Shelves of Steel Classification: NYC, Parental Death, Family Drama
Days to Read: 5 days
Overall Rating: 4.0
Goodreads Synopsis
In this heartwarming novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel, adult siblings find their way back home—and back to each other—after loss.
Preston and Constance Whittier have built a happy life together with a brood of six children raised in a beautiful historic Manhattan mansion. Now, with a nearly empty nest, it’s easier than ever for the Whittiers to maintain their tradition of a solo romantic “wintermoon” ski trip.
But with this year’s trip comes tragedy. Suddenly, their adult children find themselves reuniting in the family home without their parents for the first time ever. The oldest, Lyle, is reaching a breaking point in his marriage and must decide whether a divorce would be best for him and his two children. Gloria’s big job on Wall Street has kept her single at forty, and growing ever more cynical. The twins, Caroline and Charlie, moved out long ago to start a fashion business that may now be faltering. Benjie, with special needs, is hit hard by the loss of his parents and needs his siblings’ help. And Annabelle, the youngest, drops out of college and starts to spin out of control.
The eldest four are forced to put aside their personal issues and their grief to keep the family together and support each other and their two youngest siblings. Selling the house, along with all the memories that live in its walls, feels like yet another devastating loss. Could there be another way, as unconventional as it seems?
In The Whittiers, Danielle Steel delivers an inspiring story about the everlasting bonds of one unforgettable family.
First Line
Three weeks after Christmas every year, Preston and Constance Whittier left their home in New York and took a vacation.
The Whittiers by Danielle Steel
Important Details About This Title
Pace: Medium
POV: Third person (mainly follows Lyle and Caroline, and to some extent Annabelle)
Content/Trigger Warnings: Romantic partnerships (including homosexual), parental death, pregnancy out-of-wedlock, child given up for adoption, mention of abortion, divorce, autism
Sexual Content: In this book, sexual context takes a “fade to black” approach or is mentioned “off-screen” or happened prior to the book’s beginning
Setting: New York City, Fifth Avenue and surrounding areas, occasionally Downtown Manhattan.
Book Review and My Thoughts
The Whittiers begins by telling the reader about the patriarch and matriarch of the large Whittier clan who reside in an expensive neighborhood in New York City. Every year, the couple takes a “wintermoon” vacation without their adult children. However, this year tragedy strikes, which will become the inciting incident for the novel. Due to a skiing accident in France, both Constance and Preston Whittier perish. This leaves their six adult children, who have always been close, in peril and left with a large mansion to deal with.
After spending a chapter explaining who Constance and Preston Whittier are, we then shift to their oldest son, Lyle. Lyle has a bitter wife named Amanda, who no one in the family likes. His two children are under the age of ten. Right off the bat, we are introduced to Amanda’s personality. For lack of a better term, we can call Amanda the antagonist in this novel. She wishes to live a life of the rich and famous and always wants more money from Lyle and more out of her life with him. They married due to an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, much to the Whittier family’s chagrin.
Slowly, we are introduced to the other Whittier children, including Benjie who is high-functioning but on the autism spectrum. However, numerous references were made to both autism and Asperger’s. Constance and Preston had a set of twins, Caroline (who goes by Caro for some reason) and Charlie. The twins own their own fashion company and want to take it to the next level. Though they disagree on how to do that. Eventually, we learn that Charlie is gay. Gloria, the oldest, works for an investment firm and is the only child of the Whittiers who takes more of a back-seat role throughout the majority of the book. Annabelle is the youngest of the children. At 21, she dropped out of school and spends most of her nights partying with random men, and her days sleeping. Annabelle’s pregnancy serves as a major plot point in the novel and, arguably, serves as the lead-up to the story’s climax.
By the end of chapter three, Steel is leading readers to think that the main character is Lyle and that his eventual divorce from gold-digging Amanda will be the novel’s central plot element. This is because Amanda wants a large piece of Lyle’s inheritance from his parents’ death. The early part of the book spends a lot of time with Lyle and navigating his difficult wife, raising his children, and acting as executor of his parents’ estate. Amanda ends up using the children as pawns and paints the Whittier family to be gypsies. She goes so far as to call the ACS (Administration for Child Services) on the family just to make Lyle’s life more difficult and get what she wants out of the divorce.
I’ll admit, I was more intrigued by this novel in general than the others I’ve read so far. I’m not really sure why. Possibly because I enjoyed the large cast of characters. That said, it didn’t take long for Steel’s writing hallmarks to come out. Her repetitive writing was apparent as early as chapter two, despite the first chapter of the book being well-written. Steel constantly reminded readers of how tragic the death of the parents were. By the end of chapter 4, I had a pretty good idea of what would happen in the end of the story. But my interest was held enough to keep pushing through.
Once Steel set-up the story and introduced the characters, the book begins to move into a strong flow. In true Steel fashion, major “family bomb droppings” end up being a non-issue since that isn’t what she wants the story of focus on. For example, we learn that Annabelle is pregnant, Benjie adopted two dogs (one of which is a Great Dane), Charlie is gay, and that Lyle is getting divorced all at the same dinner. And with the exception of a minor comment from Gloria about the pregnancy, none of the Whittiers have and issue with any of it. In fact, it’s all summed up in one sentence.
