no one would want her because of it. Then her mom was a spineless skinny woman that believed her husband was never wrong and had the same feelings towards her daughter that her husband had as well.  

Now she was given a sister Grace at around age 7 or 8. Her sister was born looking just like her parents and Victoria didn't look like either of her parents. Grace got all the good looks, perfect parents and even better sister. She was the apple of their eyes. 

Victoria graduated from college with her bachelor’s degree, immediately started working at the best private school in NYC. But nothing she ever did was good enough for her parents. It didn't matter to Victoria that she had friends that loved her and supported her. Even as she found a hot guy who was interested in her for whom she was. He didn't see the "poor big girl." He was someone positive in her life. But the way Danielle finished the book, she didn't give you much but to imagine what happens to them in the long run. Basically this book made me feel like "oh poor fat rich girl" no one loves her. I just didn't feel drawn to the story, the characters, nothing. Only thing I felt was that the father was an A** and the mother was a spineless woman... lol
 

I honestly feel disappointed in this book. Her older books are soo good. I feel like my time was wasted on this one. Sorry Danielle, but this is only an opinion of a "poor big girl."