A Perfect Life

February 1, 2014
A highly successful woman ponders romance with a younger man. Steel (Until the End of Time, 2013, etc.) returns with her latest romance. Blaise McCarthy is our heroine. With huge green eyes, red hair, fine features and a fantastic figure, Blaise could easily pass for a woman in her 30s, even though she is practically pushing 50. With stark exposition, Steel outlines a life littered with romantic troubles. Her first husband, a cameraman, died while covering news from an unspecified war zone; her second husband, a venture capitalist 22 years her senior, gave her a beloved daughter, but they soon drifted apart from each other; her next serious relationship crashed and burned when she discovered that charming Andrew Weyland had no intention of ever divorcing his wife. Luckily, her daughter, Salima, thoughtfully understands that Blaise's job as a renowned television journalist must take precedence over time together. Blinded by juvenile diabetes, Salima still lives with a personal caregiver on the grounds of the Caldwell School in Massachusetts. It's a perfect life, if you disregard the loneliness of coming home to an empty apartment and limiting love to dinner dates with billionaire Saudi oil executives. It's a perfect life until Salima's caregiver dies, the Caldwell school is shut down under quarantine, and Salima is sent home with Simon, her gorgeous, new, very male caregiver. And then there's the arrival of Susie Quentin, the beautiful, younger new anchor jockeying for Blaise's job. Forced to take Salima and Simon into her home, Blaise must not only endure disruptions to her routine, but also face the fact that she is strongly attracted to Simon. But could he possibly want an older woman who may not be able to give him the family he wants? The novel's predictability will likely delight Steel's die-hard fans, but it won't win any new ones.

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May 1, 2014
New Yorker Blaise McCarthy is a successful television journalist in her midforties, but her professional accomplishments come at the expense of her personal life. Her last relationship was with a married man, and her 19-year-old daughter, Salima, has lived at a boarding school for the blind for most of her life. When Salima's caretaker dies, she moves home. Her new caretaker, a charismatic young man named Simon, isn't what Blaise or Salima expected, but he wins them over, encouraging Salima to become more independent and befriending Blaise. Love blossoms, and they have to decide whether their 15-year age difference and their difference in social status are insurmountable. Blaise's vulnerabilities make her likableher confidence is shaken by an attractive young woman who may be her replacement, and her love for Simon forces her to examine her past. However, Salima steals the show as she blossoms from a coddled teen to an independent young woman chasing her dreams in the big city. Another sudsy glitz-and-glamour love story from the inimitable Steel; her fans will love it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

February 15, 2014

A classic Steel story, with a mother and daughter keeping up appearances as they overcome tragedy and learn a thing or two about themselves. Steel's Until the End of Time, published a year ago, debuted in the top spot on the New York Times best sellers list, and her publisher believes that she has new wind under her wings.

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