ACCIDENT 3/1994 ISBN: 0440217547 Although frequent business meetings keep her husband, Brad, away from home, Page Clarke feels blessed with her happy family and comfortable marriage. They have a house near San Francisco and she keeps busy looking after her seven-year-old son, Andy and her teenage daughter, Allyson. Allyson, at fifteen, is trying her wings and one weekend, instead of an evening with her friend, Chloe, the girls lie and go out with two older high school boys. But a Saturday night that was to be fun ends in tragedy when their car collides head-on with another. At the hospital Page finds Chloe's divorced father and, unable to locate Brad, she leans on his strength throughout the long hours of tormenting questions. Will Allyson live? Will any of them? Were the teenagers drinking? Using drugs? Who was at fault? And where is her husband? Without Brad by her side Page feels her life start to come apart as she is forced to confront the fact that Allyson may not live, and if she does, she may never be the same again.
AMAZING GRACE 11/2007 ISBN: 0385340230 On a warm May night in San Francisco, the Ritz-Carlton ballroom shimmers with crystal and silver as a glittering, celebrity-studded crowd gathers for a charity dinner dance. The evening is perfect–until, just minutes before midnight, the room begins to sway. Glass shatters. And as the lights go out, people begin to scream…. In the earthquake’s aftermath, the lives of four strangers will converge.… Sarah Sloane, the beautiful wife of a financial whiz, watches her perfect world fall to pieces…. Grammy-winning singer Melanie Free, the event’s headliner, comes to a turning point in her life and career…. Photographer Everett Carson, a former war correspondent whose personal demons have demoted him to covering society parties, finds new purpose amid the carnage…and Sister Maggie Kent, a nun who normally works in jeans and high-tops with the homeless, searches through the rubble–and knows instantly that there is much work to be done…. As the city staggers back to life, a chain reaction of extraordinary events will touch each of the survivors.… For Sarah, it begins with the discovery of a crime and a betrayal, then a strength she never knew she had. For Melanie, volunteering at a refugee camp will open new worlds of possibility. And Everett will be shaken by the unlikely relationship he forges with Maggie, who helps him rebuild his shattered life–and upends her own in the process. But as a year passes, and the anniversary of the earthquake approaches, more surprises are in store–as each discovers the unexpected gifts in a tragedy’s wake…and the amazing grace of new beginnings. RR@H's Novel Thoughts
ANSWERED PRAYERS 11/2002 ISBN: 044023672X On the outside, Faith Madison is the very picture of a sophisticated New Yorker. Slim, blond, stylish, Faith has a life many would envy. Overcoming a childhood marked by tragedy, married to a successful investment banker and having raised two grown daughters, Faith has enjoyed her role as mother and wife, and the good life that emanates from their bustling Manhattan town house. But every step of the way, Faith has carried within her a secret she could divulge to no one. And with it, she has kept an even more painful secret from herself. For Faith, it is the sudden death of her stepfather - a man who, like her husband, Alex, always remained just beyond her reach - that will touch off a journey of change and revelation. At the funeral, painful memories flood back - and an old friend reenters Faith's life. Faith is greeting mourners, when she hears a voice behind her and a single word that brings a quick smile to her face: 'Fred.' Only one person aside from her older brother, Jack, called her that. Brad Patterson was Jack's best friend, a long, lanky boy who teased, tormented, and protected Faith when they fancied themselves 'The Three Musketeers' as kids. When Jack died years later, Faith and Brad came together again in their common, inconsolable grief, then lost touch once more amid the demands of families and busy lives a continent apart.
BITTERSWEET 5/1999 ISBN: 0440224845 India Taylor lived in a world of manicured lawns and neatly maintained calendars. With four wonderful children, India believed in commitment and sacrifice, just as she believed in Doug, the man she married seventeen years before. This was the life she had chosen-not the award-winning career as a photojournalist she once had. India couldn't pinpoint the moment the price of the sacrifices she'd made began to seem high. Perhaps it was the last time Doug insisted she turn down an assignment, or when he told her he thought of her as someone to take care of their kids, and not much more. And then she met Paul Ward. A Wall Street tycoon married to a bestselling author, Paul lived life on his own terms. India hadn't planned to become Paul's friend. Yet she could share her dreams with him, and offer comfort when Paul suffers a heartbreak of his own. Rediscovering her creativity, India uses Paul like a beacon on the horizon, sharing intimate phone conversations with a man half a world away, who never stops reminding her of all that is possible for her. And when she is presented with an irresistible opportunity, India makes a heart-wrenching decision, leaving a safe, familiar place to move into the terror of the unknown.
BUNGALOW 2 7/2007 ISBN: 0385338317 The phone call came on a hot July day—a day like any other for Marin County mom and freelance writer Tanya Harris. But this call—from Tanya’s agent—was anything but ordinary, offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: the chance to write a major Hollywood screenplay, a dream she had put aside long ago to devote her energies to her family. This time, Tanya knows she cannot refuse, even though she’s torn about leaving her husband and their daughters. From the moment she steps into her lush bungalow at the fabled Beverly Hills Hotel, Tanya is thrust into an intoxicating new world where she feels reborn—energized by the creativity swirling around her—yet the pull of her family at home is strong. Suddenly she’s working alongside A-list actors and a Hollywood legend: Oscar-winning producer Douglas Wayne, a man who always gets what he wants–and who seems to have his sights set on her. Flying home between shoots, struggling to reconnect with a family that seems to need her less and less, Tanya watches helplessly as her old life is pulled out from under her in the most crushing of ways. As her two lives collide, as one award-winning film leads to another, Tanya begins to wonder if she can be a wife, a mother, and a writer at the same time. And just as she confronts the toughest choice she has faced, she is offered another dazzling opportunity—one that could recast her story in an amazing new direction, complete with an ending she never could have written herself. RR@H's Novel Thoughts
CHANGES 1983 ISBN: 0440111811 Top TV anchorwoman Melanie Adams had given up on love after a failed marriage and an unhappy affair. With her two teenage children and her television news career, she had no room in her life for a man. Then she met famous heart surgeon Peter Hallam, a widower with three children of his own. Suddenly Melanie was experiencing feelings she thought were gone forever. But two families (one in New York and one in Los Angeles), two exciting careers, and two strong-willed people were too much to handle. And Melanie faced a painful choice between her glamorous life in the public eye, her private life, the needs of her family, and the new family she took on. Changes lead each of them to new places, new problems, new people, and the new life they begin.
