Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Juego de citas / Dating Game

Rate this book
Barcelona. 24 cm. 396 p. Encuadernación en tapa dura de editorial con sobrecubierta ilustrada. Steel, Danielle 1947-. Traducción de Rita da Costa. Traducción de: Dating game .. Este libro es de segunda mano y tiene o puede tener marcas y señales de su anterior propietario. ISBN: 84-01-37905-9

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

543 people are currently reading
3058 people want to read

About the author

Danielle Steel

915 books16.4k followers
Danielle Steel has been hailed as one of the world's bestselling authors, with almost a billion copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include All That Glitters, Royal, Daddy's Girls, The Wedding Dress, The Numbers Game, Moral Compass, Spy, and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story of her son Nick Traina's life and death; A Gift of Hope, a memoir of her work with the homeless; Expect a Miracle, a book of her favorite quotations for inspiration and comfort; Pure Joy, about the dogs she and her family have loved; and the children's books Pretty Minnie in Paris and Pretty Minnie in Hollywood.

Facebook.com/DanielleSteelOfficial
Instagram: @officialdaniellesteel

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
2,411 (35%)
4 stars
1,934 (28%)
3 stars
1,711 (25%)
2 stars
540 (7%)
1 star
164 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 304 reviews
Profile Image for Sara the Librarian.
840 reviews770 followers
November 19, 2022
We do a lot of what's called "readers advisory" in the library world which essentially amounts to someone coming up to the desk and saying "I really like historical asexual vampire romance do you have any of those but with werewolves?" and we scurry around like the eager little book rats we are until we find what someone wants.

But what inevitably happens with a group of adult reference librarians who've worked together for a thousand years is you figure out what everyone's wheelhouse is. Someone wants historical fiction with a WWII bent where someone dies? Go see my boss who I have lovingly referred to (to her face) as a "grief junky" for many years now. Time travel sci-fi? Also my boss. Graphic novels? My highly annoying, (younger brother from another mother) tech savvy co-worker Steve. Contemporary romance, true crime, mysteries and for some reason I still haven't unpacked in therapy Amish romance? Come see me! Between the five of us we've more or less got every genre covered but what that means is if the "expert" isn't around the others are left kind of scrambling and that's just not professional!

So we decided that we'd start a little book club at all of our staff meetings. Each month we pick a genre where at least a few of us don't have a lot of experience, each read a book over the ensuing month and then at the next meeting we discuss them with the end result being we'll each have at least five books to throw at a patron looking for something in that genre.

I say all this to explain why I, the patron saint of books snobs, ended up reading a Danielle Steel novel. This month it was New York Times bestsellers, the bane of every librarians existence.

My son is forever telling us not to "yuck someone's yum" and I want everyone to know that I tried. I really tried. I did! I'm not just saying that.

But guys? The next time someone asks me if I have something like Danielle Steel? I'm gonna suggest they try reading the telephone book or possibly my grocery list because both of those things have more depth and better character development that this book did.

I purposely read an older Steel book (my, perhaps misguided, theory being that her older work would be stronger) wherein a devoted wife and mother who lives in a perfect home in Greenwich, CT is left by her husband of many years for a younger version of herself. What should she do? Why move to California and date through a list of stereotypes until finding a man exactly like her ex-husband! She also becomes an event planner because that's apparently the only career open to homemakers trying to get back on their feet.

Everything about this horrid thing is bland and reeking of "traditional" values and if its possible for a book to have that milky haze that Elizabeth Taylor's "Diamonds" commercials had then this one absolutely does. It's all very 80's in the worst ways possible which is hilarious because IT WAS WRITTEN IN 2003!

This wasn't even like a fun hate read where I read excerpts to my husband in comical voices, this was a literal hate read because I hated every second of it.

So Danielle Steel fans looking for something similar? I have some IKEA instructions you're going to lovvvveeeeeee.
Profile Image for Allison Ann.
675 reviews32 followers
October 5, 2021
I read Danielle Steel novels as if I was an anthropologist studying a foreign tribe. 99.9% of her main characters (female and male) act as if having children is THE ONLY WORTHWHILE thing in life. If they can't have children, their life is over. If they have children they must give up everything for those children. And even if they don't want kids, they will change their minds by the end and THE MIRACLE OF CHILDBIRTH and/or holding a newborn infant will immediately change their entire personality. It's like watching gorillas for me - I don't get it, but it's somewhat interesting and as long as I don't sprain my eyeballs while rolling them, no one gets hurt.

