Mum's Monday: The Apartment by Danielle Steel

When this book starts, it is describing how the 4 girls/young women, Claire, Abby, Morgan and Sasha, met and come to live in the apartment together. Everything seems perfect and I wondered where this storyline was going to go to.

As I read on, it is good to read, that 3 of the girls, despite their separate backgrounds are doing well. It Is equally sad that Abby has fallen under the spell of a man called Ivan. I can see why the other 3 girls have given up telling Abby, she has to find out for herself unfortunately. There are only so many times someone can be told something.

It is amusing, that one of the 4, Sasha a twin, her sister being Valentina, it is fun to read how Valentina interacts with Sasha’s other 3 roommates. It gives the storyline an exciting depth to it, although Sasha may not always think so.

At the end of chapter 2, after a disastrous date, Sasha returns home to a fire in the neighbouring apartment block. It is unexpected and out of the blue, but that is how life is, it can be fine one minute and all of a sudden you find yourself trying to get rid of the smell of smoke out of your home, and sadly mourning seven neighbours, who you only knew in passing and wave at occasionally.

As in many instances, people come along, when you least expect it, this is the case for Sasha. As I read on I wanted to find out how it works out, for her and I hope it does.

Abby, sadly is still being swept along by Ivan, AKA the wrong guy, it is sad that everyone around her, can see him for the, rogue he is, but Abby is too trusting of him still. I hope later on in the book, she wakes up, to how bad he is.

In Claire I see her dilemma, and how it can be risky, to leave one unexciting job, in the pursuit of the unknown. However, exciting the dream looks on paper, the reality, seldom lives up to it.

Further on into the start of this story, it sets the scenes, for the 4 girls, that they are on the verge of something bigger and better. However, happy they feel now, and they should, but it just goes to show, you can get too comfortable and possibly set in your ways.

I hope the book is as interesting, as we are led to believe, it is like the apartment is a spring board for their new lives, they just don’t know it yet, and me, as the reader, doesn’t know, how or whether, it will all work out well in the end, for the 4 of them.

It is nice to see, Sasha having a light meal, with a fellow work colleague, Alex, and proving, that there is someone out there for everyone.

At the end of chapter 5, in Claire’s life, it is all about risk, her career and a man that seems to be pursuing her.

It is lovely to see, an extremely, strong example of ‘Family isn’t, always made up of blood relatives’ running through this book. The connection of all the group, makes this book a nice read.

It is fun to read, the chance meeting, between, Alex and Sasha’s twin Valentina. It is strange to imagine 2 people, who look the same, dress completely, if not controversially, different, but at least the coat is an old one, still I don’t agree with Valentina, wearing it though.

This book is a great example of ‘Never say never’, now Claire, swore off men, after she saw her mum give up her career to be with Claire’s dad. Going on a date and being swept along by Morgan’s boss George. I hope this possible match, will turn out to be a good for Claire and her career in shoe design, and that she is proved wrong, on her initial concerns.

Although, the outcome is a good one for Abby, as she has finally been made aware by Daphne, another writer, what Ivan is really like. It is not nice, Daphne was drawn in under Ivan’s spell as well, however, Abby, in turn, has made Daphne aware of his ways, and she has got out, before she also suffers years of misery, like Abby did.

All 4 girls, lives are moving forward in relationships, although you could say Abby’s is moving happily, backwards   

It is nice to see Claire having a good time with George, and is sticking, mostly to her principals, regarding her job, life and her goals. Could this change? From what I have read, yes a little.

It is good to see Sasha, meeting Alex’s parents, go so well, and if Sasha wants to go sailing, why shouldn’t she, as it states, it looks fun, if a little crazy.

After reading, about Alex returning home, to Chicago, for Thanksgiving and having his old car in the garage. It now seems coincidental that Abby, when she returns home to Los Angeles, for the same holiday, conveniently placed, is her old car in the family home garage as well. I felt like it was reading the same part twice.

For Claire it goes from, bad to worse, it also made me realise, that, it is strange, that you can get what you want and not what you want at exactly the same time. I hope she finds a shoe design company; she does like working for.

I cannot believe, Claire hadn’t thought of her mother’s idea before, but I suppose it was a question of money. Of all the backers to help Claire, the one to come up with a plan and the money to back it is still a surprise. I wanted to read this part quickly to see the next exciting development.

It is strange to see Sasha’s parent’s act so differently at her big news. Talking of news, Abby should never have ‘just gone and had a look’, it seldom ends well, well it did for Charlie. Charlie could be classed as a new roommate, for when Sasha moves out in June, if he didn’t have 4 legs and ate dog food.

As I read through this book, although there are parts that made me angry and were not very nice for some of the 4, some parts are amusing and the book is becoming more enjoyable to read.

Over the years, Sasha and Valentina, have had fun being identical twins, and many of the things, like swapping clothes and pretending to be each other, are well known, pranks to pull. However, this book, high-lights a down side of being a twin. When one twin’s life is under threat, there could, so easily be a miss-identification, in so much as putting the innocent Twin’s, as in Sasha’s life in danger. This book is getting more and more interesting.

The storyline, shows, that the life choices one twin makes, could have serious consequences for the other twin. Being made aware of a twin’s life, runs the risk of not always being an easy one, is a real eye opener, and is somewhat a shock.

As the new year approaches, let’s hope the coming year, is as good as it can be for the girls, as they embark on their new ventures and be somewhat better than the year just gone, in some ways. Their lives have certainly, gone off in all sorts of directions, since new year’s eve, proving, for all four girls, that you shouldn’t get too settled in one place, or with one person, if it is not meant to be.

However, as in many cases, when you say, that you don’t want something and there is a risk to it, you find out, that you don’t want to lose it, and you do want to keep it. Morgan found this out the hard way. It is also good to see a new family back together. it shows, events can change things very quickly.

It is nice to read, that the wedding, of Sasha and Alex, went off without a hitch. The pre-wedding rehearsal dinner was amusing to read. Also it is handy to have a twin, when you haven’t got time to try on your wedding dress. I thought this was a brilliant idea.

Now everyone but Claire is leaving the apartment, in one way or another. It seems you can’t take the apartment out of the 4 young women forever.