FAMILY TIES: REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY and MYSTERY BONUS GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDED
FAMILY TIES
BY DANIELLE STEEL

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Annie Ferguson was a bright young Manhattan architect. Talented, beautiful, just starting out with her first job, new apartment and boyfriend, she had the world in the palm of her hand—until a single phone call altered the course of her life forever. Overnight, she became the mother to her sister’s three orphaned children, keeping a promise she never regretted making, even if it meant putting her own life indefinitely on hold.

Now, at forty-two, as independent as ever, with a satisfying career and a family that means everything to her, Annie is comfortable being single and staying that way. She appears to have no time for anything else. With her nephew and nieces now young adults and confronting major challenges of their own, Annie is navigating a parent’s difficult passage between lending them a hand and letting go, and suddenly facing an empty nest. The eldest, twenty-eight-year-old Liz, an overworked, struggling editor in a high-powered job at Vogue, has never allowed any man to come close enough to hurt her. Ted, at twenty-four a serious and hardworking law student, is captivated by a much older, much more experienced woman with children, who is leading him much further than he wants to go. And the youngest, twenty-one-year-old Katie—impulsive, artistic, rebellious—is an art student about to make a choice that will lead her to an entirely different world she is in no way prepared for but determined to embrace.

Then, just when least expected, a chance encounter changes Annie’s life yet again in the most unexpected direction of all.

From Manhattan to Paris and all the way to Tehran, Family Ties is a novel that reminds us how challenging and unpredictable life can be, and that the powerful bonds of family are the strongest of all.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Danielle Steel has been hailed as one of the world’s most popular authors, with over 590 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include Big Girl, Southern Lights, Matters of the Heart, One Day at a Time, A Good Woman, Rogue, and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story of her son Nick Traina’s life and death.

MY REVIEW:

As a long, long, LONG time reader of Danielle Steel’s novels, it was something about this lovely cover that drew me back after being absent from the “World of Steel” for a while. Like many of you, I “grew up” on/with Danielle Steel’s novels until a few years ago, I started to choose and experiment with other genres only to find out that there was a whole world of books I loved that weren‘t just “happy ending with a twist” stories. Still Danielle Steel’s work has continued to be best selling, well written, and character driven, but a little more predictable than I was in the mood for, and so I stopped reading every one that came out. Do understand, however, that for years, a new book coming out from Steel was met with great excitement and anticipation as I waited to buy it the day it hit the stores (Amazon who?). With FAMILY TIES, I found my longtime “friend” Danielle Steel in great form and presenting an entertaining read in which the main character, Annie Ferguson, taking on responsibilities, dealing with a family, and growing up in a new and more culturally diverse world today.

When the reader first gets to know twenty-six year old Annie Ferguson, an architect, she is eagerly looking forward to starting a new project in Manhattan and moving in with her boyfriend, Seth. This elation is short lived, however, as she has the rug pulled out from under her when Jane, her sister, and her husband, Bill, are killed in a plane crash. The long ago promise to be the legal guardian of Jane’s children should anything ever happen to both of them, comes to fruition and Annie is suddenly a single mother of three- Liz, Ted, and Katie. Annie meets the responsibility head on (at least for all outward appearances) and takes on the raising of these three preteen children. Seth shows his true colors, better now than later, and can’t handle all this and so their relationship is ended. As with all good Steel novels, much of this happens early on and the narrative then goes on to add depth to the characters as it follows Annie and the children growing into young adults and developing the kind of relationship she has with each child. There is obviously no easy job here and the children realize that now they only have Annie for support and the adjustment is dealt with on a different level, and at a different time, for each of them.

Life moves on and sixteen years pass and Annie is now heading up a very successful architectural firm. The “children“, are grown and finding their way in the world which means Annie will be an empty-nester now. Liz is an editor for Vogue who travels all over the world, while Ted is attending law school. Katie is in college and studying design. The story takes on a tumultuous shift for everyone who had been moving steadily along when one sprained ankle lands Annie in the ER where she meets Tom.

What follows involves new directions and choices for all of them. At times, it is hard as the story seems to break into four parts for the reader to keep track of with Annie and the children. With a new man a possibility for Annie, what can that mean to her as well as the group dynamics of her “family”? How does young Katie wind up in Tehran and did Pratt teach tattoo as part of the design program? Is Liz’s French love interest going back to his wife and child or staying with Liz? And what of Ted who realizes too late that a relationship with an older law professor is not the smartest thing to have? Danielle Steel has not lost her touch with modern romance novels that entertain, characters that do live real lives, and endings that appear headed for disaster but is that what really will happen?

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO QUINNE AND THE GOOD
PEOPLE AT RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING,
I HAVE TWO COPIES OF THIS
WONDERFUL BOOK TO GIVE AWAY

--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FIND OF INTEREST AT DANIELLE STEEL'S WEBSITE BY GOING HERE

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON IF YOU FOLLOW MY BLOG AND HOW....AND EACH WAY IS A SEPARATE COMMENT AND ENTRY

+1 MYSTERY???? BONUS ENTRY: GO AGAIN TO DANIELLE STEEL'S WEBSITE HERE THIS TIME AND NAME ANY ONE BOOK OF HERS YOU HAVE READ, OR ONE YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ!!! IF YOU NAME ONE OF THE BOOKS THAT I OWN, (ALL NEW OR GENTLY/BARELY READ ONCE), IT COULD BE YOURS. IF MORE THAN ONE PERSON NAMES THE SAME BOOK, I WILL DRAW STRAWS (RANDOM.ORG)...SO ONLY ONE TITLE PLEASE FOR THIS! AND I HAVE A FEW THAT PEOPLE COULD WIN!

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND COME BACK AND LEAVE A LINK

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
6 PM, EST, AUGUST 19!