By Pam Walatka

This book wasn’t half as bad as I expected it to be. “Coming Out” (Delacorte/Random House, 2006) is the 67th best-selling novel by Danielle Steel.

At the urging of my sister, who gobbles up Steel novels, I finally tried one. By page three, I wanted to read it all.

Steel, who has sold more than 530 million copies of her books, is not a bad writer (bad writers don’t sell 530 million books), although she does have a tendency to misplace her modifiers. You always know what she means, without having to parse out complicated sentences.

She usually writes about characters loosely based on herself: rich, beautiful, successful and serially married. She realizes that love and fortunes come and go. In this book, describing the blue-blooded aristocratic family of her main character, Olympia, Steel says, “Her father had never really worked, and as one of her distant relatives had said after he died, ‘He had a small fortune, he made it from a large one.’”

That’s the only really funny line in the book, which is told as one might tell a story to a friend - many generalizations and not a lot of observed action or dialogue. But it moves along smoothly and held my interest.

The title, “Coming Out,” refers to a debutante ball at which Olympia’s twin daughters have been invited to make their debut. The thin plot centers around her struggles to get her second husband, both daughters and appropriate escorts to attend. The husband and one of the daughters are liberal and egalitarian and reject the idea of an elitist ball. Steel, who lives in San Francisco, recognizes the more current meaning of “coming out,” and that, too, is part of the plot.

Some of Steel’s fans complain that this new book lacks the extreme glamour and romance in her previous work. But there is plenty of shopping. Olympia, a brilliant lawyer, wonderful wife and excellent mother who does her own housekeeping, has time to find the perfect dresses for her daughters, herself and her mother-in-law.

I would think this too-perfect character would annoy readers, but apparently not (remember 530 million). My sister says, “It’s fun to be her for a few days.”

The part that made the biggest impression on me was the back cover. I have never seen such an ostentatious display of wealth on a book jacket. The cover depicts large lions, in the style of the New York Public Library; a marble threshold; a very large and gracious single door flanked by two side lights of beveled glass; trim work around the door comprising dental, fluting, medallions and fancy molding; and a formal entryway with interior glass mirroring the exterior light. Steel is wearing an expansive, bright pink, bubble-bottom coat and perfectly matched shoes. Her face takes up less than 1 percent of the photo.

My sister says, “She always has the perfect house, the perfect outfit and the perfect facelift. The point is that she knows what she is talking about. When she describes the view from the best hotel in Paris, you know she’s been there. She also knows tragedy from firsthand experience, and usually includes problems that seem unsolvable.”

“Coming Out” is available at Main Street Cafe & Books, 134 Main St., Los Altos, 948-8040.