COMING OUT 6/2007 ISBN: 044024207X Olympia Crawford Rubinstein has a busy legal career, a solid marriage, and a way of managing her thriving family with grace, humor, and boundless energy. With twin daughters finishing high school, a son at Dartmouth, and a kindergartner from her second marriage, there seems to be no challenge to which Olympia cannot rise. Until one sunny day in May, when she opens an invitation for her daughters to attend the most exclusive coming-out ball in New York—and chaos erupts all around her. One twin’s excitement is balanced by the other’s outrage; her previous husband’s profound snobbism is in sharp contrast to her current husband’s flat refusal to attend. For Olympia’s husband, Harry, whose parents survived the Holocaust, the idea of a blue-blood debutante ball is abhorrent. Her daughter Veronica, a natural-born rebel, agrees—while Veronica’s identical twin, Virginia, is already shopping for the perfect dress. Then there’s Olympia’s ex, an insufferable snob, who sees the ball as the perfect opportunity for a family feud. And amid all the hubbub, Olympia’s college-age son, Charlie, is facing a turning point in his life—and may need his mother more than ever. But despite it all, Olympia is determined to steer her family through the event until, just days before the cotillion, things begin to unravel with alarming speed. From a son’s crisis to a daughter’s heartbreak, from a case of the chicken pox to a political debate raging in her household, Olympia is on the verge of surrender. And that is when, in a series of startling choices and changes of heart, family, friends, and even a blue-haired teenager all find a way to turn a night of calamity into an evening of magic. As old wounds are healed, barriers are shattered and new traditions are born, and a debutante ball becomes a catalyst for change, revelation, acceptance, and love. RR@H's Novel Thoughts
THE COTTAGE 2/2002 ISBN: 0440236819 A gleaming Rolls-Royce convertible pulls through the gates of the magnificent estate known as The Cottage. Modeled after the 'cottages' of Newport, Rhode Island, the spacious, elegant property, sitting on fourteen acres of lush Bel Air, fits its owner to a T. For the man behind the wheel of the Rolls is Hollywood's ageless wonder, Cooper Winslow. A star of the silver screen for decades, a man whose allure to women is the stuff of legend, Coop exudes grace, charm, and old-fashioned style. But today Coop Winslow is in for a major surprise. He's broke. And with no major roles coming his way, Coop is faced with the heartbreaking prospect of selling his beloved home of forty years, or at least renting out the gatehouse and part of the main house. A huge blow to Coop, whose debonair attitude allows him to escape reality much of the time. His new tenants, Mark Friedman and Jimmy O'Connor, are busy coping with problems of their own. Mark's wife of sixteen years just walked out, and Jimmy recently lost his own wife to a devastating illness. But everything changes when Mark's teenage son and daughter move in. Suddenly, The Cottage is transformed, with music blasting from every corner, teenagers on skateboards crashing into vintage cars, and a never-ending parade of young starlets streaming in and out to visit Coop. But amid all the noise and the chaos, something unexpected is happening. Three men who never would have met are becoming friends...and each man finds himself changing in surprising ways, Coop most of all. Because beneath the dazzle and flash, the impeccably tailored suits and the sheer bravado, is a man trying to keep control of his carefully ordered world - a world that is becoming more and more unpredictable with each passing day. First, a tabloid scandal erupts, threatening Coop's budding romance with a wealthy debutante....A stranger approaches Coop with stunning news....A devastating accident almost claims the life of one of the housemates....And in the midst of it all, The Cottage welcomes a new houseguest with a secret of her own, who will change Coop's life in unexpected ways. Because among the people who share his cottage and his life, Coop Winslow - loner, bachelor, movie star - may find the rarest of all opportunities: a chance to build a happiness he could never have dreamed of on his own, and to become the kind of human being he has never been.
DADDY 1989 ISBN: 0440207622 Oliver Watson's world suddenly dissolves around him when Sarah, his wife of eighteen years, returns to Harvard to get her master's degree. Oliver is left on his own, with three children and a freedom he never wanted. When Oliver's mother is diagnosed as having Alzheimer's disease and dies soon thereafter, Oliver's father's life is changed as well. Braver than his son and with less of a future before him, George Watson, at seventy-two, quickly embraces new relationships and, eventually, a new marriage. Ben, Oliver's oldest son, rejects his father and reaches outward, under the illusion that he is grown-up and can make it on his own. Melissa, the middle child, blames Oliver for her mother's desertion. And Sam, the 'baby' is too shaken to deal with it at all. Now the only parent, 'Daddy' must somehow cope with his troubled family and explore a world of new responsibilities, new women, and new experiences. Each of the three men must start a new life: Oliver in New York and then in Los Angeles with his children and his new relationships with women; his widowed father with the woman next door; and seventeen-year-old Ben with his girlfriend and baby. Nothing is as it was before...nothing is as they once thought it would be. But in the end, different is better...different is more...for each of them - and especially for 'Daddy.'
DATING GAME 3/2003 ISBN: 0440240751 Paris Armstrong never saw it coming. With two grown children and a lovely home in Connecticut, Paris was happy with her marriage, her family, her life. So when her husband of twenty-four years said they needed to talk, Paris couldn't imagine what he was about to say. 'I want a divorce,' Peter tells her. Just like that, the husband she adored had dumped her for a younger woman. And just like that, Peter and his thirty-one-year-old lover had made their plans for their future, leaving Paris to pick up the pieces of a shattered life. Within days, Peter was gone. And Paris was left to figure out how she intended to get through the next day, let alone the rest of her life. The task could not have been more painful. First came the tears. Then the excruciating attempts by well-meaning friends to 'fix her up' with men who paled in comparison to Peter. Worse yet, she still loved him. Finally, Paris realized she was in a fight for her very survival. Drastic measures were called for. Even her shrink agreed. It was time to move - as far away as possible, just after Peter remarried. Paris had never felt, or been, more alone.
FINE THINGS 1987 ISBN: 0440236894 Smart, likable, Bernie Fine was the wonder boy of Wolff's, New York's most glamorous department store. A senior VP moving up, he arrives in San Fransisco to open a West Coast store. His career is skyrocketing, but his life is lacking a center. When he looks into the wide, innocent eyes of five-year-old Jane O'Reilly, and then into the equally enchanting eyes of her mother, Liz, Bernie knows he has found what he has been looking for. Bernie thought he had found love to last a lifetime, but when Liz is stricken with cancer shortly after the birth of their first child, time becomes painfully short. Alone with two children, Bernie must face the loss and learn how to move on. New people, new experiences, a new life alone with two kids. He meets it with courage and humor, and learns some of life's hard but precious lessons as he does.
