This book is definitely one of the best works of Danielle Steel. It is amazing how she has interwoven the past with the present through the journals of a young and beautiful lady, who has died a hundred and sixty years ago.
She has shown in this book, that love can always come back to your life, despite all the bleakness and colour it with bright and vivid colours. And change you unimaginably, for better. She proves the magic of love through the four characters of her story, Sarah, Francois and Charlie, Fransesca.
It was painful, the way Sarah was beaten and broken down due to Edward, the Earl. She lived with it all, till one day he seemed to be dying, and she for the first time, imagined what it would be like, to be free. However, he revived and everything was the same again. Except for Sarah. She had conceived the idea of freedom in her mind, and now she didn’t want to live there, she just couldn’t so she fleed from England.
She met Francois in the most strange circumstances and they lived happily for four years after which Francios died. But these four years were the happiest of Sarah’s life.
But that was in the past...
The story starts with Charlie, who is dumped by his wife, Carole for a sixty year old man. He is forced to leave his life in London and move on to America. There he met a young and beautiful girl, through her daughter. But unlike her lively and bright daughter, Fransesca turns out to be extremely tight lipped and reserved.
They later come to be friends, and this relationship is fuelled bySarah’s ghost. Sarah helps Charlie find her journals in the attic so that he can read them and learn that it doesn’t hurt to love again.
And in turn, Charlie teaches this beautiful and valuable lesson to Fransesca.
The way in which their lives come close by the day, and the way it is strikingly similar to Sarah’s and Francois’s life...is amazing.
Its truly one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read....