Danielle Steel – 2 hardcover books 1) Friends Forever 2) The House on Hope Street, Friends Forever- NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. Five children meet on the first day of kindergarten. In the years that follow, they become friends and more than friends. Together, they will find strength, meet challenges, face life’s adventures, endure loss, face stark realities, and open their hearts. In this moving novel, #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel traces their unforgettable journey—full of tests and trials—as three boys and two girls discover the vital bonds that will last a lifetime. FRIENDS FOREVER Gabby, Billy, Izzie, Andy, and Sean—each bursting with their own personality, strikingly different looks and talents, in sports, science, and the arts. Each drawn by the magical spark of connection that happens to the young. At the exclusive Atwood School, on a bright September day, starting in kindergarten they become an inseparable group known to outsiders as the Big Five. In this rarefied world, five families grow closer, and five children bloom beside one another, unaware of the storms gathering around them. As they turn from grade-schoolers to teenagers, seemingly perfect lives are buffeted by unraveling families, unfortunate missteps, and losses and victories great and small. And, one by one, they turn back to the Big Five to regain their footing and their steady course. But as they emerge from Atwood and enter the college years, the way forward is neither safe nor clear. As their lives separate and diverge, the challenges and risks become greater, the losses sharper, and the right paths harder to choose, in a journey of friendship, survival, and love. In what may be her most intricate and emotionally powerful novel yet, Danielle Steel tells a heart-wrenching, ultimately triumphant story that spans decades, weaves together a vivid cast of characters, and captures the challenges we face in life—sometimes, if we’re lucky, with a friend forever by our side. The House on Hope Street: Danielle Steel's 49th best-selling novel is a story of courage and loss, of the power of family and the strength of the human soul. Life was good for Liz and Jack Sutherland. In eighteen years of marriage, they had built a family, a successful law practice, and a warm, happy home near San Francisco, in a house on Hope Street. Then, in an instant, it all fell apart. It began like any other Christmas morning, with joy and children's laughter. But for Jack Sutherland, a five-minute errand ends in tragedy. And suddenly, Liz is alone, facing painful questions in the wake of an unbearable loss. How can she go on without her husband, her partner, her best friend? How can she grieve when she must console five devastated children, including one with special needs of his own? Powered by her children's love, Liz finds the strength to return to work, to become both mother and "daddy," coaching her youngest son for the Special Olympics. And one by one the holidays come and go before her eyes: Valentine's Day without flowers and without Jack...Easter...July 4.... Then, just weeks before Labor Day, a devastating accident sends her oldest son to the hospital - and brings a doctor named Bill Webster into her life. Bill becomes a friend to Liz as he slowly heals her shattered son. And as the long days of summer blend into fall, a new relationship offers new hope, and Liz reflects on what she has, on what she's lost, on the little blessings that give strength when nothing else is left. Then, with the first anniversary of her husband's death approaching, and with it another Christmas in the house on Hope Street, Liz will face one more crisis before she can look back at a year of mourning and change - and ahead to the beginning of a new life. The House on Hope Street is about learning to live again after you think life is over, about getting up when you have been knocked down, again and again. It is about cherishing small miracles, and believing in big ones. It is above all about hope.