FIVE DAYS IN PARIS 12/1995 ISBN: 0440222842 As president of a major pharmaceutical empire, Peter Haskell has everything: power, position, a career, and a family that means everything to him and for which he has sacrificed a great deal. Compromise has been key in Peter Haskell's life, and integrity is the base on which he lives. Olivia Thatcher is the wife of a famous senator. She has given to her husband's ambitions and career until her soul is bone-dry. She is trapped in a web of duty and obligation, married to a man she once loved and no longer even knows. When her son died, a piece of Olivia died too. Accidentally, they meet in Paris, at the Ritz. Their totally different lives converge for one magical moment in the Place Vendome, as Olivia carefully, silently, steps out of her life and walks away. Peter follows her and, in a cafe in Montmartre, their hearts are laid bare. Peter, once so certain of his marriage and his success, is suddenly faced with a professional future in jeopardy. Olivia is no longer sure of anything except that she can't go on anymore. When Olivia disappears again, Peter finds her. But where will they go from there? Five days in Paris is all they have. They go back to their separate lives, but nothing is the same. Everything they believe is put on the line, until they each realize they must stand fast against compromise and face life's challenges head-on.
FULL CIRCLE 1984 ISBN: 0440126894 The 1960s. Kennedy. Martin Luther King. Civil rights. Viet Nam. Tana Roberts comes of age in this turbulent decade, and begins a journey that will lead her from New York to the South during the heat of racial unrest. A thoroughly modern young woman, she yearns for a career and is willing to sacrifice everything to get it. And it's only much later that Tana discovers that she can have it all. Career. Love. And peace of mind. As she comes of age, at last, and comes full circle.
THE GHOST 12/1997 ISBN: 0440224853 With a wife he loves and an exciting London-based career, architect Charles Waterston's life seems in perfect balance. Nothing prepares him for the sudden end to his ten-year marriage - or his unwanted transfer to his firm's New York office. Christmas is approaching when Charlie leaves New York, heading to Vermont to ski. But a sudden snowstorm strands him in a small Massachusetts town. There Charlie meets an elderly widow who offers to rent him her exquisite lakeside chateau. Hidden deep in the woods, it once belonged to a woman who lived there two centuries before named Sarah Ferguson. And from the moment Charlie sets foot inside the chateau, he feels her presence. When Charlie first glimpses her, a beautiful young woman with jet-black hair, he thinks it is a neighbor playing a joke. Until he finds her diaries hidden away in an old trunk. As he begins to turn the brittle, dusty pages, the spirit of Sarah Ferguson seems to fill his life. Sarah's first entry is dated 1789 as she writes of her harrowing journey from her native England, having fled the brutality of her aristocratic husband. Settling in Massachusetts, Sarah finds an unfamiliar land seething with the turbulence of the Indian wars. As she builds her home in the wilderness and meets a man who will transform her life, Sarah finds freedom from the torment of her past. His name is Francois de Pellerin, a French nobleman adopted by Indians and drawn into the battle for the growing nation. Their fateful union is a testament to a love so powerful it reaches across the centuries. And for Charlie Waterston, their story gives him the courage to let go of his past, and the freedom to grasp a future that is right before his eyes.
THE GIFT 1994 ISBN: 0440221315 The time is the 1950s, when life was simpler, people still believed in dreams, and family was, very nearly, everything. The place is a small midwestern town with a high school and a downtown, a skating pond and a movie house. And on a tree-lined street in the heartland of America, an extraordinary set of events begins to unfold. And gradually what seems serendipitous is tinged with purpose. A happy home is shattered by a child's senseless death. A loving marriage starts to unravel. And a stranger arrives - a young woman who will touch many lives before she moves on. She and a young man will meet and fall in love. Their love, so innocent and full of hope, helps to restore a family's dreams. And all of their lives will be changed forever by the precious gift she leaves them.
GOING HOME 1973 ISBN: 0671749412 In the sun swept beauty of San Francisco, Gillian Forrester is filled with the joy of a love that will surely last. But a painful betrayal forces her to flee to New York and a new life. There she discovers an exciting new career and a deep enveloping passion...only to have her new-found happiness shaken to its core. Now Gillian must choose between her future and her past, to find the deepest desires of her heart the one way, the only way of....Going Home..
GRANNY DAN 6/1999
HEARTBEAT 1991 ISBN: 0440211891 Bill Thigpen, writer and producer of the No. 1 daytime TV drama, was so busy watching his career soar that he never noticed his marriage collapse. Now, nine years later, living alone in Hollywood, life is still reasonably sweet. Top-of-the-chart ratings, good-natured casual affairs, and special vacations with his two young sons. His life is in perfect balance. Adrian Townsend thought she had everything: a job she liked as a TV production assistant and a handsome husband who was a rising star in his own field. It was an enviable life they'd worked hard for - the American Dream. Until she got pregnant. Suddenly all she had was chaos. And Steven's ultimatum. Him or the baby. The question was: did he mean it? Bill Thigpen and Adrian Townsend collided in a supermarket. And the very sight of her suddenly made him want more in his life...a woman he really loved, a real family again. But did he need the heartache of another man's baby, another man's wife? Neither of them did. But they couldn't help it.
HONOR THYSELF 3/2008 ISBN: 9780385340243 Carole Barber has come to Paris, with its rain-slick slate roofs and winding streets, to work on her novel—and to find herself after a lifetime in the spotlight. A legend of film and stage, Carole has set a standard of beauty and grace, devoting herself to her family and causes around the world. But on this cool November evening, as her taxi speeds into a tunnel just past the Louvre, a fiery instant of terror shatters hundreds of lives—and leaves Carole alone, unconscious and unidentified in a Paris emergency room. At the Ritz, they wonder where their famous, incognito guest has gone. From California to London, Carole’s friends and family begin to make inquiries. Then comes a moment of shock as they all realize that Carole is far from home and fighting for her life. In the days that follow, the paparazzi swarm. A mysterious stranger, a man famous in his own realm, quietly visits the hospital to see the woman he once loved and never forgot. Carole’s two grown children rush to her bedside, waiting and praying—until the miraculous begins to happen.…But as a woman who the whole world knows slowly awakens, she knows nothing of herself. Every detail must be pieced back together—from a childhood in rural Mississippi to the early days of her career, from the unintentional hurt inflicted on her daughter to a fifteen year-old secret love affair that went tragically wrong. But for Carole an extraordinary opportunity has arisen in a life-threatening crisis: a second chance to count her blessings, heal wounded hearts, recapture lost love… and to live a life that will truly honor others—beginning with herself. RR@H's Novel Thoughts
THE HOUSE ON HOPE STREET 7/2000
H.R.H. 10/2007 ISBN: 0440242045 In blue jeans and a pullover, Princess Christianna is a young woman
of her times: born in Europe, educated in America, worried about the
future of the world she lives in, responsible beyond her years.
