December 24, 2012
“I will love you until the end of time,” aptly named lawyer and minister Bill Sweet repeatedly tells style director and design “muse” Jenny Arden in this tender romance that overcomes even death. When Bill meets Jenny for the first time in 1969, there is a sense that they’ve known each other before. After a chance second meeting they fall deeply, madly in love. Bill talks frequently about his belief that true love endures beyond death, and that reborn lovers find each other again. Bill and Jenny start building their perfect life together, but too soon, their lives are cut short. Then in 2013, Lillibet Petersen, a young Amish woman, daringly sends her manuscript to a New York publishing house, where Robert Bellagio buys it and becomes entranced by its author—whom he feels he’s met in a past life. Connected by the notion of reincarnation but never repetitive, the two distinct romances form one overarching, heart-warming love story that will have readers believing in forever.
December 15, 2012
Steel's latest novel uses two love stories to pose and answer questions about the meaning of life and love. The first story, set in 1975, is a romance between the son of wealthy, class-conscious parents and a coal miner's daughter, who has become a successful design consultant for Vogue magazine in New York City. After marrying against his parents' wishes, Bill Sweet leaves the family law firm to study theology and pursue his dream of becoming an Episcopal minister. His wife continues the work she loves as a fashion consultant, but after surviving an ectopic pregnancy, Jenny decides to give up her career in New York so she and Bill can accept an offer from a church in Moose, Wyo. Reading about their warm welcome and the ease with which they blend into the culture of the Western town is heartwarming, and the significant good Jenny does for some of the women of the town is uplifting and inspiring. The second story is set in 2013. A young Amish woman in Lancaster County, Pa., who has always loved to read the classics, writes a book and secretly sends it to a publisher in New York. The publisher falls in love with the voice of the book and when, with much difficulty, they finally meet, they both feel that fate has brought them together. This story of romance through hardship and across decades has a spiritual appeal.
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January 1, 2013
Steel's two-part story of reincarnation and everlasting love will satisfy fans of gentle romance and women's fiction. In the 1970s, famous fashion-show producer Jenny falls in love with lawyer Bill, and they marry, despite his family's objections. Bill decides to attend divinity school, and they end up living in Wyoming after a church offers Bill a position. There tragedy strikes. In the second story, Amish Elizabeth takes care of her widowed father and brothers while secretly writing a book at night. Bob is an independent publisher looking for a winning read. They fall in love and struggle to be respectful of her father and Amish traditions while seeking to publish the book and be together. Could it be that Elizabeth and Bob are Jenny and Bill come back to life for a happier ending? This gentle, inspirational story is very different from Steel's usual style, but her loyal readers will enjoy it just the same, as will anyone looking for a clever and sweetly dramatic romance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)