Irresistible Forces by Danielle Steel

Synopsis :

For 14 years, Steve and Meredith Whitman have sustained a marriage of passion and friendship.  Meredith, an investment banker, has achieved partnership in one of Wall Street's top firms. Steve, a gifted physician, chose an urban trauma ward over big money.  The only thing missing in their lives is children.  Steve longs for them but Meredith isn't ready, especially now that she has been offered a top position at an exciting high-tech company in San Francisco.

Neither Steve nor Meredith had reckoned on the frustrations of a bi-coastal marriage. Weekends together fall prey to their hectic schedules. Alone in San Francisco, Meredith is spending long hours at the office with her charismatic boss. Steve is working late shifts at the hospital, grabbing an occasional dinner with a new colleague. Almost unnoticed, Steve and Meredith began living separate lives. And despite the best of intentions, irresistible forces begin to tear them apart.


...and they didn't live happily ever after. Having been a fan of Danielle Steel, and this being the 2nd book that I read after an absence of many years, it’s rather disappointing from my perspective.  In a way, I kinda know where the story is going.  I read on hoping that the author would surprised me with something different. Unfortunately, this wasn't so. 

Meredith is the persona of many career women in the world today who puts career ahead of family. She actually says that she doesn’t want children at all. Later she claims that she might want children with her boss but not her husband. I find her rather obnoxious! Meridith's boss, Callan Dow's intention is pretty clear to me.  Delicately put, he has every intention of getting close to her in a personal way and Meredith allows it to happen. To call it irresistible force is kind of sweeten the situation. She and Callan really deserves one another. Steve is no better. He lets his wife pushed him around too much and he doesn't seems to think highly of himself and his profession as a truma doctor just because his wife makes more money being in corporate woman than him, a doctor who saves lives.

I also find the writing is too draggy. Readers do not need day by day descriptions of what Meredith and Callan did in their ‘roadshow’. We don’t not need to know what they ate all the time and what they wear. It would be better if the focus was on Steve instead of giving him ‘airtime’ only towards the end of the book. It just drags on too much.

Is this a love story? Not likely. More like a ‘lust story’. I know that this situation is faced by couples and nothing new and what can I expect from such a title?  Rather a disappointing book from by Danielle Steel. She always has been one of my favourite authors. I am seriously having second thoughts.