Bakers Dozen 5

The Ghost by Danielle Steel

This novel has made my list because I think this was one of the first romance authors that I had ever read.  This happened during my search for different authors time of life after I had read my 30th V.C. Andrews book.  Now I'm not the biggest fan of Danielle Steel and I honestly can count on one hand how many of her books that I have read, but there was a couple that has stuck with me through the years and The Ghost is my ultimate favorite book by Steel.  I also believe this is one that kind of kick started my love for historical romances also (I should go back and read my other baker dozens because I feel I'm repeating myself, but as I've said this list is mostly about my firsts.)

This book to me was unique because I actually had two different story lines that ended up tying together.  The story starts off with Charlie, separated from his wife and going through a divorce, rents a house in New England.  In the house he feels the presence of another and finds out that it is the spirit of Sarah who lived and died (of old age) in the house.  He finds her diaries and starts to read them.  Her story starts in England, in the late 1700's, as a young wife of a aristocrat who is abusive and she suffered numerous miscarriages.  She flees to America and there meets and falls in love with a French noble man who was adopted by the Native Americans and became a liaison between the tribes and European settlers.  They fall in love and get married (by a Native American ceremony since she is still legally married to husband in England) and start a family.  Her story helps heal Charlie and helps him find love with a divorced women of a French celebrity who publicly shamed her by flaunting his mistress.  Sarah's story and journey help give Charlie and the women he is pursuing the strength that they need to accept their love for each other.

One of the strongest things that I remember about this story was the non-graphic love scenes.  They were written so that you know that the couple was being intimate but not so graphic that as a 15 year-old would have been exposed to too much.  I loved the tie of the two different love stories and it wasn't hard to follow. Steel wrote each time line clearly so I was never thrown off.

Even though this isn't one of the books that I constantly pick up (because it was borrowed) I still remember little details of this book and I read it over 10 years ago.  Crazy right?