Christianna is the only daughter of the Reigning Prince of a European
nation that takes its royalty seriously—and her father has ironclad plans for Christianna’s life, a burden that is almost unbearable. Now, after four years at Berkeley, life in her father’s palace cannot distract Christianna from what she sees outside the kingdom—the suffering of children, the ravages of terrorism and disease. Determined to make a difference in the world, she persuades His Royal Highness, her father, to let her volunteer for the Red Cross in East Africa. And for Christianna, a journey of discovery, change, and awakening begins. Under a searing East African sun, Christianna plunges into the dusty, bustling life of an international relief camp, finding a passion and a calling among the brave doctors and volunteers. Finally free from the scrutiny of her royal life, Christianna struggles to keep her identity a secret from her new friends and coworkers—even from Parker Williams, the young doctor from Doctors Without Borders who works alongside Christianna and shares her dedication to healing. But as violence approaches and invades the camp, and the pressures of her royal life beckon her home, Christianna’s struggle for freedom takes an extraordinary turn. By a simple twist of fate, in one shocking moment, Christianna’s life is changed forever—in ways she never could have foreseen. RR@H's Novel Thoughts
IRRESISTIBLE FORCES 1999 ISBN: 0440224861 For fourteen years, Steve and Meredith Whitman have sustained a marriage of passion and friendship - despite the demands of two all-consuming careers. Meredith, an investment banker, has achieved partnership in one of Wall Street's top firms. Steve A gifted physician, chose an urban trauma ward over the big money he could have earned elsewhere. The only thing missing in their lives is children. Steve longs for them. But Meredith keeps putting off motherhood, saying she isn't ready and doesn't have time. Not yet. Especially now that she has been offered an extraordinary opportunity, a chance to reach for the brass ring - in San Francisco, three thousand miles away. Meredith is thrilled and surprised when Steve urges her to accept a top position at an exciting young high-tech company. Traditionally, men's careers forces families to move to new cities, compelling their wives to abandon friends, home, and lives to follow. But Steve is more than willing to uproot himself. Saying he'll join her as he can find a new job himself, they can begin their family at last. Neither Steve nor Meredith had reckoned on the frustrations of a bi-coastal marriage, as Steve's job keeps him in New York for months longer than planned. Weekends together, their lifeline, fall prey to their hectic schedules. Alone in San Francisco, Meredith is spending long hours at the office with her boss, charismatic entrepreneur Callan Dow. Steve working late shifts at the hospital, grabbing an occasional dinner with a new colleague, a doctor raising a daughter on her own. Almost unnoticed, Steve and Meredith have begun living separate lives in increasingly separate worlds. And despite the best of intentions, irresistible forces begin to tear their lives and hearts apart.
JEWELS 6/1992 ISBN: 044021422X On the eve of Sarah Whitfield's seventy-fifth birthday, she stands at the window of her chateau bedroom in France, waiting for her family to join her. As she watches her children and grandchildren arrive, Sarah is reminded of the years that have brought her to this moment. Sara's memories take her back to New York in the 1930s, where she was raised in Manhattan and Southhampton, a beautiful young woman with a magnetic personality and rare intelligence. But when her marriage to a childhood friend ends after just one year, Sarah is shattered and ashamed. She turns inward and withdraws. In a time when only 'that' woman, Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, took such a shameful step, divorce becomes Sarah's guilty secret. After great protest, Sarah's parents finally convince her to join them on a trip abroad. And despite the growing turmoil in prewar Europe, they set sail on the Queen Mary. There are endless invitations to honor her in Europe, and Sarah grows tired of the young men with whom her parents have arranged introductions. But one afternoon at a luncheon, she meets William, Duke of Whitfield. Considerably older than Sarah, and fourteenth in line to the British throne, he sparks her intellectual curiosity - and makes her laugh. And even in the shadow of the Windsor scandal, William is willing to give up his remote right to the throne to make Sarah his duchess and his wife. On their honeymoon in the beautiful French countryside, the newlyweds stumble upon their dream house, a crumbling but beautiful historic chateau, which they soon begin to renovate. But in the midst of their joy, the Nazis move closer and William must leave Sarah to join the allied forces. Sarah is left to raise their son and bear another child alone. When at last the war ends, Sarah learns that William was shot down and found in devastating condition. She nurses him before they return to France. There they begin to establish their legacy; purchasing family jewels from war survivors and establish their collection called the House of Whitfield. A legacy their children continue.
JOHNNY ANGEL 2004 ISBN: 0440236789 With a word or a smile, seventeen-year-old Johnny Peterson could light up a room, fill his mother's heart with pride, and inspire the best in those around him. A star athlete and class valedictorian, tall, lanky Johnny had a future filled with promise - until he stepped into a car on prom night, dazzling in his rented tux, and in an instant, it was all taken away. In the months that follow, Johnny's family and high school sweetheart, Becky, struggle to put together the pieces of their shattered lives. No one is more devastated than Johnny's mother, Alice, whose oldest son owned her heart from the day he was born. But amid the heartache, something miraculous is about to happen to the Peterson family, something that will alter the course of each of their lives. When a sudden illness sends Alice to the hospital, a glorious vision comes to her in her dreams. There, standing before her, is Johnny himself, with that familiar twinkle in his eye, gently urging his bewildered mother to be strong for her splintered family. For Alice, seeing her marvelous lost boy is a miracle she can't quite believe but is more than willing to embrace. In the weeks to come, Johnny will appear in the most unlikely places, visible only to the two people who need him most: his nine-year-old brother, locked in a silent world, whose special needs Johnny always seemed to understand - and his mother, who has always nurtured her family, but who now needs a guardian angel of her own. Through a season of hope and healing, Johnny will walk by his mother's side, leaving miracles in his wake, leading his parents, his girlfriend, his sister, and his brother out of their grief. But as Alice is about to discover, Johnny has returned not just to help those he loves, but to uncover a purpose even he cannot comprehend - one that will change them all forever.