It makes sense, the woman has 837 children of her own, she must be a bit baby-crazy. Write what you know and all that.

These days lots of people seem to turn to paranormal for their escapism fiction. Vampires, werewolves, witches, what have you. Things so far outside your real world that you can forget the washing machine is leaking and you owe $20,000 to the credit card company. I read about Danielle Steel's babies and the women who MUST HAVE THEM and then return to my real life, happily secure that I would still rather chew off my own arm than have kids.
Profile Image for Breann Bianco.
152 reviews30 followers
February 8, 2013
I just finished this book and I must say, it was definitely worth reading. This book kind of hit home for me because my parents were married for 25 years and my dad had told my mom he wanted a divorce because he met a younger woman. How Paris was feeling was exactly how my mom felt. I read this and just visualized how hurt my mom was. Her life as she knew it was over, just like Paris.

This is definitely one of my favorite Steel books. It takes a lot of courage to pack up the life you once had lived to move all the way across the country and start over. After countless terrible and frightening first dates, naturally she is leary to begin dating a man who is actually "normal". Its amazing what God has in the cards for each and everyone of us. Sometimes you think what you once had was the most important but this book goes to show that more often than not, you always find something better and more satisfying.

I love how Danielle makes her characters seem so real. She is so brilliant.

Definitely a must read :)
Profile Image for Chelsea Cripps.
117 reviews3 followers
June 20, 2011
I have never read a Danielle Steel novel and for some reason when I saw this in the free books bin at my local used book store I thought, "why HAVE I never read one of her books? She's published like a billion novels, surely she has to be somewhat readable" and I took it home. It sat on my shelf for months until I found myself between books and in need of something very unchallenging and remembered it was there. Well...I have now read a Danielle Steel novel. The story wasn't awful. It would have made a great chick flick or Lifetime movie, which is the stuff of a Steel novel right? But the writing...oh the writing. It was horrible. Just horrible. If Danielle Steel were in a middle school English class and I was her teacher, she would have failed. Just very basic grammar and rules of writing were completely dismissed. There wasn't a single page that didn't have at least one sentence beginning with the word "and." She changes perspective, sometimes mid-sentence. At times it was painful. But I could have really enjoyed it as a fluffy movie.

(oh, and as a side note, there was exactly none of the steamy sex she is known for. Maybe one sentence of spicy.)
Profile Image for Yasmin.ahmed.selim.
14 reviews6 followers
February 5, 2012
its a story of a women her name is Paris while thinking she is having the perfect marriage her husband asks for a divorce and she find out that he is involved with another woman half his age ,she breaks down and tries to get over peter(her husband),her friends try to make her some dates ,she feels so bad,and travels to another state, finds a job, and meet different men some of them didn't want commitment and some of them are weird, some were younger than she was,that's when she decides to adopt a baby and she finds that the treasure in her journey was her friends and people who stood beside her,then finally she loves a man she never thought to love him ,and she marries him.
for me the story was very boring Steel goes into a lot of details that are unnecessary ,and the story was ordinary ,i wanted to see something different !
Profile Image for Rosabelle Purnama.
251 reviews8 followers
February 23, 2015
I used to read Danielle Steel books while I was in college, and I loved it because it contains ideas of what life would ideally be: you fall down, you get up and everything else is right again with the world. And the way she tells the story is as if nothing really bad can happen in our world. It does happen, but everything else will work out in the end. It's always a happy ending for Danielle Steel's heroine. But as I grow up, I learned that life is not like a Danielle Steel novels. Things sometimes don't work out in the end, and we just have to deal with that. And now, these novels should be an escape from reality indeed.

Dating game is about starting over. Paris's husband left her for a younger girl from his office and her life suddenly shattered. She doesn't know what to do, she's so sad and it felt like everything fell apart. So she moved west to be closer to her grown children and ended up starting a new life. As with other Danielle Steel novels, it always worked in the end. But my feelings towards her stories are different now. I think it's cheesy and her heroine feels weak to me. I completely lost interest in the novel halfway through and just skim towards the end :)

