The Ranch - Hardcover

Steel, Danielle

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385316348 ISBN 13: 9780385316347

Publisher: Delacorte Press, 1997

Synopsis

In her 39th best-selling novel, Danielle Steel brings to life the story of three women, old roommates from college, who come together after twenty years, one summer at The Ranch.

They had been inseparable in college, Mary Stuart, Tanya, and Zoe. But in the more than twenty years that followed, the three had moved on with their lives, settled in different cities, and found successful careers and new roles as mothers and wives. By chance, each would find herself alone for a few weeks one summer, wrestling with the present and the past. At a sprawling ranch in the foothills of Wyoming's Grand Teton Range, the three women come together and find courage, healing, and truth, and reach out to each other once again.

Despite the honesty they once shared, now pretense between them runs high. Mary Stuart Walker, married for twenty-two years to a Manhattan lawyer, kept herself busy with volunteer work, and now masks the loneliness that consumes her life. A year has past, and Mary Stuart still hasn't gotten over the guilt, or the fear that her husband will never forgive her for their son's death... Tanya Thomas, an award winning singer and rock star, enjoys all the trappings of fame and success--a mansion in Bel Air, legions of fans, and a broken heart. All the Grammy awards in the world can't make up for the children she wanted but never had, the men who have taken advantage of her, and just gone along for the ride, and still are... Dr. Zoe Phillips has her hands full as a single mother to an adopted two-year-old, and as a doctor at an AIDS clinic in San Francisco. Predictably, as they all know, she is as liberal as she ever was, and marriage was never a dream she coveted or shared with them. Tending to her patients is a full-time job that leaves Zoe little time for herself--until unexpected news forces her to reevaluate both her future, and her current life.

But despite the changes in their lives, their friendship is still a bond they all treasure and share. For each of the women, a few weeks at the ranch will bring healing and release, as old hurts are buried, ancient secrets revealed, and love replaced or renewed. In The Ranch, bestselling novelist Danielle Steel brings reality to the meaning of friendship, with dramas whose truths we all share.

About this title

About the Author

DANIELLE STEEL has been hailed as one of the world’s most popular authors, with over 530 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include Toxic Bachelors, Miracle, ImPossible, Echoes, Second Chance, Ransom, Safe Harbour, and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story of her son Nick Traina’s life and death.


From the Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

best-selling novel, Danielle Steel brings to life the story of three women, old roommates from college, who come together after twenty years, one summer at <b>The Ranch</b>.<br><br>They had been inseparable in college, Mary Stuart, Tanya, and Zoe. But in the more than twenty years that followed, the three had moved on with their lives, settled in different cities, and found successful careers and new roles as mothers and wives. By chance, each would find herself alone for a few weeks one summer, wrestling with the present and the past. At a sprawling ranch in the foothills of Wyoming's Grand Teton Range, the three women come together and find courage, healing, and truth, and reach out to each other once again.<br><br>Despite the honesty they once shared, now pretense between them runs high. Mary Stuart Walker, married for twenty-two years to a Manhattan lawyer, kept herself busy with volunteer work, and now masks the loneliness that consumes her life. A year has past, and Mary Stuart

Reviews

Predictable Steel (Silent Honor, 1996, etc.)--competent but uninspired--as three fortysomething women find romance, love, friendship, and hope (they already have the wardrobe) at an expensive dude ranch in Wyoming. Tanya Thomas, a rock-and-movie superstar; Mary Stuart Walker, perfect wife to a successful lawyer; and Zoe Phillips, a doctor who runs an AIDS clinic in San Francisco, were dorm mates at Berkeley. A fourth friend, Ellie, committed suicide in their senior year, and Zoe and Mary Stuart haven't talked since. Twenty-six years later, Tanya's third marriage has just fallen apart; Mary Stuart's son Todd has committed suicide, and her husband, who seems to blame her, has not made love to her in a year; and Zoe, like a Mother Teresa, leads a selfless life attending to her incurably ill patients, and has herself just been diagnosed with HIV. Tanya tricks her two old roomies into spending two weeks' vacation with her at the ranch. While there, they bond and then pair off. Zoe conducts a romance by phone with Sam Warner, a doctor who's always loved her, and who asks her to marry him when he hears that she has AIDS. Tanya, a simple Texas girl at heart, falls for Gordon, a wrangler at the ranch, and spends blissful nights in his cabin. And Mary Stuart gets her confidence back in the company of a successful writer, who wants to steal her away from her lout of a husband. Each of these men is ``there'' for his woman; likewise, each of these women is lovingly ``there'' for her friends. It's quite a feat that Steel can combine the tragedy of AIDS with color-coordinated cowboy boots and still create characters a reader can care about. Her mannered style, however, has begun to tilt toward caricature. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

After taking on quite harrowing subjects in her last two novels--incest and abuse in Malice and the World War II internment of Japanese Americans in Silent Honor --Steel has a more traditional focus in her thirty-ninth novel, reuniting three fortysomething college roommates at a Wyoming dude ranch to take stock of their pasts and make decisions about their futures. These women are, of course, far from ordinary: a superstar singer and film actor whose third husband is filing for divorce, unable to deal with tabloid tattle and nuisance lawsuits; a perfect-in-every-way upper-class wife whose marriage to a powerful New York City attorney has been a hollow facade for the year since their college-age son's suicide; and an HIV-positive physician who treats people with AIDS and has recently become an adoptive mother. Yes, this is familiar territory, and "a good man" is seen as the solution to almost every problem, but Steel effectively updates this timeworn formula to appeal to the tastes of her millions of fans. Mary Carroll

When singing sensation Tanya Thomas's third marriage falls apart, she decides to invite her two best friends from college to join her for a vacation. Tanya's friends, each suffering through crises of her own, eagerly accept her offer, not knowing that the other will be coming. Mary Stuart Walker, a polished New York lawyer's wife, and Zoe Phillips, a dedicated San Francisco AIDS doctor, suffered a falling out in college and haven't spoken since. Put these three women on a Wyoming dude ranch with handsome wranglers and intellectual widowers, and you can guess what develops. Within two weeks, the women rekindle their friendship, fall in love, and plan their futures. Steel fans will love the happy ending. Obvious demand warrants purchase.
-?Kathy Ingels Helmond, Indianapolis-Marion Cty. P.L.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385316348
• ISBN 13: 9780385316347
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 432