This is the FIRST Danielle Steel I ever read - a long time ago!! It will always have a senitmental place in my heart, and I seem to compare all her other stories to this one.
Great book by Danielle Steel!
On Sarah Whitfield's seventy-fifth birthday,memories take her back to New York in the 1930s.To a marriage that ends after a year,leaving Sarah shattered.A trip to Europe with her parents does little to raise her spirits,until she meets William,Duke of Whitfield.In time,despite her qualm,William insists on giving up his distant right to the British throne to make Sarah his duchess and his wife.
On their honeymoon,the newlyweds buy an old French chateau,but not long after,the war begins.William joins the allied forces,leaving Sarah,their first child,an infant,and their second child on the way,in France.Sarah survives the terror of the Occupation,unwavering in her belief that her missing-in-action husband is still alive.
After the war,as a gesture of goodwill,the Whitfields start buying jewels offered for sale by impoverished war survivors.The collection becomes the prestigious Whitfield's in Paris.Eventually,their jewelry businesss expands to London and Rome,as their family grows.Phillip,prideful and stubborn;Julian,charming and generous;Isabelle,rebellious and willfull;and Xavier,the final unexpected gift of their love.They each will find their own way,but will be drawn to the great house of gems their parents built.
In Jewel's Danielle Steel takes the reader through five eventful decades that include war,passion,and international intrigue
My favorite Danielle Steel.
This is my favorite DS book! (And the movie is pretty good too!) The setting spans 50 years and is the story of love and war and a woman's struggle to keep her family together. If you love generational stories, this is the book for you!