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Summary
Summary
A touching love story from the author of A Woman of Substance and Everything to Gain. When her husband confronts her with the news that he's seeing a younger woman and wants a divorce, 43-year-old Maggie Sorell picks up the pieces of her shattered life and moves to Connecticut to fulfill her dream of becoming an interior designer.
Author Notes
Barbara Taylor Bradford was born in Upper Armley, Leeds, in Yorkshire on May 10, 1933. At the age of fifteen, she was working as a typist for the Yorkshire Evening Post. After six months, she was promoted to cub reporter in the newsroom. At eighteen, she became the newspaper's Woman's Page Editor and at twenty, she headed for London where she became Fashion Editor of the magazine Woman's Own. She also reported for the London Evening News, Today Magazine and other publications, covering everything from crime to show business. In 1961, she met her future husband Robert Bradford and they were married in 1963. After they married, they moved to the United States and she began writing a syndicated column, Designing Woman. The column was published for twelve years and received several awards.
Her debut novel, A Woman of Substance, was published in 1979 and she has since written over 20 novels. Many of her novels have been made into television mini-series including A Woman of Substance, Voice of the Heart, Act of Will, Everything to Gain and A Secret Affair. She also wrote children's books and eight books on decorating.
She has received numerous awards for her work including the Matrix Award from New York Women in Communication Inc in 1985, the City of Hope's Spirit of Life Award in 1995, the Five Towns Music and Art Foundation's Award of Achievement for outstanding accomplishments in the field of Literature in 1997 and the British Excellence Award in 1998. She was inducted into the Matrix Hall of Fame in 1998 and into the Writers Hall of Fame of America in 2003. In 2007, she was awarded an OBE (The Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to Literature. She is a member of the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress. She is also involved in several charity projects such as Literacy Partners and the Police Athletic League of New York City. She made the New York Times Best Seller List in 2014 with her title Cavendon Hall.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Apparently not one to miss a trend or popular spin, Bradford (Everything to Gain) weaves some New Age mysticism into this atypically short tale, a gender-reversed May-September romance that starts slowly but winds up handily resolving a rash of complications. Tom Cruise look-alike Jake Cantrell is 28; Maggie Sorrell is 43, a Bradford-style woman of hard-won independence and strength. In small-town Connecticut, they meet as volunteers on a community production of The Crucible: electrical whiz Jake does the lighting; interior designer Maggie does the sets. Attraction is instant, but the age barrier must be surmounted before the couple consummate their love (an event depicted in graphic detail). Meanwhile, Jake is trying to wean Amy, his dependent, depressive high-school love, whom he wants to divorce after nine years of drag-down marriage. Maggie, too, is suffering: left by her now-former husband for a younger woman, she has lost the affections of her 21-year-old twins to their wealthy father. Although all the characters seem designed merely to induce feel-good vibes in the reader, Amy-a cancer patient-is relatively compelling in that she undergoes a near-death experience after an auto accident. The aftermath of her NDE-instant enlightenment and the ability to read the future-is far-fetched, but it's gooey and sweet as well: just the right icing for this light and fluffy love cake. 750,000 first printing; $1 million ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections; simultaneous HarperAudio; simultaneous large-print edition from G.K. Hall; author tour. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Hopelessly contrived, soapy little romance between interior- decorator 43-year-old recent divorcée with two estranged college- aged children, and her soulmate Jake, a 28-year-old Tom Cruise look-alike whose own bad marriage--to Amy, who's ``too negative,'' who doesn't ``look on the bright side''--has also collapsed. Before the 'round-the-Christmas-tree close, there'll be terminal illness (for bad-attitude Amy), a fatal car crash, an unexpected (but not unwanted, of course) pregnancy, and a trip to Paradise and back. Literally. Love Story mixes with Embraced by the Light mixes with lots of phony psychologizing--and, yes, huge-seller potential. ($1,000,000 ad/promo; author tour)