The Affair

 

The Affair

By: Danielle Steel

288 Pages

Fiction

Summary:

When Rose McCarthy’s staff at Mode magazine pitches a cover shoot with Hollywood’s hottest young actress, the actress’s sizzling affair with a bestselling French author is exposed. The author happens to be Rose’s son-in-law, which creates a painful dilemma for her. Her daughter Nadia, a talented interior designer, has been struggling to hold her marriage together, and conceal the truth from their young daughters, her family, and the world. But Nicolas, her straying husband, is blinded by passion for a younger woman—and not only that, she is pregnant with his child. 

Nadia’s three sisters close ranks around her, flying to Paris from Los Angeles and New York to lend support and offer their widely divergent advice. Athena, a jovial celebrity chef with her own TV show in Los Angeles, is leery of marriage. Olivia, a stern conservative New York superior court judge, is haunted by a shocking secret of her own. Venetia, a zany fashion designer, happily married with three kids, has the gentlest, most realistic point of view. Despite their well-meaning advice, Nadia needs to figure out what she herself thinks, and what to do next.  ---bn.com

Danielle's back, but not packing the punch I enjoyed in he previous release. I enjoyed the first half of this book more than I did the second half. The main issue I had was with the husband character, Nicolas. The reasons he gave as his explanation for the affair infuriated me and never did anything to remove that anger. As the story unfolds, it takes far longer than is should for him to grasp the pain he caused. How he wanted things to play out where beyond selfish and completely unrelatable. As the reader, I never felt he truly understood the impact of his selfish actions. His character was meant to be disliked, but I was never able to change my opinion of him as the story continued to unfold.

Danielle told a great, moving story, Her fans will enjoy this latest story, but I never got passed Nicolas from the first half. He was never able to really redeem himself with me. I had a hard time with his stand after his affair was revealed. I felt like he was a child who couldn't understand why things weren't going his way. Maybe it was the culture differences.

I did love the interaction with the sisters. Watching those relationships grow and impact one another was fun to read. The way they came together for each other, in more than one crisis, was awesome. They stood beside one another- no matter what. That was my favorite aspect of the book. I could've read about the sisters and mother relationship all day. They were all so different, but at the end of the day, they were family. Come hell or high water.