Two different worlds and two very different lives collide in Paris in this captivating novel by Danielle Steel.
Joachim
von Hartmann was born and raised in Buenos Aires by his loving German
mother, inseparable from his identical twin. When Joachim moves to Paris
with his mother in his late teens, his twin stays behind and enters a
dark world. Meanwhile, Joachim begins training to be a butler,
fascinated by the precision and intense demands, and goes on to work in
some of the grandest homes in England. His brother never reappears.
Olivia White has given ten years of her life to her magazine, which
failed, taking all her dreams with it. A bequest from her mother allows
her a year in Paris to reinvent herself. She needs help setting up a
home in a charming Parisian apartment. It is then that her path and
Joachim’s cross.
Joachim takes a job working for Olivia as a
lark and enjoys the whimsy of a different life for a few weeks, which
turn to months as the unlikely employer and employee learn they enjoy
working side by side. At the same time, Joachim discovers the family
history he never knew: a criminal grandfather who died in prison, the
wealthy father who abandoned him, and the dangerous criminal his twin
has become. While Olivia struggles to put her life back together,
Joachim’s comes apart.
Stripped of their old roles, they strive
to discover the truth about each other and themselves, first as
employer and employee, then as friends. Their paths no longer sure, they
are a man and woman who reach a place where the past doesn’t matter and
only what they are living now is true.
