Aspiring architect Annie Ferguson was dealt the tremendous task of raising her two nieces and a nephew following the death of her older sister and her husband in an airplane explosion. Annie's life was set aside to devote her attention to the children. Sixteen years later, Annie has started her own successful architectural firm in New York with many elite clients. The children are adults now; Lizzie is a success with Vogue, Ted is in college studying law and the always-independent Katie is a designer.
Just when Annie thinks her worries are over, each of her wards upsets the balance. Now she has to set aside her own needs to deal with Lizzie's determination to never love again after the loss of her parents, Ted's sexual involvement with a psychotic older woman and Katie's dangerous involvement with an Iranian student. The beginning of Annie's life starts with a trip to the emergency room with a sprained ankle where she meets TV anchor man Tom Jefferson with a broken arm. Annie finally finds her kindred spirit, which helps to teach her she must let those she loves go in order for them to grow and learn their lessons in finding happiness.
This very nostalgic story is beautifully written and portrays a wonderful woman who devotes her entire life to her sister's children at her own expense. Learning to let go and allow them to make their own mistakes is Annie's hardest mission yet. Danielle Steel has written another exciting and heartfelt story of love, complete with imagination and thrills.
Annie Ferguson was a bright young Manhattan architect.
Talented, beautiful, just starting out with her first job,
new apartment and boyfriend, she had the world in the palm
of her handβuntil a single phone call altered the course of
her life forever. Overnight, she became the mother to her
sisterβs three orphaned children, keeping a promise she
never regretted making, even if it meant putting her own
life indefinitely on hold.Now, at forty-two, as
independent as ever, with a satisfying career and a family
that means everything to her, Annie is comfortable being
single and staying that way. She appears to have no time for
anything else. With her nephew and nieces now young adults
and confronting major challenges of their own, Annie is
navigating a parentβs difficult passage between lending them
a hand and letting go, and suddenly facing an empty nest.
The eldest, twenty-eight-year-old Liz, an overworked,
struggling editor in a high-powered job at Vogue, has never
allowed any man to come close enough to hurt her. Ted, at
twenty-four a serious and hardworking law student, is
captivated by a much older, much more experienced woman with
children, who is leading him much further than he wants to
go. And the youngest, twenty-one-year-old Katieβimpulsive,
artistic, rebelliousβis an art student about to make a
choice that will lead her to an entirely different world she
is in no way prepared for but determined to
embrace.Then, just when least expected, a chance
encounter changes Annieβs life yet again in the most
unexpected direction of all. From Manhattan to
Paris and all the way to Tehran, Family Ties is a novel that reminds us how challenging and
unpredictable life can be, and that the powerful bonds of
family are the strongest of all.
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