JOURNEY 11/2000 ISBN: 0440237025 Everyone in Washington knows Madeleine and Jack Hunter. Maddy is an award-winning TV anchorwoman. Jack is the head of her network, an adviser to the President on media issues. To the world, theirs is a storybook marriage. Two brilliant careers. A long, loving partnership. But behind the locked doors of their lush Georgetown home, a very different story emerges. For as Maddy's career soars, a bitter edge has crept into Jack's words, a pattern of subtle put-downs, control, and jealousy that Maddy has always tried to ignore and deny. For Maddy, there are no bruises, no scars, only the daggers of fear, humiliation, and isolation. Their effect as powerful as the gun, the knife, or the fist, the wounds as deep. Through hard work, long years, and with Jack's help, Maddy has become a role model and a star. It seems impossible to believe that a woman the nation idolizes lives in degradation and fear. Only Maddy knows the terror in her heart. Her secrets are well kept, sometimes even from herself. Maddy's journey to healing begins when the President's wife offers an extraordinary opportunity, the chance to join her newly formed Commission on Violence Against Women. There, Maddy hears chilling stories from terrified wives and girlfriends that sound eerily familiar. And there she comes to know Bill Alexander, a distinguished scholar and diplomat who also works on the commission. Bill suspects that something is terribly wrong in Maddy's marriage and begs her to open her eyes. And as Maddy slowly, painfully takes the first steps toward freedom, as she and Bill grow closer, a remarkable series of events begins to unfold...a stranger from Maddy's past suddenly reappears...White House headlines bring the nation to a standstill...and a devastating tragedy occurs, forcing Maddy to realize just how much she has lost and how much has been taken from her - her confidence, her trust, her self-respect. As she is faced with the most difficult choice of her life, Maddy's extraordinary journey comes to a close, and with it comes a strength she never knew she had and a gift she never could have expected - a gift that will change her life forever.
KALEIDOSCOPE 1987 ISBN: 0440201926 A beautiful Frenchwoman and a brilliant American actor - their love began like a fairy tale but ended in tragedy. Suddenly orphaned, their three children are cruelly separated. Megan, the baby, adopted by a family of comfortable means, becomes a doctor in the rural South. Alexandra, raised in lavish wealth, marries a powerful man whose pride is in his pedigree. Only Hilary, oldest of the Walker children, is cut off from every loving source and later changes her hurt and rage into building a successful career at the expense of any personal life. When John Chapman, lawyer and prestigious private investigator, is asked to find these three women for a reunion, he follows a trail that leads from chick New York to Boston slums, from elegant parisian salons to the Appalachian hills, to the place where the three sisters must face one another and a final, devastating truth.
THE KISS 11/2001 ISBN: 044023669X On a warm June evening, a red double-decker bus, full of passengers, speeds down a London street. A few blocks away, a man and a woman climb into a limousine, reveling in a magical evening of dancing and champagne. As their driver pulls into an intersection, the couple shares their first, searching kiss. For a moment, etched in time, all stands still - until, in a flash of metal and glass, their limousine is struck at full speed, crushed under the bus's tremendous weight. And a long journey begins - toward healing, toward hope, toward dreams of an infinite future.... Isabelle Forrester is the wife of a prominent Parisian banker who has long since shut her out of his heart. For lonely years, Isabelle has lived a life of isolation, pouring her passions into caring for her desperately ill son, Teddy, and into making their Paris home as happy as possible for her teenage daughter, Sophie. Isabelle allows herself one secret pleasure: a long-distance friendship by telephone with an American man, a Washington power broker who travels in the highest circles of politics and who, like Isabelle, is trapped in an empty marriage.
THE KLONE AND I 7/1998
LEAP OF FAITH 6/2001
LIGHTNING 7/1995 ISBN: 0440221501 As a partner at one of New York's most prestigious law firms, Alexandra Parker barely manages to juggle husband, career, and the three-year-old child she gave birth to at forty. But Alex feels blessed with her life and happy marriage - until lightning strikes her. Suddenly a routine checkup turns her world upside down when tests reveal shattering news. Sam Parker, a star venture capitalist, is as proud of his longtime marriage to Alex as he is of his successful career. As a major Wall Street player, Sam is used to being in control - until he is caught off guard by Alex's illness. Terrified of losing his wife and family, and haunted by ghosts from his past, Sam is unable to provide any kind of emotional support to Alex, and almost overnight she and Sam become strangers. Lightning strikes them yet again as Sam's promising career suddenly explodes in disaster, and his very life and identity are challenged. With their future hanging in the balance, Alex must decide what she feels for Sam, if their life can ever be the same, or if she must move on without him. What happens to people when every aspect of their lives and well-being is threatened?
LONE EAGLE 2002 ISBN: 0440236665 It was just days before Christmas, 1940. The war is raging in Europe when Kate Jamison makes her debut in New York City. In a room filled with the scions of East Coast society and the leading political figures of the day, it is Joe Allbright who catches Kate's eye. At twenty-nine, Joe is the brilliant prodigy of Charles Lindbergh, and already a legend in flying circles for his record-breaking speed and state-of-the-art airplane designs. But on this glittering night, all Kate sees is a tall, strikingly handsome man who seems at once awkward and larger-than-life, like a shining star - just out of reach. Joe, too, is caught off balance by his response to Kate, seeing in this beautiful young woman a much-needed friend, the lifelong soulmate he never expected to find. And as the months pass, they will meet again, forging a bond that will set the course of both their lives...Kate will go off to study at Radcliffe. Joe will skyrocket to fame in modern aviation. Joe's planes are his life, his passion. But irresistibly drawn to her, like a moth to a flame always, he comes back to Kate. Even after the long dark years of World War II, when Kate was sure she had finally lost him completely, Joe returns. Never willing to stay, always needing to fly. ..But now the war is over, and Kate is twenty-four. She wants marriage, a family. Joe wants the world, his limitless horizons, and the powerful aviation empire he is building. Unable to wait any longer, Kate begins to move on with her life. But when a chance encounter brings them together again, the time has finally come to make a choice, one that will have profound consequences for them both and for those around them. Kate knows that this is their last chance, their final chance. But she also knows that Joe needs freedom more than anything, freedom to stretch his wings and to soar. Kate will have to find a way to love this dazzling man, this lone eagle or she will have to set him free...
