Danielle Steel The Long Road Home: From her secret perch at the top of the stairs, Gabriella Harrison watches the guests arrive at her parents' lavish Manhattan townhouse. At seven, she knows she is an intruder in her parents' party, in her parents' life. But she can't resist the magic. Later, she waits for the click, click, click of her mother's high heels, the angry words, and the pain that will follow. Gabriella already knows to hide her bruises, certain she is to blame for her mother's rage--and her father's failure to protect her. Her world is a confusing blend of terror, betrayal, and pain. Her parents' aristocratic world is no safeguard against the abuse that knows no boundaries, respects no person, no economic lines. Gabriella knows that, try as she might, there is no safe place for her to hide. Even as a child, her only escape is through the stories she writes. Only writing can dull the pain of her lonely world. And when her parents' marriage collapses, Gabriella is given her first reprieve, as her father disappears, and then her mother abandons her to a convent. There, Gabriella's battered body and soul begin to mend. Amid the quiet safety and hushed rituals of the nuns, Gabriella grows into womanhood in a safe, peaceful world... until she falls for a young priest and everything she's worked so hard to heal threatens to shatter her all over again. My Thoughts: This is by far Danielle Steel's best book ever. Her portrayal of a young abused girl really hit close to home for me. I cried the entire way through the book. It's about the terrors of child abuse which many of us have probably faced in our lives and many more will continue to face. But it's also a story of healing, compassion, the struggle to find true love and to free yourself from your past and strive forward to face your future. One of the things I learned from reading this book is that you should never blame yourself for the action of others. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Ranch: They had been inseparable in college, Mary Stuart, Tanya, and Zoe. At a sprawling ranch in the foothills of Wyoming's Grand Teton Range, the three women come together and find courage, healing, and truth, and reach out to each other once again. Despite the honesty they once shared, now pretense between them runs high. Mary Stuart Walker, married for twenty-two years to a Manhattan lawyer, kept herself busy with volunteer work, and now masks the loneliness that consumes her life. A year has past, and Mary Stuart still hasn't gotten over the guilt, or the fear that her husband will never forgive her for their son's death... Tanya Thomas, an award winning singer and rock star, enjoys all the trappings of fame and success--a mansion in Bel Air, legions of fans, and a broken heart. All the Grammy awards in the world can't make up for the children she wanted but never had, the men who have taken advantage of her, and just gone along for the ride, and still are... Dr. Zoe Phillips has her hands full as a single mother to an adopted two-year-old, and as a doctor at an AIDS clinic in San Francisco. Predictably, as they all know, she is as liberal as she ever was, and marriage was never a dream she coveted or shared with them. Tending to her patients is a full-time job that leaves Zoe little time for herself--until unexpected news forces her to reevaluate both her future, and her current life. But despite the changes in their lives, their friendship is still a bond they all treasure and share. For each of the women, a few weeks at the ranch will bring healing and release, as old hurts are buried, ancient secrets revealed, and love replaced or renewed. In The Ranch, bestselling novelist Danielle Steel brings reality to the meaning of friendship, with dramas whose truths we all share. My Thoughts: A very sad, honest story that is definitely art imitating life. It will make you cry. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - No Greater Love: It was the maiden voyage of theTitanic, the greatest ship ever built, and in one fatal, unforgettable night, the sea shattered the lives and future of an extraordinary family, the Winfields. Edwina Winfield, returning from her engagement trip to England with her fiance and her family, instantly loses her parents, the man she loved and her dreams. Without even time to mourn, she courageously defies convention to run her family's California newspaper and care for her five younger siblings. Unable to forget her fiance Charles, she is determined never to marry, to keep her family together, and to fight to survive as a woman alone, raising her younger brother and sister. Compelling and deeply moving, No Greater Love questions a woman's choices and the price she must pay for making them. And in an unforgettable climax, it offers an answer--as Edwina confronts the ghosts haunting her and take an extraordinary risk for her future and her heart. My Thoughts: Wonderful story about one woman's courage to try and keep her family together after tradegy strikes. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mixed Blessings: After the wedding of Diana Goode and Andrew Douglas, Diana teases that they will make a baby on their honeymoon. But long afterward, she is still not pregnant. As Diana and Andrew wait out each month only to be bitterly disappointed, they are forced to question just how much they are willing to go through to have a baby. Charlie Winwood dreams of a house filled with children. His bride, party-girl actress Barbie Mason, has other ideas. When he discovers he is sterile, Charlie has to rethink his deepest values -- and his marriage to a woman who shares none of his dreams. After ten years of living together, Pilar Graham, a prominent Santa Barbara attorney, marries Judge Brad Coleman, who is nineteen years her senior and father of two grown children. They are happy with their comfortable life together, à deux, until Pilar begins to wonder if she will someday regret not having a baby with Brad. Are they crazy to begin now -- with Brad about to become a grandfather and Pilar with a busy career, and in her early forties, possibly putting herself at risk? My Thoughts: The lives of three couples who struggle through disappointment and loss, but prevail through victories and triumphs! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Zoya: 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. My Thoughts: Amazing what this woman goes through in her life... so many heartbreaks and defeats, yet she manages to strive forward with her willful spirit and determination. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - My other faves: The Dating Game, Leap of Faith, The House on Hope Street, The Accident, The Gift, Fine Things, Remembrance, The Wedding, Vanished and Wings. Books I didn't like: Thurston House, The Ghost, Sunset in St Tropez, Answered Prayers and Daddy.

Story summaries taken from: randomhouse.com