Profile Image for Julie.
15 reviews
January 15, 2014
I don't know why I even tried this... I know her books are all the same: happily we'll-kept wife gets screwed by husband and tries to make it on her own, only to end up with an even better husband in the end. Yuck! I couldn't even finish this book... I just deleted it. Storyline parts that we're making me hit my head against the wall: the 20 something yr old that would want toasty an almost 50 yr old, her gay boss and his HIV boyfriend who's the wisest person in the characters, and what crossed the line- her deciding at 49 that she wanted a baby because she's lonely. I guess she forgot that she'd be almost 70 when the kid graduates from high school and that she'd neglect it because she loves her amazing job too much to give it up. Definitely not reading another Steel book!
Profile Image for Suz.
1,528 reviews818 followers
October 5, 2021
Not too memorable, rather repetitive, but I'm getting through my little task of getting through reviewing every book I have read. As always, these are an easy to pick up and read, and very easy put down again. But again, as always, I will always pick up another DS novel when the mood strikes me for a fluffy right time right place moment.
Profile Image for Anitalia Payne.
265 reviews18 followers
June 23, 2021
I've been a fan of Danielle Steel’s books since college. I found her books always have the closest one for what happened to a woman who suffered from broken hearts, loss of beloved ones, failure of life and everything similar with those situations. But she also inspired her readers that women are not always being portrayed as weak creatures, they're not giving up just like that, in fact women are the strongest people in this kind of complicated world.

A woman named Paris Armstrong, who has a great life, stable financial, loving friends, is suddenly forced to deal with the opposite of her forty years of great life and marriage in just one night. Her longtime husband is leaving her for a younger woman than Paris, he divorced her and didn't love her any chance “why, when, and how” this happened. Finding herself never being alone, never taking a job for most of her married life, she panicked, depressed and decided to move where her children lived. She found a job, new people, and of course a new man in her life. But she continues to experience extreme disappointment with man. She thinks dating in her middle age life is a serious thing, to find someone that can be with her until old age. How Paris Armstrong will find the best man for her life, Danielle Steel writes her ups and down of her love life, new job, and new friends in this book.

Maybe because I already got used to her writing style, so her books become easily predictable to me. However, the mixed emotions of the main character in this book, very well described and very close to reality.

3.5 ⭐️
Profile Image for Gracie.
54 reviews
August 16, 2010
I've just come out of a relationship, I figured this might help brighten my outlook on things lol So far it has been very sad, I'd also be shocked if someone left me after 24 yrs so I can really relate to the character. However the current turn of events seem too good to be true, but at least it's getting a little more cheerful!
Profile Image for Diane.
755 reviews34 followers
June 13, 2018
Oh. My. god I loved this book!! Starts out so heartbreaking, but Paris's journey to her happy ending is just.... amazing 💖💖 This book really warmed my heart and I felt all of her emotions, good and bad.

I didn't like the part with the baby getting eye drops, but I did like the fact that Amy had a natural childbirth. ✊💪No epidural for the win 💖
154 reviews2 followers
May 29, 2019
I thought this book was going to be a fluff book but it had depth. I felt for Paris the main character. This author likes to make sure her characters never have money worries I’ve noticed. I would recommend this book to the ladies out there. It was nice to see how Paris grew through her divorce with help from therapy.
Profile Image for Evelyn.
1,502 reviews3 followers
October 10, 2017
It is really scary when you are 46, married 24 years and your attorney husband decides to marry a woman 15 years younger. Especially when the woman knows what a family goes through because her father did it to her mother but it didn't matter, she survivor so Paris will, and did!!!! WOW!!!
Profile Image for Diana.
559 reviews1 follower
September 19, 2016
I am a little surprised that I enjoyed Danielle Steel as much as I did! The book was interesting and not super cheesy. :)
Profile Image for Lillian Alfano.
50 reviews
July 12, 2018
Great book about life and how it surprises you. How to take the bad times and wait for the blessings. Your life might not turned out how you planned, but that does not mean it is a bad thing. :-)
Profile Image for Tammy.
637 reviews7 followers
November 10, 2017
This story is about a woman in her late 40's who was married and had two grown kids, her daughter was a movie producer assistant and her son was graduating high school and going onto collage. One night after her husband and her threw a party, her husband ripped apart her world. He told her that he no longer loved her and was in love with a woman that was in her twenties and he wanted a divorce..she was crushed.

After battling depression and learning how to live by herself she decided to move to California to be closer to her kids and to start over fresh. Things are going well, she has a job that she loves, a few friends from work and her kids, but then they start to set her up with blind dates, its one train wreck after another with these dates. finally she says no more. she doesnt want to be in a relationship, she just wants to concentrate on herself.

She discovers what she really wants to fill the void in her life, but not everybody is agreeing with her choices..