THE LONG ROAD HOME 5/1998 ISBN: 0440224837 At seven, Gabriella Harrison believes, as she is told, that she is to blame for her mother's rage - and her father's failure to protect her. Her world is a confusing blend of terror, betrayal, and pain, where there is no safeguard and no safe haven to run to. Her only escape is through the stories she writes. But Gabriella is given her first reprieve when her mother abandons her to a convent. There, amid the quiet safety and hushed rituals of the nuns, Gabriella grows into womanhood. Then a young priest comes into her life. Father Joe Connors never questioned his vocation until Gabriella entered the confessional. Confession leads to friendship. And friendship grows dangerously into love. Like Gabriella, Joe is haunted by his childhood. With her, he takes the first steps toward healing. But their relationship puts challenges before then that can only lead to disaster. Exiled and disgraced, Gabriella struggles to survive on her own in New York. She seeks healing and escape through her writing, but is again betrayed by someone she trusts. Brought to the edge of despair, she manages to find hope. On a pilgrimage destined to bring her face-to-face with those who sought to destroy her, she finds forgiveness, freedom from guilt, and healing from abuse.
LOVING 9/1980
MALICE 5/1996 ISBN: 0440223237 At seventeen, the night of her mother's funeral, Grace Adams is attacked. It is not the first time, and a brutal crime ensues. And to everyone's horror, Grace will not tell the truth. She is a young woman with secrets too horrible to tell, with hurts so deep they may never heal. She is also beautiful enough for men to want her no matter how much she does not want them. From an Illinois women's prison to a Chicago modeling agency to a challenging career in New York, Grace must carry the past with her wherever she goes. And in healing her own pain, she reaches out to battered women and children who live a nightmare she knows all to well. When grace meets Charles Mackenzie, she has found a man who wants nothing from her - except to heal her, to hear her secrets, and to give her the family she so desperately wants. But, with happiness finally within her grasp, and precious loved ones to protect, Grace is at her most vulnerable - in danger of losing everything to a vicious tabloid press and an enemy from her past bent on malice at all costs.
MESSAGE FROM NAM 1990 ISBN: 0440209412 As a journalist, Paxton Andrews would experience Viet Nam firsthand. We follow her from Savannah to Berkeley and then to Saigon. For the soldiers she knew and met there, Viet Nam would change their lives in ways they could never have imagined. Peter Wilson, fresh from law school, was a new recruit who would confront his fate in Da Nang. Ralph Johnson, a seasoned AP correspondent, had been in Saigon since the beginning. He knew Viet Nam and the war inside out. Bill Quinn, captain of the Cu Chi tunnel rats, was on his fourth tour of duty and it seemed nothing could touch him. Sergeant Tony Campobello had come to Viet Nam from the streets of New York to vent a rage that had turned him into a formidable fighting machine. For seven years Paxton Andrews would write an acclaimed newspaper column from the front before finally returning to the States and then attending the Paris peace talks. But for her and the men who fought in Viet Nam, life would never be the same again.
MIRACLE 2006 ISBN: 0440240778 It is New Year's Eve when the storm of the century hits northern California. In a quiet neighborhood in San Francisco, amid the chaos of fallen trees and damaged homes, the lives of three strangers are about to collide. For Quinn Thompson, what happens in the storm's wake will bring down a barrier he has built around himself since his wife's death. For neighbor Maggie Dartman, it will spark friendship at a time when she needs it most. And for Jack Adams, a carpenter who will repair Quinn's and Maggie's homes, the storm brings an opportunity: to help two people and to be repaid with the greatest gift of all. As three lives come together and a unique friendship is forged, something extraordinary begins to happen ... Maggie, still grieving a loss, slowly comes alive again - and Jack finally shares a painful secret he has hidden for years. But at the center of the friendship is Quinn. A man who has scaled heights of success in business, Quinn is now adrift, waiting as builders put the finishing touches on his newest passion, a 180-foot yacht he plans to sail around the world. Looking back at all he missed with his family while he built his empire, Quinn is consumed by guilt, focused only on escaping to the sea. But as his plans near completion, and his friendship with Maggie begins to change, Quinn faces a choice - between a safe haven and an adventure of the heart. The choice he makes will affect other lives as powerfully as his own. And it will take him on an extraordinary journey - and into a second, terrifying storm, one that will bring him danger ... or deliverance.
MIXED BLESSINGS 12/1992 ISBN: 0440214114 After the wedding of Diana Goode and Andrew Douglas, Diana teases that she will make a baby on their honeymoon. but long afterward, she is still not pregnant. As Diana and Andrew wait out each month only to be bitterly disappointed, they are forced to question just how much they are willing to go through to have a baby. Charlie Winwood dreams of a house filled with children. His bride, party-girl actress Barbie Mason, has other ideas. When he discovers he is sterile, Charlie has to rethink his deepest values - and his marriage to a woman who shares none of his dreams. After ten years of living together, Pilar Graham, a prominent Santa Barbara attorney, marries Judge Brad Coleman, who is nineteen years her senior and father of two grown children. They are happy with their comfortable life together, a deux, until Pilar begins to wonder if she will someday regret not having a baby with Brad. Are they crazy to begin now - with Brad about to become a grandfather and Pilar, in her early forties, possibly putting herself at risk?
NO GREATER LOVE 1994 ISBN: 0440213282 It was the maiden voyage of the Titanic, the greatest ship ever built, and in one fatal, unforgettable night, the sea shattered the lives and future of an extraordinary family, the Winfields. Edwina Winfield, returning from her engagement trip to England with her fiance and her family, instantly becomes a woman mourning the death of her parents and the man she loved. She returns to San Francisco with her five younger siblings and takes on responsibilities at the family newspaper and at home that are overwhelming and unexpected. Edwina is intent on keeping the family together and Phillip, the oldest boy, tries to help before going on to Harvard and the Great War. But madcap George, the source of laughter in the family, is drawn to Hollywood, and his sister Alexis eventually follows him, courting both excitement and disaster in the film world. The two youngest, Fannie and Teddy, remain with Edwina. For twelve years Edwina carefully avoids any romantic involvements, but as each child sets off on his or her own - to Hollywood, to Europe, and elsewhere - Edwina frees herself from the ghosts of those she loved and lost on the Titanic. Her life is far different than it would have been, but in some ways far more exciting than she expected.