Further in the story, major dramatic moments start on one page and end on the other with only two or three paragraphs needed to resolve the issue. And of course, it ended in a positive light. Benjie’s dogs went missing when the door was left open. But it’s okay they were found walking around Central Park on the next page. I barely had time to worry about them before they were found.
Beginning with Chapter 6 we are now about a month later than where we last left the Whittiers. It is at this point that we are slowly introduced to the other characters that would become fixtures among the family clan by the end of the book. Translation: the romantic interests.
As is common in Steel’s works, almost every character is “shockingly handsome” or some similar sentiment. For example, Annabelle’s OB/GYN is tall, good-looking with blonde hair and blue eyes. Giorgio, who will end up partnering with the twins in their company is one of those “shockingly handsome” men, despite his age (which is around 50). Steel also doesn’t write children well, or at least not in this book. The fifth grader is quoted as saying “headcase” in a scene which is an outdated term even for adults to use.
Despite these common findings in her writing, this book can be deemed as progressive as well. This book has a positive look on dating between a same-sex male couple. Though it does not feature heavily in the book, there is one large scene where the readers accompany the couple on a date. They are one of two couples in the book where there is no mention of sex at all.
It was in the last third of this story where the drama is heightened and I nearly reached a stage of “I can’t put it down.” As with many other snags the Whittier clan faced throughout this just over 300-page book, the visit from ACS found Amanda’s claims to be bogus. Lyle asks the social worker on a date which she accepts. Benjie meets a girl who is “like him” at the gym and they begin to hang out. Annabelle decides to give the baby up for adoption and the reader is included in that process as much as Steel included Annabelle.
Between following the lives and romantic interests of six characters, the reader could end up losing sight on what the main plot point of this story was: should the children keep or sell the house? Steel reminds us that this is indeed the main point in the novel by bringing it up every now and then. In one brief scene, Lyle receives an offer of $50 million for the stately home. But he opts to pass on it since the children were hoping for closer to $100 million. Does Steel usually give such specifics like this? Overall, it seems like she glosses over details in other books. But time will tell as I continue to read more.
As Annabelle’s due date is getting closer, Steel reminds us that still no couple wants to adopt her baby due to the history of drug use. But, have no fear, eventually a couple chooses Annabelle’s baby to call their own and they stay in New York for the birth.
The climax of the novel arrives with the birth of Annabelle’s baby. The birth was similar to “soap opera” style birth with few details and occurred over a handful of pages. In the end, Annabelle decided to keep her baby and named it after her now-deceased father. Luckily for the Whittiers, the attractive doctor offers to tell the adoptive parents the “bad news” for them.
It is at this point where Steel begins to enter the “all’s well that ends well” phase of the story.
Gloria, who was previously outspoken against Annabelle keeping the baby and even her being pregnant falls in love with the baby after meeting it for the first time. For the rest of the novel the two are practically inseparable. Every child in the Whittier clan, except Annabelle ends up with a significant other. Lyle continues to date the woman who investigated him from ACS, Gloria is presumed to marry Giorgio, the sexy Italian fabric dealer who works with her siblings, Charlie is dating a man named Brady who he met through a work interview. Benjie is dating the girl from the gym and they spend nights at each other’s homes. Caroline begins dating her sister’s OB after the baby is born, despite her reservations about not being able to have a relationship due to her work ethic. Annabelle is happy with the newborn for now and ends up going back to school to finish her degree and works with Caroline at the fashion company.
In the end, the Whittiers decide to keep the mansion for themselves (for the time being). All but Gloria and Charlie plan to live there “for now.” They will then be able to help Annabelle raise the baby and have enough space to spread out when everyone is gathered. Charlie plans to purchase an apartment with his boyfriend. Gloria plans to retire and move to Italy with Giorgio.
Character Growth
Many of the characters in this story grow, especially the main three that we focused on. Lyle agrees to finally settle with Amanda, despite having to give her a lot of money.
Annabelle decides to put her partying behind her and keep and raise her children.
Caroline grows because she learns to balance work, life, and a romantic relationship.
Gloria agrees to marry Giorgio despite saying otherwise for most of the novel.
Charlie, the gay character, came out to his family earlier in the novel and now no longer has to hide his true self. (I’m not sure that’s actual character growth though).
Benjie is the only Whittier child that I struggle to see any growth. Despite his romantic relationship with Rose, he didn’t do too much that warrants it. It’s not like he’s antisocial. He had a job at the animal shelter. However, Benjie was a tertiary character at best. He caused many minor dramas for his siblings and the story overall.
Final Thoughts
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. Upon finishing the story, I wrote the following statements down:
I would like to return to this family at some point
Which of the Whittier children marry their current significant other?
Do they ever end up selling the house?
My prediction for the end was correct: the family keeps the house and Annabelle decides to keep her baby.
Shelves of Steel 