Promises

With her three children, beautiful home, and loving husband, Margaret Crane is a woman others would envy.  Adam's job has cushioned them nicely over the years, and it should be a time of contentment, rewards, of new challenges together.  But lately Adam has been working too late, too hard, at the office. Margaret is sure it's just the rumored takeover of his company--until she meets Randi, The Other Woman...

Meanwhile, Nina, the orphaned cousin the Cranes raised as their own daughter, is reveling in New York.  She thinks she's found Mr. Right in Keith, a brilliant investment banker.  But Keith has a secret he has not shared with Nina.  All he asks for is time...and patience.  And as Nina clings to stolen weekends with Keith, Margaret plays dutiful wife, trying to ignore warning signs of her own failing marriage.  A rift has developed between the two women who have loved each other as mother, daughter, friends.  Keith is not welcome in Margaret's home.  And Nina herself is the other woman...

Belva Plain captured readers' hearts with her first novel, Evergreen, which Delacorte published more than 30 years ago. It topped the New York Times best-seller list for 41 weeks and aired as an NBC-TV miniseries. In total, more than 20 of her books have been New York Times best sellers.

Before becoming a novelist,  Belva Plain wrote short stories for many major magazines, but taking care of a husband and three children did not give her the time to concentrate on the novel she had always wanted to write. When she looked back and said she didn't have the time, she felt as though she had been making excuses. In retrospect, she said, "I didn't make the time." But, she reminded us, during the era that she was raising her family, women were supposed to concentrate only on their children. Today 30 million copies of her books are in print.

A Barnard College graduate who majored in history,  Belva Plain enjoyed a wonderful marriage of more than 40 years to Irving Plain, an ophthalmologist. Widowed for more than 25 years, Ms. Plain continued to reside in New Jersey, where she and her husband had raised their family and which was still home to her nearby children and grandchildren until her death in October 2010.