A to Z Challenge - Z - Zoya by Danielle Steel

Today's book is one that I'd actually like to read. (There are a few letters in this tat I could find books as giveaways for so will be picking books I want to read)




GoodReads

Against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution and World War I Europe, Zoya, young cousin to the Tsar, flees St. Petersburg to Paris to find safety. Her entire world forever changed, she faces hard times and joins the Ballet Russe in Paris. And then, when life is kind to her, Zoya moves on to a new and glittering life in New York. The days of ease are all too brief as the Depression strikes, and she loses everything yet again. It is her career, and the man she meets in the course of it, which ultimately save her, as she rebuilds her life through the war years and beyond. And it is her family that comes to mean everything to her. From the roaring twenties to the 1980's, Zoya remains a rare and spirited woman whose legacy will live on.

Freebie Friday - Fine Things by Danielle Steel

GoodReads Review

Smart, likable, Bernie Fine was the wonder boy of Wolff's, New York's most glamorous department store. A senior VP moving up, he arrives in San Fransisco to open a West Coast store. His career is skyrocketing, but his life is lacking a center. When he looks into the wide, innocent eyes of five-year-old Jane O'Reilly, and then into the equally enchanting eyes of her mother, Liz, Bernie knows he has found what he has been looking for. Bernie thought he had found love to last a lifetime, but when Liz is stricken with cancer shortly after the birth of their first child, time becomes painfully short. Alone with two children, Bernie must face the loss and learn how to move on. New people, new experiences, a new life alone with two kids. He meets it with courage and humor, and learns some of life's hard but precious lessons as he does.

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Freebie Friday - Crossings by Danielle Steel (US Only - ends 6/22)

GoodReads review:

Liane Crockett de Villiers --- It is the tense summer before the outbreak of World War II. She is crossing the Atlantic with her husband, the Ambassador of France, when she first meets Nick Burnham. The spark between Liane and Nick is instantaneous, yet not until a second crossing, when each is forced to flee France without spouse or family, will they confront the full power of their passion.

Moving between Paris, New York, and San Francisco, vividly portraying the events of the century's most turbulent decade, Danielle Steel tells the compelling story of a woman caught between conflicting passions and divided loyalties --- a story that is full, passionate, and straight from the heart.

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Freebie Friday - Fine Things by Danielle Steel (US Only - ends 6/15)

GoodReads Review:

Smart, likable, Bernie Fine was the wonder boy of Wolff's, New York's most glamorous department store. A senior VP moving up, he arrives in San Fransisco to open a West Coast store. His career is skyrocketing, but his life is lacking a center. When he looks into the wide, innocent eyes of five-year-old Jane O'Reilly, and then into the equally enchanting eyes of her mother, Liz, Bernie knows he has found what he has been looking for. Bernie thought he had found love to last a lifetime, but when Liz is stricken with cancer shortly after the birth of their first child, time becomes painfully short. Alone with two children, Bernie must face the loss and learn how to move on. New people, new experiences, a new life alone with two kids. He meets it with courage and humor, and learns some of life's hard but precious lessons as he does.

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Book Review: Happy Birthday by Danielle Steel

Title: Happy Birthday

Author: Danielle Steel
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
ISBN: 1423320905
Release Date: July 12th 2011
Pages: 352
Genre: Romance
Format: CDs (9)
Source: Library

GoodReads:
Valerie Wyatt is the high priestess of elegance: She has built an empire on how to entertain, how to decorate, how to live beautifully, and is at the top of her game with licensing arrangements for fine fabrics, furniture, wallpaper; six books; and a highly rated TV show. Valerie's daughter, April, is a classically trained chef and the workaholic proprietor of a comfortable, popular downtown New York restaurant. They couldn't be happier in their chosen fields—or more different in their attitudes. Yet as each faces a major birthday milestone—Valerie her 60th and April her 30th—neither has had a significant relationship for years and both are wistful at what they've sacrificed for success. That is about to change, after a chance encounter in an elevator and one holiday weekend indiscretion...

Mine:
What a timely book I started reading on my birthday earlier in the month.

Amazing how we all seem to take stock on our birthdays every year to see where we’ve been and where we would like to go. Valerie Wyatt at age 60 (horrified that it got out) is a successful Entertainment guru. She goes for her birthday card reading and is told: there will be a man and a child. She doesn’t believe either one.

April on the other hand is turning 30 with a successful restaurant. As she goes to her massage therapist she checks her out and suggests she check to see if she might be pregnant. She is by a one night stand who happened to be a food critic.

Neither one got what they were expecting, but in the end they cherish what they got.

Reading challenges:
2012 100+ Books in A Year Reading Challenge
2012 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge
Pages Read Challenge
50 States Challenge
Audiobook Challenge 2012
Reading Romances Challenge 2012
2012 100+ Books Reading Challenge
Book Around the States Challenge
101 Books in 1001 Days Challenge

Book Review -Big Girl by Danielle Steel

Title: Big Girl
Author: Danielle Steel
Genre: Chick Lit

Challenges: 101 Books in 1001 Days Challenge, The Naming Convention Challenge, Book Around the States Challenge, Read and Review Challenge 2010, TBR Challenge 2010, 100 + Reading Challenge, Pages Read 2010, A to Z challenge, 2010 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge, Audio Book Challenge 2010, Contemporary Romance Challenge in 2010

Rating: 5/5
No. of Pages: 536 (Audio)
Published: 2010


Back Cover: Victoria Dawson has always felt out of place in her family, especially in body-conscious L.A. Her father, Jim, is tall and slender, and her Mother, Christina, is a fine-boned, dark-haired beauty. Both are self-centered, outspoken, and disappointed by their daughter’s looks. While her parens and sister can eat anything and not gain an ounce, Victoria must watch everything she eats, as well as endure her father’s belittling comments about her body and see her academic achievements go unacknowledged. Ice cream and oversized helpings of all the wrong foods give her comfort, but only briefly. The one thing she knows is that she has to get away from home, and after college in Chicago, she moves to New York City.

Behind Victoria is a lifetime of hurt and neglect she has tried to forget, and even ice cream can no longer dull the pain. Ahead is a challenge and risk: to accept herself as she is, celebrate it, and claim the victories she has faught so hard for and deserves. Big girl or not, she is terrific and discovers that herself.

Mine: What a wonderfully timely book as we talk about bullying and obesity. Victoria suffers both, but worst of all the bullying comes from her own family. She’s just the “tester cake” that comes before her perfect sister. There are time while listening to the book – it was frustrating to think that her family is the cause of a lot of her heartache.

The wonderful thing about this story is we travel with Victoria through her journey of self-discovery and healing. She does finally discover she is worth of someone’s love as the person that she is, not what her family thinks of her.