The High Notes by Danielle Steel – a Review

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Description:
Iris Cooper has been singing ever since she can remember, hitting the high notes like no one else. When she is twelve, her father convinces the owner of a bar in Lake City, Texas, to let her perform, and she stuns the audience. In the ensuing years, never staying anywhere for long, father and daughter move from one dusty town to the next, her passion for music growing every time she takes the mike in another roadhouse.

But it is not an easy life for Iris with her father in charge and using her income to pay for gambling, women, and booze. When she starts to tour at age eighteen, she takes on a real manager. Yet he exploits her too, and the singers and musicians she tours with are really the only family she has. It is they who give Iris the courage to finally fly free, leave the tour, and follow her dreams.

After years of enduring the hardships of the road, exploitation, and abuse, to do what she loves, her big chance comes as her talent soars. But at the top at last, Iris still has to fight every step of the way. In The High Notes, Danielle Steel delivers an inspiring story about finding the strength to stand up for yourself and your dreams, no matter what it takes.

Review:

The High Notes by Danielle Steel is another one of her wonderful standalone novels.  We meet Iris Cooper, who at 12 years old, lived with her drifter father, as they moved around a lot.  Iris loved to sing, and had an amazing voice for someone her age.  Her father, who also drank, took her to a bar to sing, and over the next number of years, he made money on her singing, until she reached 18 years old, when she decided to go on her own, as her father always spends her money for himself.

Iris tours for over nine years, as her manager also exploits her, but she makes friends with other musicians on her tours. Her friends give her the courage to pack up and leave the tour and follow her dreams.  She goes into hiding in a small town, and meets Boy, a singer on a band, who becomes her friend (no romance), and together they make great music.  Iris convinces Boy to go with her to New York, to meet with a recommended manager. She auditions with Clay Maddox, who is a very successful and likeable manager.  He loves Iris voice, and when she mentions to Clay about Boy, who she feels also has a very nice voice.   Clay hires both Iris and Boy, with Iris career soaring, with a tour and album.  Boy ends up being the opening act, and he too with eventually become famous.   Iris’s ex manager tries to force her to return, but Clay will stop him, proving the ex-manager was a bad man.

Over a period of time, Iris and Clay (there is an age gap), will slowly begin to fall in love, and her life becomes filled with happiness.  Iris also wants to bring some old friends who stood by her into life.  The High Notes is a wonderful sweet story, filled with hope, tragedy, friendship, love, bad people, with a fantastic heroine.  I loved The High Notes, which was so very well written by Danielle Steel.  This is a story not to be missed.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher