Product Description

In Bittersweet, Danielle Steel has written a novel for our times, a story of choices and new beginnings.

India Taylor lived in a world of manicured lawns and neatly maintained calendars: a merry-go-round of Little League, piano lessons, and Cape Cod summer vacations. With four wonderful children, India believed in commitment and sacrifice, just as she believed in Doug, the man she married 17 years before. For India, this was the promise she made, the life she had chosen--not the award-winning career as a photojournalist she once had. It was a choice she had never truly regretted. Until she begins to regret it with all her heart.

India couldn't pinpoint the exact moment. Perhaps it was the last time her agent called, begging her to take an assignment Doug insisted she turn down. Or perhaps it was when Doug told her he thought of her as a companion and someone to take care of their kids, and not much more. At that moment, the price of the sacrifices she'd made began to seem high.

And then, she met Paul Ward. A Wall Street tycoon married to a bestselling author, Paul lived life on his own terms, traveling the world on his own yacht. India hadn't planned to become Paul's friend. Anything more was unthinkable. Yet talking to Paul was so easy. India could share her dreams with him, and offer comfort when Paul suffers a heartbreak of his own. And while Paul urges India to reclaim her career, Doug is adamantly against it, determined to keep her tied to the home. But with Paul's encouragement, India slowly, painfully, begins to break free, and find herself again.

Rediscovering her creativity and her courage, India uses Paul like a beacon on the horizon, sharing intimate phone conversations with a man half a world away, a man who never stops reminding her of all that is possible for her. India is changing, and nothing in her life will ever be the same again. Not her marriage. Not her friendship with Paul. And when India is presented with an irresistible opportunity, she makes a heart-wrenching decision, leaving a safe, familiar place-and the people she loves there-to move into the terror of the unknown.

Bittersweet is her story, a story of freedom, of having dreams and making choices to find them. With unerring insight, Danielle Steel has created a moving portrait of a woman who dares to embark on a new adventure and the man who helps her get there. Her painful, exhilarating journey inspires us all.


From the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #943188 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-26
• Released on: 2005-04-26
• Formats: Abridged, Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Binding: Audio CD

From Amazon.com
Like the rest of her novels, Steel's 46th testifies to the insatiable appetite for unrequited love and the success of TV's Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Meet India Taylor, the coulda-woulda-shoulda been a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist if it wasn't for her meddling husband. Although they met in the Peace Corps 20 years prior, Doug insisted she put down the camera, pick up a broom, and raise four kids in the comfy Connecticut burbs. However, after 17 years of carpooling, Little League, and Doug's revelation that he's happy with a platonic marriage, India moves on to greener pastures. She finds her cash cow in the form of Paul Ward, a.k.a. "Lion of Wall Street," who has a yacht called the Sea Star and likes to coo such things as "I think I'm a little crazy, but I love you." Although he may be senile and she is still married, the duo seem destined for each other as Paul slowly helps India reclaim her past and follow her passion. What's not to love about Danielle Steel? She starts so many sentences with the word and that you start to do it yourself. And there's a run-on quality to the narrator's consciousness. But she drips glamour, drops famous names better than Robin Leach, and makes those pages fly so fast they cool your face on the hottest beach.

From Publishers Weekly
Many a stay-at-home mom's worst nightmare is realized in Steel's latest novel when India Taylor's husband, Doug, threatens to end their 17-year marriage if she dares to pursue her long-abandoned photojournalism career. Doug repetitively intones that marriage is by necessity an unromantic contract in which the wife's sole purpose is to care for the home, kids and husband, and if she reneges on her end of the deal with a pipe dream of independence, that is the ultimate "deal breaker." But in tried-and-true Steel (Mirror Image, etc.) fashion, India has a handsome Wall Street billionaire, Paul Ward, in the wings. His glamorous wifeAan internationally bestselling authorAdies in a plane crash several months after he and India have struck up a close friendship. But then Paul turns guilty and skittish about the budding romance, leaving India alone to face the harsh realities of being a single mom of four. Predictably, India's desolation is brief, punctuated by travel, adventure, a thrilling new career and a near-tragedy to put everything into perspective. As usual, Steel takes a theme of interest or concern to manyAin this case, a woman striking out on her ownAand turns it into a compulsively readable tale. With its swiftly moving story line and tidy love-conquers-all ending, Steel's latest should gratify her millions of fans. Major ad/promo.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
India Taylor, who has sacrificed a major career to husband and children, starts to rethink her life when she strikes up a friendship (?) with a married tycoon.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

an incredible romance
i found this book incredibly wonderful, i never had an interest in romance before this and now i love Danielle Steele's books. i hope that everyone else loves this book as much as i do. This is definately a 5 star book, it kept me wanting more.

BEST BOOK I'VE READ IN A LONG TIME
"Bittersweet" is about a woman named India Taylor, who was a wonderful mother, who juggled Little League, car pools, piano lessons, and Cape Code summer vacations. Getting bored with her life, India decides that she would like to go back to work as a photojournalist. One summer day, India meets a man named Paul Ward, who changes her life forever. Paul, whose wife recently passed away in a plane crash, begins chatting with India everyday. Both talk about their hopes and dreams and he tells her not to give up her dreams of going back to her work. Finally convinced, India decides to tell her husband of her plan, hoping he would understand. Doug tells her that he thinks of her only as a person to take car of the house, children and someone to cook him dinner when he comes home from work. Furious, India and Doug finally get a divorce because she is in love with Paul. A romance begins to bloom, but too soon for Paul. In the end, the two finally decide they need to be together.
I really enjoyed this book. I thought that the ending was by far the best part because it was so happy and sad all at once. I was happy to see them both finally find romance and happiness for once in their life. The book shows that in life bad things will happen but fate won't let anything else bad happen to you. I liked how throughout the entire novel Paul gave her advice and made her feel worthy and important. She really needed someone to understand her. I can see exactly where she is coming from. Driving car pools and cooking dinner does not look like the life any woman would want everyday. People need more to their life than that. People need to feel that they are good at something and everyone needs a hobby. Nobody needs anyone to tell him or her that they cannot do anything. I think India was strong when she told her husband that she was going back to work. It took a lot of guts. I thought this book was well written, and I would recommend it to anyone.

C'mon...where are the real people here?
...I can't help but think this book isn't typical of her fare; how else could she have become so popular? I was astounded that India's husband, Doug, is painted with such a wicked brush. There is no way he could have been so insensitive all those years and she's only just starting to realize it? For a charcter who's supposed to have such insight with her camera, she's certainly blind without the lens in front of her face. I found myself getting annoyed the poor guy got this type of treatment from his creator and waited for the moment when the guy would display any sort of humanity.

Having said that, I'll confess I did appreciate Steel's imagery. The sailboat is a bit over the top...but hey, it's a fantasy, right?

In conclusion, I guess you could say one thing about this book: black and white (characters) and read all over (by her legions of fans)...