Short description
To look at one was to see the other. For family, even the girls' own father, it was a constant guessing game. For strangers, the surprise was overwhelming. And for twins Olivia and Victoria, coming of age at the turn of the century, their bond was mysterious, marvelous, and often playful - a secret realm only they inhabited.
Long description
To look at one was to see the other. For family, even the girls' own father, it was a constant guessing game. For strangers, the surprise was overwhelming. And for twins Olivia and Victoria, coming of age at the turn of the century, their bond was mysterious, marvelous, and often playful - a secret realm only they inhabited. Shy, serious Olivia, born eleven minutes before her sister, had taken over the role of mother in their lush New York estate. Free-spirited Victoria wanted to change the world, and embraced the women's suffrage movement, dreaming of sailing to war-torn Europe. Then, in the girls' twenty-first year, as the First World War escalated overseas, a fateful choice changed their lives forever. Handsome lawyer Charles Dawson came into their lives to try to save the reputation of Victoria, whose life was about to become a public scandal.Still mourning the death of his wife aboard the Titanic, struggling to raise his nine-year old son, Charles was determined never to lose his heart again. An irrevocable step took one of the twins to the battlefields of France, and the other into a marriage she longed for but thought she could not have. From Manhattan society to the trenches of war-torn France, Mirror Image moves elegantly and dramatically through a rich and troubled era. With startling insight, Danielle Steel explores women's choices: between home and adventure, between the love for family and the passion for a cause, between sacrifice and desire.
Review
With 370 million books in print, Steel's 45th novel arrives even while her last four titles wait like gold bricks in Dell's paperback inventory. Mirror Image tells of Olivia and Victoria Henderson, identical twins born in 1893, such close look-alikes that even their bewildered, widower father can't tell them apart - an unlikelihood one must just accept. Toss out grammar as well; the first paragraph, describing Edward Henderson's home and family, tells us that Nestled as they were in Croton-on-Hudson . . . his attorneys came to see him fairly often. But Steel's golden drone captures readers and laughs at criticism. The story here opens with the twins at age 20, Olivia caring for the house while Victoria flies about, rides horses, smokes boldly, drives cars, and stumps for women's suffrage. Olivia carries herself like the shy young spinster-heiress of Washington Square; Victoria goes out and gets pregnant by married Toby Whitticomb, then has an abortion. Meanwhile, among the guests at the Hendersons' is widower lawyer Charles Dawson, whose wife went down on the Titanic. Olivia feels a deep attachment for him, but Edward Henderson chooses Charles to marry Victoria and save her reputation. Even so, married Victoria still carries the torch for that bastard Toby, while Charles can't forget his first wife. As for Olivia, whom Charles can't tell from Victoria, well, if you can't guess what happens next you haven't been alive for a very long time. Cliche follows ever bolder cliche as the Steel style grinds out its mellow surprises for the blissfully half-asleep. (Kirkus Reviews)