A Mother’s Love: A Novel

Summary

A devoted mother, outrunning a troubled childhood and facing an empty nest, is tested in ways she never expected, in this suspenseful novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel.

On the occasion of her daughter Valerie’s wedding and her own upcoming fiftieth birthday, bestselling author Halley Holbrook finds herself reflecting. Raising twins Valerie and Olivia is her proudest accomplishment. Halley has been able to give them the loving and safe home she never had, having survived a childhood so traumatic that she has never talked about it with her girls. Long ago, Halley decided to live in the sunlight of the present, not the dark shadows of the past.

After Valerie moves to Los Angeles with her producer husband and Olivia follows to be close to her sister, Halley is “empty nesting” in her New York Fifth Avenue apartment. Facing her first holiday alone in years, she books a trip to Paris.

Flying over, she meets charming Bart Warner, and the two become fast friends. She hasn’t dated since her partner died three years ago; yet Halley quickly begins to feel more like herself. But when a cunning thief steals her handbag and then begins to harass her, it reawakens old ghosts from her past. Vowing not to be a victim, and, with Bart's help, she chooses a bold course of action.

The moving story of a woman determined to give her daughters what she never had—a mother's love—Danielle Steel's gripping novel is a story of emotional resilience and truly letting go.