This was a cozy read to curl up in my blanket with..
Profile Image for Sina & Ilona Glimmerfee.
1,056 reviews119 followers
June 10, 2019
Inhalt: Kaum sind die Gäste gegangen, eröffnet Peter seiner Frau Paris, dass er sich scheiden lassen möchte. Nach 24 Jahre Ehe hat er sich in eine viel jüngere Frau verliebt. Paris fällt in ein emotionales Loch, muss ihren geliebten Mann ziehen lassen und auch ihre Kinder gehen eigene Wege. Doch es ist bekanntlich nie zu spät für einen Neustart...

Art des Buches: Ein klarer Fall von Frauenbuch.

Wie fand ich das Buch? Ich hatte bislang noch kein Buch von Danielle Steel gelesen und war von ihrer Art zu schreiben schnell gefangen. Sie drückt nicht unnötig auf die Tränendrüse und schildert das Dating immer auch mit einem zwinkernden Auge. Das Buch wurde 2003 veröffentlicht und ist dafür sehr aktuell, bis auf die modischen Details wie Zobel oder Armbanduhr mit Krokodillederarmband. Mir gefiel das Setting, Los Angeles und die Charaktere sehr.

Gab es etwas zum Nachdenken und/oder Nachforschen? Ja, für mich stellten sich wieder einmal Fragen, die wir alle kennen, aber doch nie befriedigend beantworten können.

3 passende Wörter zum Buch? Dating - Neuanfang - Liebe

Wem empfehlen? Allen Frauen, die gerne einen Roman mit schönem Lifestyle, Herschmerz, Dating und die Hoffnung haben, dass es nicht nur einen einzigen Mister Right für eine Frau gibt.
Profile Image for Lynn Smith.
2,033 reviews33 followers
July 23, 2022
I did find this hard going, trite, and cliched as well as boring to read for quite a large amount of the book. Wife of over 20 years dumped by husband who goes off with much younger woman. Wife then changes her life, but this is denoted by the men in her life and the relationships she has with them are a bit of a stereotype. However, 3/4's of the way through the book there was some improvement as I started to enjoy the latter part of the story.
This has been done so much better by Steel herself in the past, as well as by other authors such as Barbara Taylor Bradford.
Again, the characters are rich and beautiful people but then I suppose that is what she knows but sometimes a reader does want more!
Profile Image for QueensBookShelf.
102 reviews26 followers
March 6, 2024
I didn’t love or hate this book it’s a okay read and while o was truly over Paris and all her pining for Peter! I was also equally as glad when she moved on! By the end of the book was genuinely happy for Paris she was not only
getting her happy ending but the best was yet to come’
1,248 reviews15 followers
January 23, 2022
I liked this novel the further I got into it. It reminded me of others I know who have had to start over unexpectedly. I sympathized with our heroine in being thrust back into the dating game at her age and feeling like she would never find another man she could even consider marrying. Steel takes us through that world with tears and laughter. Enjoyable read.
Profile Image for Candida Waterford.
50 reviews2 followers
December 4, 2024
Paris Armstrong never saw it coming. Her husband wanted a divorce as he'd met someone else. Paris was heartbroken. Her daughter has made a life for herself and her son has just gone to college.
23 reviews1 follower
January 11, 2020
Great book.

This was probably my favorite so far of Danielle Steel's books. It went by fast and I liked all the characters. Even the husband Peter who leaves her for another woman. Not a very nice character for leaving his marriage for another woman but at least honest enough in his feelings for why he wanted something more. The story was funny at times with Paris' blind date experiences. And her children were not spoiled and rude brats but very kind well brought up young adults. Good book


Profile Image for Sage.
42 reviews3 followers
January 10, 2022
Danielle Steel's novel is interestingly known as English learning book in Korea, my home country, due to the usage of vocabulary being highly repetitive and simple sentence structure. I personally "was forced" to buy Dating Game back in 2017 in some English class at my Univ. Sadly I didn't improve any of my English out of this book. Because I never strived to read it off. To look on the bright side, now I realized it is not the English itself I hated but just the story of this book. Still, I feel upset I had to buy this book regardless of my will.

This book is great to train your PATIENCE. Almost half of the novel, all the main character did was only being depressed, self-doubting, denying, hopeless in the bed. At some point, I've got very rebellious that I MUST finish this book to see the ending. I saw such an evil side in my heart that I can't be more than this hateful toward novel characters who don't even exist in the real life.

Female characters are victims of misogyny. I feel bad for them. They feel guilty of their sexual desire, they desperately limit themselves as BABY PRODUCING WIVES. How pitty. I didn't agree with any single of the philosophies this book contains. Extremely upsetting.

The ending is shockingly shocking. I had light depression after finally finishing this book. Technically, I have to read again to check new vocabs for the darn English practice. But no I won't. My mental health is more important than torturing my emotion because of language learning.

