Upside Down

Oscar-winning actress Ardith Law is a Hollywood icon. Radiant at sixty-two, she is the epitome of glamour and a highly respected artist. But her success has come at a price: She has a strained relationship with her daughter, Morgan, who at thirty-eight still blames Ardith for putting her career before being a mother. Morgan is a successful plastic surgeon in New York City--and the distance from Ardith’s Bel Air mansion is not lost on either of them. Ardith became a single mother when Morgan was seven, after her unfaithful husband died in a helicopter accident. In recent years, she has found amiable companionship with fellow actor Bill West. But Ardith’s comfortable world is turned upside down when she hires a temporary personal assistant, Josh Gray, while Bill is away filming in London. Josh’s rough-around-the-edges persona is the opposite of what Ardith is used to, but an unexpected tragedy brings them closer, stirring up conflicting feelings in her for this younger man. In New York, Morgan is swept off her feet by world-renowned TV anchorman Ben Ryan. Though more than two decades her senior, Ben is handsome, charismatic, and just as smitten as Morgan. But when a blackmail scheme puts his career--and their relationship--on the line, Morgan doesn’t know where to turn. Perhaps . . . to her mother? As each woman navigates an unconventional romance, they cautiously approach each other on new terms and attempt to put aside their past for a new future. In <Upside Down, <Danielle Steel tells an unforgettable story of bold choices, second chances, and the hope of reconciliation.

Auteur
Danielle Steel has been hailed as one of the world’s bestselling authors, with a billion copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include The Ball at Versailles, Second Act, Happiness, Palazzo, The Wedding Planner, Worthy Opponents, Without a Trace, The Whittiers, 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; A Gift of Hope, a memoir of her work with the homeless; Expect a Miracle, a book of her favorite quotations for inspiration and comfort; Pure Joy, about the dogs she and her family have loved; and the children’s books Pretty Minnie in Paris and Pretty Minnie in Hollywood.

Texte du rabat

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Danielle Steel delivers a poignant novel about a mother and daughter who must repair their relationship and find a way to follow their hearts.

Oscar-winning actress Ardith Law is a Hollywood icon. Radiant at sixty-two, she is the epitome of glamour and a highly respected artist. But her success has come at a price: She has a strained relationship with her daughter, Morgan, who at thirty-eight still blames Ardith for putting her career before being a mother. Morgan is a successful plastic surgeon in New York City—and the distance from Ardith’s Bel Air mansion is not lost on either of them.

Ardith became a single mother when Morgan was seven, after her unfaithful husband died in a helicopter accident. In recent years, she has found amiable companionship with fellow actor Bill West. But Ardith’s comfortable world is turned upside down when she hires a temporary personal assistant, Josh Gray, while Bill is away filming in London. Josh’s rough-around-the-edges persona is the opposite of what Ardith is used to, but an unexpected tragedy brings them closer, stirring up conflicting feelings in her for this younger man.

In New York, Morgan is swept off her feet by world-renowned TV anchorman Ben Ryan. Though more than two decades her senior, Ben is handsome, charismatic, and just as smitten as Morgan. But when a blackmail scheme puts his career—and their relationship—on the line, Morgan doesn’t know where to turn. Perhaps . . . to her mother? As each woman navigates an unconventional romance, they cautiously approach each other on new terms and attempt to put aside their past for a new future.

In Upside Down, Danielle Steel tells an unforgettable story of bold choices, second chances, and the hope of reconciliation.

Échantillon de lecture
Chapter 1

The line of limousines snaked down the driveway of the Beverly Hilton hotel at a snail’s pace to drop off stars and starlets, producers, directors, ingénues, the famous and the infamous and the unknowns and wannabes, desperate to be seen at one of Hollywood’s most glittering annual events, the Golden Globe Awards. The greatly respected award was second only to the Academy Awards. At sixty-­two, Ardith Law, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars for the past forty years, had won three Golden Globes so far. And she had two of the Academy’s coveted Oscars to her credit as well. This was an evening she never missed, as much to pay her respects to her fellow actors as to be seen herself. It was one of those things one had to do. It was expected, and you had to keep your face out there if you wanted to continue to get work, and your face had to look damn good or you’d better not show up!

Ardith was known for the variety and depth of the roles she accepted, and the quality of the movies she starred in. Occasionally, she took a small, unusual part if it intrigued her, which happened from time to time, but as a rule, she only took major starring roles. She was an extraordinary actress with a huge talent and a well-­deserved reputation. She was picky about the parts she took. She wanted to be in movies with depth and merit, which weren’t always easy to find after a certain age. She looked exceptionally good at sixty-­two, was still beautiful, and unlike nearly every actress in Hollywood, she had had no “work” done. She preferred to keep her own natural face and left it to the makeup artists on set to correct whatever needed attention. And she was never afraid to take an important part if it aged her beyond her actual years.

Ardith wanted roles with substance that stretched her to the limits of her abilities. She turned down most of the easy parts. Although for the past two years, there had been no offers. No one dared to cast her in minor roles, and producers knew that her agent, Joe Ricci, would turn them down before the offers even got to her. But once she turned sixty, there had been no appropriate parts for her. She read scripts constantly, looking for the right roles, but hadn’t seen any she wanted to play. Her high standards and perfectionism on set had won her the reputation of being difficult or a diva, which wasn’t entirely true. She was an extremely dedicated actress and demanded a lot of herself and everyone she worked with. So now and then, when others fell short, forty years of the best parts available and producers who would do almost anything to keep her happy had led to rare but memorable outbursts that supported the notion that she was a diva. She was above all a consummate professional, and a star to her very core. It wasn’t about ego, but more about wanting to be the absolute best she could be in every role, at all times. She hated working with lazy actors, and she hated stupidity and phonies. She was true to herself and her high standards in every way. She was an honest woman, and a great actress more than a diva, no matter what people said who didn’t really know her. Her career was vital to her sense of well-­being and purpose. She had missed working for the past two years but preferred it to accepting roles in second-­rate movies. She was waiting for the right film to come along, and she knew that eventually it would. In the meantime, she read every book and script she could lay her hands on.

Her personal life had always taken a back seat to her career, and it still did. She had one daughter from an eight-­year marria…