First published 2011
Valerie Wyatt sits in her Fifth Avenue penthouse, surrounded by the trappings of her lifestyle empire, dreading the approach of her sixtieth birthday. Despite her success as an arbiter of taste and her camera-ready appearance, she feels hollow and depressed. Her daughter April runs a popular downtown restaurant, pouring every ounce of energy into her kitchen while her personal life remains empty. At thirty, she has built something remarkable but finds herself alone. Former NFL star Jack Adams wakes up on his fiftieth birthday with his back thrown out after a wild Halloween party. Once able to throw a football like a guided missile, he now makes his living as a charismatic sports analyst, cycling through relationships with much younger women. These three lives intersect when violence strikes and unexpected blessings emerge. Two unlikely romances bloom as each character confronts what their milestone birthdays really mean. Steel weaves their stories together across one transformative year, showing how life's greatest surprises often arrive disguised as disasters.
Genres: romance, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, second-chance
Setting: Fifth Avenue, New York
Period: 21st-century
352 pages · Hardcover · Delacorte Press