A Good Woman

August 11, 2008
Nineteen-year-old Annabelle Worthington, the only daughter of a wealthy New York banker, weathers a life of unexpected catastrophe with superhuman patience in Steel’s solid latest. After her father and brother die in the sinking of the Titanic
, Annabelle and her mother go into mourning, and Annabelle marries the kindly older banker Josiah Millbank. After two years of unconsummated marriage, he reveals that he’s contracted syphilis and wants a divorce so he can join his male lover. When Annabelle refuses to divorce him, Josiah files for it on the basis of adultery, forcing Annabelle, now the victim of vicious rumors, to flee New York. Alone in Paris, she draws on her experience volunteering at Ellis Island to pursue a career as a doctor as WWI looms. Steel toys with the premise of a modern woman, though the characterization of Annabelle as a “good woman” who has been dragged through the mud somewhat mitigates her strength and elemental stubbornness. Steel’s fans will eat this up—Annabelle is one of the better protagonists Steel’s conjured recently.

September 1, 2008
Annabelle Worthington, 19, lives a fairy-tale life thanks to wealthy and dotingparents. Then she gets the flu and is unable to accompany her family on vacation. Unfortunately, the Worthington clan has booked passage on the newest luxury liner, the Titanic. Her father and brother die when the ship goes down, and although her mother, Consuelo, survives, sheis traumatized. As for Annabelle, shethrows herself into work as a medical volunteer at Ellis Island. There she meets Josiah Millbank, a gentle, loving man whos old enough to be her father, and marries him. But Josiah has a scandalous secret, and after their divorce, Annabelle is unfairly relegated to life asapariah. Embarrassed and disillusioned by the treatment she receives from her acquaintances and so-calledfriends, Annabelle leaves for war-torn France to put her medical skills to good use in a female-run hospital on the front. But fate has even more in store for Annabelle. Once again, the legendary Steel, with570 million books sold, has combined triumph and tragedy to create the story of a woman who, though tossed by the whims of fate, still manages to survive on her own terms.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)