There are few writers so dominant in all of publishing as the legendary Danielle Steel. She has written at least 200 novels over the course of 50 years and shows no signs of slowing down. She is the bestselling living author and one of the best-selling fiction authors of all time, with over 800 million copies sold.
Steel’s novels (of which she publishes multiple a year) are typically stories of sparky and beautiful young women who rise through the ranks of high society or their chosen profession, beating the odds to live happily ever after. They are stories of dynasties fraught with drama and scandal, but also great passions.
Steel’s work has inspired legions of authors and generations of this kind of storytelling, especially for women. For fans of Danielle Steel, here are eight other authors whose work fits into her legendary mold.
A Question of Trust
It's London in the 1950s. Tom Knelston is a charismatic and highly ambitious young man driven to grow beyond his working class roots. His wife Alice is just as eager to rise to the top. They seem like the perfect match. Then out of the blue, Tom meets Diana Southcott.
A once legendary fashion model, Diana is beautiful but stuck in a bad marriage, and an affair with Tom seems like the best way to kickstart her life. A no-strings-attached love can never be simply so, and when a child becomes ill, Tom is forced to make tough choices about his life, morals, and the people he loves.
Adored
Sienna McMahon comes from a legendary dynasty of power, scandal, and glamor. The granddaughter of film legend Duke McMahon, she grew up in Hollywood surrounded by celebrities and backstabbers.
But Sienna wants to be more than a famous granddaughter. She wants to forge her own identity. First, she becomes first a successful supermodel, then an actress. But no amount of money and adoration can fill the hole in her heart.
Naughty
Breanna Parker is a notorious wild child. As the daughter of an R&B diva mother and powerful record producer father, she's used to being in the spotlight and getting whatever she wants. But now, her life is falling apart following a whirlwind marriage to a struggling actor that implodes as quickly as it began.
Bree is ready to live life on her own terms and move on from her partying past. She moves to Rome for a fresh start, becoming business partners with Reuben, an artist. They soon fall into bed with one another. As their sexy lingerie line goes global, Bree is confronted by scandals from her past and threats to her bright future.
A Woman of Substance
Emma Harte is a servant girl, forever underestimated but resourceful, and she has big plans for her future. At Fairley Hall, a grand home in the midst of a humble village on the Yorkshire moors, she worked her way from the bottom to the top, doing whatever it took to survive. It was enough to help her become one of the richest women in the world and the head of a legendary business empire.
Through two marriages, two devastating wars, and generations of secrets, Emma's unparalleled success has come with a price. There are plenty of friends and enemies ready to stab her in the back to take it all away, and Emma will have to keep fighting to retain her place at the top of the pile.
The Kashmir Shawl
Newlywed Nerys Watkins leaves rural Wales for the first time in her life, to accompany her husband on a missionary posting to India. It's a whole other world there, traveling from Ladaka, high up in the Himalayas, to the lakeside city of Srinagar in the heart of Kashmir.
Many Brits live here in paradise, seemingly ignorant of the war going on around them. But the battles draw ever closer, and life in Srinagar changes drastically when the men are sent away to fight. Years later, when Mair Ellis clears out her father's house, she finds an exquisite antique shawl that will reveal generations of secrets from her grandparents' pasts.
A Seductive Kiss
Dianna Harrington is the kind of supermodel whose beauty defines a generation. She's known as The Face thanks to her work as the spokesperson for her family's legendary fashion empire. Men fall at her feet but all Dianna wants to do is relax out of the public eye with her best friend Alex.
Ever since they were kids, Alex has been Dianna's most trusted confidante. But as the brother of her best friend, Alex always seemed out of bounds. Now a successful lawyer, Alex still wants to protect Dianne, now more so than ever as her career has left her lonely and isolated. The chemistry between them is undeniable and something's gotta give sooner or later. Maybe all it takes is just one kiss…
Girl in the Mirror
For her entire life, Charlotte Godowski has avoided going out in public, terrified of how the world views her and her facial difference. One particularly cruel incident compels her to have surgery and now she is beautiful beyond compare. It's time to start afresh so she reinvents herself as Charlotte Godfrey and moves to Hollywood. Now, her life is everything she could have hoped for and so much more. But her past continues to haunt her and the secret of Charlotte Godowski can't stay hidden forever.
The Ocean Between Us
Grace Bennett seems to have the perfect life, with three wonderful children, a devoted husband named Steve and a life of adventure and travel. But she's grown weary of constantly uprooting her life to follow Steve around the world to support his demanding career in the Navy. It's left her wondering who she truly is and what kind of person she'd be outside of a wife and mother. She needs to change, but duty always comes first. Now, separated by an ocean of regrets and longing, Grace and Steve are forced to confront their marital woes from opposite sides of the world. When the unthinkable happens, Grace is left to face a Navy wife's worst nightmare...
