A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE

Author: Barbara Taylor Bradford ISBN: 0061008079 8/2004 Re-release Publisher: Harper Torch

Determined to rise above all that she has ever known, a young and impoverished Emma Harte embarks on a journey first of survival, then of unimaginable achievement. Driven to succeed, the iron-willed Emma parlays a small shop into the world's greatest department store and an international business empire: Harte Enterprises. Unhappily married twice, loving only the one man she can never marry, personal happiness eludes her. Harte Enterprises, the realization of her grand dreams, is her all: her heart, her soul, her life. When those closest to her threaten to destroy her empire through their greed and envy, Emma brilliantly outwits her enemies. She wreaks her devastating revenge on those who would betray her in a way only she knows how. Drawing us into the mesmerizing life of a remarkable woman who dared to seize a dream and was willing to pay any price to make it come true, Barbara Taylor Bradford's deeply involving novel is a celebration of an indomitable spirit.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

This is a wonderful novel that follows the life of Emma Harte.

Emma comes from a poor family, but has more ambition and determination than could possibly be healthy for one person. Emma will stop at nothing to make a better life for herself and her children. This is a novel full of love, pain, and sweet old fashioned revenge!

Emma’s life is true of the saying, ‘good things come to those who wait’. Bradford does an exceptional job of making the reader feel the pain of Emma’s lost loves, and feel the joy of her accomplishments. If ever there was a heroine for women young and old to look up to, it’s Emma Harte.

A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE is a long novel, but well worth your time. I like the way that Bradford set up the novel, in the present tense, then went back to Emma’s childhood, and went in chronological order, with the final chapters being set in the present again. I believe that readers will find Emma’s story very inspiring, and will have a great appreciation for the talented Barbara Taylor Bradford.

Carrye Syma