NOW AND FOREVER 2/1978 ISBN: 0440117437 Although Jessica and Ian Clarke have been married seven years, they insist the thrill and excitement haven't dimmed. At Jessica's urging, Ian has quit his advertising job to become a struggling writer, and she supports them with her successful San Francisco boutique. Ian's financial dependence on Jessica upsets him, but does not dim their love. But one day Ian's first casual indiscretion will create a nightmare that threatens everything Jessica and Ian have carefully built. Perhaps forever.
ONCE IN A LIFETIME 4/1982
PALOMINO 4/1981 ISBN: 0440167531 When Samantha Taylor's husband leaves her for another woman, she retreats to a ranch in California where she finds joy in the simplicity of ranch life and in an affair with the ranch foreman. But Samantha's trials are not over - her lover disappears form the ranch and a chance fall from a horse paralyzes her. Can Samantha reconstruct her life for a third time and learn to feel happiness again?
PASSION'S PROMISE 1976
A PERFECT STRANGER 2/1982
THE PROMISE 8/1978
THE RANCH 5/1997
RANSOM 2005 ISBN: 044024076X Outside the gates of a California prison, Peter Morgan is released after four long years and vows to redeem himself in the eyes of the young daughters he left behind. Simultaneously, Carl Waters, a convicted murderer, is set on the path of freedom with him. That night, three hundred miles south in San Francisco, police detective Ted Lee comes home to a silent house; for twenty-nine years, he has been living for his job - and slowly falling out of love with his wife. Across town, in an exclusive Pacific Heights neighborhood, a mother tries to shield her three children from the panic rising within her. Four months after her husband's death, Fernanda Barnes faces a mountain of debt she cannot repay, a world destroyed, and a marriage lost. Within weeks, the lives of these four people will collide in ways none of them could have foreseen. For Fernanda, whose life had once been graced by beautiful homes, security, success, and stunning wealth, the death of her brilliant, brooding husband was already too much to bear. She simply couldn't imagine a greater loss, until a devastating crime rocks her family to its core - and brings Detective Ted Lee into her life. A man of unshakable integrity, Lee will soon become the one person who tries to save Fernanda's family from a terrifying fate. Fernanda must draw on a strength she never knew she had. Racing against time in the underbelly of the criminal world, buffeted by the dark side of power, and unmoored by loss and betrayal, no one can predict where this tragedy will take them.
REMEMBRANCE 1981 ISBN: 0440173701 Her beloved Italian homeland shattered in the wake of World War II, exquisite Serena, Principessa di San Tibaldo, has nothing left except her name, her ancestry...and her heart - which she gives completely and forever to Major Brad Fullerton. But not even Brad's ring - or his child - can protect her from the calculating wrath of the powerful Fullerton dynasty, and the woman who will become Serena's bitter enemy. Sweeping from the war-torn palazzos of Rome to the glittering avenues of Manhattan and the glamorous world of high fashion, here is the vibrant story of one woman's triumphant yet bittersweet journey of the heart.
THE RING 10/1980
SEASON OF PASSION 2/1979
SECOND CHANCE 2005 ISBN: 0440240794 As editor-in-chief of New York's leading fashion magazine, Fiona Monaghan lived a life as hectic and high-toned as the fashion world itself, jetting back and forth between her stylish Manhattan brownstone and the couture shows of Europe. With closets stuffed with Fendi, a snoring bulldog named Sir Winston sharing her bed, and a houseman who favors gold lame and borrows her shoes, Fiona was utterly content with her life. Until the sweltering June day John Anderson strolled into her office. After a dinner date left them both wanting more, Fiona impulsively invited John to the Paris couture shows. And in the most romantic city in the world, somewhere between the magic of the runway and the stroll along the Seine, Fiona let this man into her heart. A widower with two daughters, John Anderson was nearly Fiona's opposite in every way. As conservative as she was freewheeling, John was both amused and appalled by Fiona's world of high-strung designers, anorexic models, and high-heeled housemen. But within weeks of their return to New York, John was making friends with Sir Winston--and Fiona was making room in her closets. It didn't take long for the dominoes to start falling. First, John introduced Fiona to his daughters, their bloodthirsty Pekingese, and a snarling housekeeper straight out of Hitchcock's Rebecca. It was hate at first sight. Then, after a dinner party with John's biggest client goes disastrously awry, Fiona and John's relationship began to unravel with alarming speed. What happens next will set Fiona on a journey filled with pain and revelation, awakening and change. For when she returns to Paris alone and takes an amazing risk, an extraordinary series of events begins to unfold. And as the snow falls on the city of light, Fiona is about to get the surprise of her life: a second act she never saw coming.
SECRETS 1985
SILENT HONOR 1996 ISBN: 0440224055 A man ahead of his time, Japanese college professor Masao Takashimaya of Kyoto had a passion for modern ideas that was as strong as his wife's belief in ancient traditions. His eighteen-year-old daughter Hiroko, torn between her mother's traditions and her father's wishes, boarded the SS Nagoya Maru to come to California for an education and to make her father proud. It was August 1941. From the ship, she went to the Palo Alto home of her uncle Takeo, and his family. To Hiroko, California was a different world. Her cousins had become more American than Japanese. And much to Hiroko's surprise, Peter Jenkins, her uncle's assistant at Stanford, became an unexpected link between her old world and her new. On December 7, Pearl Harbor is bombed by the Japanese. Within hours, war is declared and suddenly Hiroko has become an enemy in a foreign land. On February 19, Executive Order 9066 is signed by President Roosevelt, giving the military the power to remove the Japanese from their communities at will. Takeo and his family are given ten days to sell their home, give up their jobs, and report to a relocation center, along with thousands of other Japanese and Japanese Americans, to face their destinies there. Families are divided, people are forced to abandon their homes, their businesses, their freedom, and their lives.
