Irresistible Forces

Having had 46 previous bestsellers, Danielle Steel knows a good plot recipe when she's got one--namely, take a smart, beautiful woman who is dissatisfied with her loving but stuffy husband, add a romantic, usually older man with a true appreciation of her inner soul, then sit back and watch the melodrama unfold. In this latest novel, our heroine Meredith Whitman is a career-driven investment banker, our husband Steve a sweet physician, and our other man, Cal Dow, a high-tech business Midas. When Cal offers Meredith the perfect job in San Francisco, Steve encourages her to move across country, and promises to follow her as soon as he can. Meredith and Steve's marriage begins to crack under the pressures of the distance, and soon "irresistible forces" come into play. Don't expect profundity, although Danielle Steel can make even the most sordid affairs seem romantic, or at least entertaining. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien