**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In Danielle Steel s stunning novel, modern relationships come together, fall apart, and are reinvented over time, proving that age is just a number.

**Eileen Jackson was happy to set aside her own dreams to raise a family with her husband, Paul. Together they built an ordinary life in a Connecticut town, the perfect place for their kids to grow up. But when Eileen discovers that Paul s late nights in the city are hiding an affair with a younger woman, she begins to question all those years of sacrifice and compromise. On the brink of forty and wondering what she s going to do with the rest of her life, is it too late for her to start over?

Meanwhile, as Paul is thrust back into the role of suburban fatherhood, his girlfriend, Olivia, is in Manhattan, struggling to find herself in the shadow of her mother, a famous actress, and her grandmother, a fiercely independent ninety-two-year-old artist. With their unique brands of advice ringing in her head, Olivia takes a major step, expanding her art gallery business internationally. Seeing her mother pursue old dreams and even find new love, Olivia realizes that there is so much she must learn about herself before committing her life to someone else.

Ultimately, Eileen decides to chase her own dreams as well. She s off to Paris to attend Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. What awaits is an adventure that reinvents her life and redefines her.

At every age, there are challenges to be met and new worlds to discover. In this surprising, illuminating novel, Danielle Steel gives us a warmhearted portrait of people driven by their emotions, life experiences, and loyalties, who realize that it s never too late to turn a new page and start again.

Autorentext

Danielle Steel has been hailed as one of the world’s most popular authors, with almost a billion copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include Moral Compass, Spy, Child’s Play, The Dark Side, Lost and Found, Blessing in Disguise, 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; A Gift of Hope, a memoir of her work with the homeless; Pure Joy, about the dogs she and her family have loved; and the children’s books Pretty Minnie in Paris and Pretty Minnie in Hollywood.

Klappentext

**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In Danielle Steel’s stunning novel, modern relationships come together, fall apart, and are reinvented over time, proving that age is just a number.

**Eileen Jackson was happy to set aside her own dreams to raise a family with her husband, Paul. Together they built an ordinary life in a Connecticut town, the perfect place for their kids to grow up. But when Eileen discovers that Paul’s late nights in the city are hiding an affair with a younger woman, she begins to question all those years of sacrifice and compromise. On the brink of forty and wondering what she’s going to do with the rest of her life, is it too late for her to start over?

Meanwhile, as Paul is thrust back into the role of suburban fatherhood, his girlfriend, Olivia, is in Manhattan, struggling to find herself in the shadow of her mother, a famous actress, and her grandmother, a fiercely independent ninety-two-year-old artist. With their unique brands of advice ringing in her head, Olivia takes a major step, expanding her art gallery business internationally. Seeing her mother pursue old dreams and even find new love, Olivia realizes that there is so much she must learn about herself before committing her life to someone else.

Ultimately, Eileen decides to chase her own dreams as well. She’s off to Paris to attend Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. What awaits is an adventure that reinvents her life and redefines her.

At every age, there are challenges to be met and new worlds to discover. In this surprising, illuminating novel, Danielle Steel gives us a warmhearted portrait of people driven by their emotions, life experiences, and loyalties, who realize that it’s never too late to turn a new page and start again.

Leseprobe
Chapter 1

Pennie Jackson had just finished her junior year at one of the best private high schools in Greenwich, Connecticut. It prepared its students for admission into the finest colleges in the country, and required a high standard of academic excellence. Community projects and additional activities were encouraged to strengthen their college applications. As a result, the list of colleges they got into was impressive.

Pennie had turned seventeen in December and would be entering her senior year in the fall. Her boyfriend, Tim Blake, had just graduated two weeks before. With Tim leaving for college at the end of August, Pennie wasn’t looking forward to senior year. They’d been dating for almost three years and it was going to be lonely without him. He’d been accepted at Stanford, in California. He’d had top grades, perfect board scores, had been captain of the basketball team, and had worked as an intern for a senator in Washington, D.C., in the summer for two years in a row.

Pennie and Tim had been dating since her freshman year, and she couldn’t imagine her daily life without him. In spite of their serious relationship, they had both remained diligent about school, sports, extracurricular activities, and maintaining their grades. Pennie had volunteered with children at a homeless shelter since freshman year, and had created and run a toy drive for them every Christmas. She loved kids and they all loved her. She never missed a Saturday at the shelter.

She had watched Tim throw his mortarboard in the air with the rest of his class, with a sadness she had hidden well. They both knew what it meant. They had made the decision when he’d been accepted in early admissions at Stanford. They had considered it carefully, and felt it was the right choice for both of them. They wanted to be sensible, neither of them wanted a long distance relationship and the hardships it entailed, pining for each other, only seeing each other at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and spring break, and probably disappointing each other at some point. They had promised that they would break up after Tim’s graduation. He was going to spend the summer traveling in China, which was his parents’ graduation gift to him, and she was going to be a junior counselor at the summer camp she had attended for five years. It would be her first summer as a junior counselor. In August, Tim would be off to Stanford, and she’d be back at their old school, without him, missing him, applying to college, and doing her volunteer work.

They had made their agreement and stuck to it. They had broken up three days before, and were both leaving for the summer in two weeks. They didn’t want to drag it out in the end. They had cried like children when they left each other, but true to their word, they hadn’t called, texted, or spoken to each other for the past three days. It was much harder than she’d expected. They wanted to stay friends, but for now, they were trying to get used to being apart. She felt as though her heart had been torn in half as he drove away from her house after he’d come to say goodbye. They had been inseparable for the past three years, and now suddenly, she was on her own. He was not only her boyfriend, but her confidant and best friend. It was so much to lose, letting him go was the hardest and most adult thing she’d ever done.

Pennie was a beautiful green-eyed blonde, with long, straight, wheat-colored hair, slim legs that never seemed to end, a striking figure, full breasts, and a waist Tim could almost circle with both hands. She looked like the proverbial girl next door, or the girl everyone wished l…