If you are a big fan of projecting your self-hatred emotion to some stupid soap opera, no doubt to choose this novel.
Profile Image for Fatmah.
6 reviews24 followers
April 4, 2013
"One can see clearly with the heart.
What's essential is invisible to the eye"
It's the protagonist's summary of all what she's been through.
It's a spontaneous, realistic and readable novel that has well-selected details to enhance the progress of the novel.
A stereotype that tell the story of a 48 woman whose husband ask for a divorce which was a pain in the heart for her as she was thinking that she is having the most perfect relation. A 25 years marriage ends in one moment as her husband was having an affair with a girl half his age.
She couldn't understand why or how all of that happened to her and her husband.
She goes to a shrink to get help.
Her friends start to set her up to blind dates which turned to be sometimes weird and freaky.
She decides to move to another state and get a job and she does.
She meets a guy half her age that showed her why her husband dumped her for a younger woman. She feels the youthful energy again and feels much younger and happier but as time goes on, the age difference comes up to the surface.
She discovers how immature and irresponsible was he plus the lots of differences in their ideas and interests.
He proposed to her and after along time of thinking she refuses, despite she really loves him, only to avoid future consequences of the age difference.
This time she sticks to reason and logical sensibility to plan for her future. She thought that her relation with this man is doomed to death however how happy they are together.
She takes the decision of not dating anymore and sticks to it for a long time.
At the end she figured out what does she want and what would make her happy and so she adopts a baby.
She meets a handsome cultured 50 years old man.
He shows no interest in her which make her take him as a friend. Their friendship gets stronger as he supports her in adopting the baby.
Finally he proposes to her and she say yes as she found him the suitable match then.
The novel hits on different topics starting from failing marriages as a result of routine, age difference that could ruin a life and finally that all what we know is way less than what we don't.
If you think it is the end, it's not and if you think it's not the end, it is.
The novel could be a resource for a good movie.

Profile Image for Michang.
81 reviews
July 18, 2016
hmm im still reading and Steel's smooth narration is so good :) I have read so many of her novels and her character development is amaaazing! She describes them as if they are real people. What I like about Steel's style is her incorporating her characters/ story in historical events. I'm surprised to see this book of hers: dating game. It kinda sounds like chic lit genre! :) And its refreshing.

Im confused so many people don't like Danielle Steel :O Why? The tragedy too heavy for you? But that's reality guys. Personally, I like DS novels more than Nicholas Sparks novels. With DS, you can't predict anything. It's really a roller coaster ride but with NS, I like his writing and his stories but they are always the same: guy meets girl, tragedy falls (either girl got sick or guy got sick) ending: they still find love.

They are two good romance writers. Im just saying, if you like NS or if your looking for something refreshing and a tear jerker read, read Danielle Steel! :)

edit:
Finished! i liked it but not as much as i like her other books. :P
Profile Image for Jonathan Williams.
138 reviews1 follower
August 7, 2016
I loved this book from beginning all the way up to the end. The book tells the story of a Woman named Paris who just received news that her husband wants to divorce immediately. Paris, left with a punch to the gut has to find out how to put her life back together again. I loved this book because its relatable in so many ways. We've all gone through the terrible dating woes of life and the feeling of hopelessness that comes with it. You read this book and as a reader you can sympathize with Paris on exactly of how she feels dealing with life and learning to overcome the obstacles it throws at you sometimes. When reading this book, I would smile or laugh out loud because of the situations and experiences that Paris had gone through with dating had mimicked exactly what I've gone through in my life. Thanks for another great book Danielle Steel.
Profile Image for Ashton Noel.
706 reviews6 followers
March 29, 2019
This is the best Danielle Steel book I have read in quite a while. Follows the story of Paris, a middle-aged woman thrown into a crisis when her husband leaves her for another woman suddenly and she has to learn how to live on her own as both of her children are moved out of the house as well. She enters the dating scene after being out of it for more than 24 years. Some parts of this were relatable and funny. I would recommend this book for anybody wanting to dip their toes into Danielle Steel and isn't sure where to start. This is definitely one of her better books.
Profile Image for Joanne Cornish.
1 review6 followers
September 19, 2012
I think the author is either being asked to "pad" out her stories or she has early Alzheimers (sorry Danielle) but on one page she repeated the exact same sentence and thought 3 times... this occurs throughout the book which is rather tiresome... the story was excellent and really wasn't hard to understand so each event and/or thought didn't need to be repeated!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 304 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.