The latest in a long, long line.
Another morbid melodrama from Steel (Journey, 2000, etc.), this one featuring a lonely wife who finds love in the arms of another man.
Isabelle Forrester has stayed married to Gordon, her loathsome investment banker husband, for the sake of her children: selfish Sophie, now off to college, and Teddy, a frail 14-year-old afflicted with an unnamed degenerative disease that will probably kill him before he’s 20. Isabelle has been utterly devoted to Teddy, and he to her, since his premature birth. She hovers over him, sharing love and laughter and tender moments, even wheeling him out now and then to catch a ray of sunshine in her beautiful Paris garden. Bright-eyed Teddy (a Tiny Tim clone and model of winsome pathos in every way) keeps her happy. And of late, she has a confidant: powerful DC political consultant Bill Robinson. He shares Isabelle’s interest in art, and their transatlantic phone chats mean so very, very much to her. Since Bill is faithful to iceberg wife Cynthia and Isabelle doesn’t even mentally cheat on nasty, controlling Gordon, what harm could there be? When Bill invites Isabelle to spend a few days in London with him, she says yes. They visit the Tate Gallery, dance at Annabel’s, swap tearjerker stories—and then tragedy strikes! Their limo driver slams into a bus while he watches them kiss. Isabelle and Bill are pried out of the wreckage, gravely injured and comatose. Will Bill’s subsequent paralysis make him less of a man in Isabelle’s eyes? (No.) Once she recovers, will Gordon let her go? (Certainly not.) Will Cynthia divorce Bill? (Yes.) Will Teddy die nobly in a haze of golden light and platitudes and finally set his long-suffering mother free? Does a bear . . . read Danielle Steel novels?
The latest in a long, long line.Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-33540-7
Page Count: 360
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2001
A little slower-paced than the typical Roberts romantic mystery (Black Hills, 2009, etc.) but every bit as steamy. It may...
A dog trainer and a wood craftsman dance around love and danger in the Pacific Northwest.
Fiona Bristow is the only victim who got away from serial killer George Perry. Now a copycat, inspired and perhaps guided by the jailed Perry, is on her trail. After Perry murdered her fiancé, Fiona rebuilt her life as a dog trainer and search-and-rescue expert on lovely Orcas Island. She’s recently met talented woodworker Simon Doyle and his misbehaving puppy Jaws, and her dormant love life is about to revive as she and the reluctant Simon slowly build a complicated relationship. Though she’s done her best to overcome her fears and make herself whole again, this new series of killings, with herself as the ultimate target, can’t help but strain her nerves. As the police and FBI track the killer, a persistent reporter makes Fiona’s life more difficult by printing information about her life and location. Through it all, Fiona keeps working. As she continues to go on rescue missions with a team that may soon include Simon and Jaws, her friends help to keep her balanced. But ultimately it will be the trust she has built up with Simon and the talents of her dogs that will change her life forever.
A little slower-paced than the typical Roberts romantic mystery (Black Hills, 2009, etc.) but every bit as steamy. It may well add dog lovers to her legion of fans.Pub Date: July 7, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-399-15657-1
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2010
A smooth blend of suspense and romance. As ever, the author's trademark effortless style keeps a complex plot moving without...
Megaselling Roberts (River's End, 1999, etc.) goes to Napa Valley for the tale of an Italian-American family wine producers rocked by scandal and a series of murders.
Dynasty head Tereza Giambelli knows that her granddaughter Sophia is the only family member capable of running a multimillion-dollar wine business—and no one contradicts La Signora. It's just as well the lovely young woman is still single: Tereza has plans for her. The matriarch has recently married Eli MacMillan, the American founder of another famous wine company. Eli's grandson Tyler knows everything there is to know about producing wine, from the vineyard to the vat. Ruggedly handsome, intelligent and earthy, he's a perfect match for public-relations whiz Sophia—or so thinks Tereza. The two young people begin to work together; Tyler teaches Sophia the fine art of making wine and making love. But other family members hope to claim their share of the Giambelli fortune, and people start dying mysteriously, including Sophia's good-for-nothing father, Tony Avano. Long divorced from long-suffering Pilar Giambelli, Tony led an opulent, self-indulgent life that provides plenty of murder suspects. He might have been killed by the mob, or a jealous mistress, or his spoiled brother-in-law, Tereza's lazy son, who's produced a passel of brats with his foolish Italian wife in the hopes of making Tereza happy. Everyone has a motive, and nothing is what it seems, Sophia discovers, but Tyler stands by her. Then a bottle of tainted merlot kills a company exec. A tragic mishap caused by poisonous plants growing near the vines? Or deliberate product tampering intended to destroy the company? Sophia and Tyler will need to delve even deeper into the convoluted and sometimes unsavory history of the family and its three-generation business.
A smooth blend of suspense and romance. As ever, the author's trademark effortless style keeps a complex plot moving without a hitch.Pub Date: March 19, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-14712-8
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
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