SPECIAL DELIVERY 7/1997 ISBN: 0440224810 At fifty-nine, Jack Watson owns one of the most successful boutiques in Beverly Hills, has two adult children who are the light of his life, and has his choice of Hollywood's most beautiful women. After a failed marriage in the distant past, and a brief, tragic affair years afterward, Jack has become the perfect bachelor. And he loves it. Amanda Robbins knew Jack Watson only as her daughter's father-in-law, an incurable playboy whom she dislikes intensely. Theirs had been a relationship based solely upon the marriage of her daughter to his son. And Amanda wants no other relationship with him. But when she becomes a widow unexpectedly, twenty-six years after she retired from Hollywood stardom to become a wife and mother, Amanda finds herself on unfamiliar ground, and is surprised to find herself both befriended by, and attracted to, Jack Watson. Worse yet, she likes him. There is a lot more to him than she previously suspected. Amanda's shock at her attraction to Jack is equaled only by her children's. Then suddenly, a startling announcement stuns both families, as Jack and Amanda are faced with an unexpected gift that neither thought possible, and with a choice that proves them both considerable challenge. But at a time in their lives when they least expect to feel that way, they not only feel young again, but are blissfully happy, in spite of the confusion, opposition, and obstacles all around them.
STAR 1989 ISBN: 0440205573 Young, innocent, and strikingly beautiful Crystal Wyatt was an outcast, envied and resented by all but her devoted father, with whom she shared a deep love for their remote California ranch. When her father dies, Crystal is alone and unprotected. Devastating events shake the once peaceful valley. With nothing but her dreams, her beauty, and her awe-inspiring voice, Crystal escapes to embark on the career that will ultimately make her a star. But stardom itself is shadowed by danger and violence and haunted by a memory of love that must be resolved before Crystal can find happiness.
SUMMER'S END 8/1979 ISBN: 0440184053 Deanna was eighteen when she married a handsome Frenchman, attorney Marc-Edouard Duras. Now, at thirty-seven, she should be happy with Marc, her elegant home in San Francisco, and their teenage daughter, Pilar. But one summer changes it all when she realizes her failing marriage is a trap she must escape.
SUNSET IN ST. TROPEZ 6/2002
THURSTON HOUSE 1983
TO LOVE AGAIN 1/1980
VANISHED 1993 ISBN: 0440217466 In the late 1930s, in the shadow of the Lindbergh kidnapping, and as war looms in Europe, Marielle Patterson shares her life with her husband, Malcolm, and their little boy, Teddy, in an elegant brownstone on New York's Upper East Side. But their lives are filled with secrets. Haunted by a past she has kept hidden even from her husband, Marielle secretly lights a candle each year for a child who died in a tragic accident when he was scarcely more than a baby. Consumed with a guilt, Marielle is nevertheless a devoted wife and mother. Malcolm, stern and successful, is a man everyone admires. On the eve of little Teddy's disappearance, Marielle runs into her first love, American expatriate Charles Delauney. The ache of memory is instantly revived, their brief moments together bittersweet and explosive. And when Teddy is kidnapped, Charles is first blamed, then arrested. Suspicions and accusations mingle with terror and heartbreak as the Pattersons, the New York Police, and the FBI turn the city, and eventually the country, upside down, looking for Teddy. The inevitable parallels with the Linberghs are drawn, and the fear that Teddy has been killed can't be ignored. Every threat, every failure, every terror, is remembered, examined, explored. Even Marielle is scrutinized by the FBI, and special agent John Taylor. The questions are inevitable: Who kidnapped Teddy Patterson? Did Charles Delauney? Someone else? Is the child dead or alive? John Taylor becomes obsessed with mother and child, and finding the elusive answers. A terrifying court drama seeks to put Charles Delauney behind bars as a series of revelations begins to unravel the truth about Marielle, Charles, and Malcolm. Piece by piece the uncovering of their past creates a complex mosaic of the motives and passions controlling their lives.
WANDERLUST 7/1987
THE WEDDING 5/2000 ISBN: 0440236851 Simon Steinberg and Blaire Scott are among the most respected couples in Hollywood. Simon, a major movie producer, and Blaire, an award-winning television writer, have defied the Hollywood cliches, keeping their marriage together for decades. Their three children, aspiring teenage model Samantha, pre-med student Scott, and entertainment lawyer Allegra, are successful and happy. As an attorney to the stars, twenty-nine year old Allegra Steinberg's career consumes so much of her time, she has little time for a private life. Until a chance encounter with a New York writer turns Allegra's life upside down. And suddenly, she finds herself planning a wedding at her parent's Bel Air home. As preparations begin for a September ceremony, the chaos of last-minute arrangements, surprise announcements, and ever-increasing anxiety brings out the best and worst in everyone. But as couples in each generation in the Steinberg family struggle with broken vows and new hopes, the real meaning of Allegra's wedding emerges. For the bride, the ceremony is a bridge between her past and her future. For her parents, it is a reminder of the bond that holds all together. And for both families, it is an opportunity for reconciliation, forgiveness, and new hope for the future, as weddings often are for us all.
WINGS 1994 ISBN: 0440217512 In Wings, Danielle Steel tells the story of a young woman who fights the odds of her times and becomes a world-renowned aviator. From a house on the edge of her family's dusty farmland airstrip near Chicago, the child Cassie O'Malley would sneak into the night to look at the planes sitting shimmering in the moonlight. Her World War I veteran father, Pat, wanted his son to be a pilot, not his reckless, red haired daughter. But it was Cassie who had the gift. Observing all the while was her father's junior partner, Nick 'Stick' Galvin, a fellow war ace and airborne daredevil. Nick would become her confidant and best friend, willing to break all the rules to teach her to fly. When entrepreneur Desmond Williams sees Cassie in a local air show he invites her to California, where she breaks new ground in aviation by becoming a test pilot. Drawn by Desmond's plans for her to break Amelia Earhart's records, but determined to avoid her mistakes, Cassie trains for the remarkable journey around a world preparing for World War II. From public appearances to press conferences, easily used by both her husband and the press, Cassie realizes that there is more to life than making headlines. Wings is set in a time of constant change, when the world was on the brink of war and the skies were filled with adventures, a time when courage and daring forever changed modern-day aviation.
ZOYA 1989 ISBN: 0440203856 Against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution and World War I Europe, Zoya blossoms into womanhood as destiny sweeps her from the court of the Tsar to Diaghilev's Ballet Russe in paris to a glittering life in New York, into the pain of the Depression, and finally to a brilliant career, which ultimately saves her. From the roaring twenties to the 1980s, Zoya remains a rare and spirited woman whose legacy will live in her children.