NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • What might have been? That tantalizing question propels a woman on a cross-country adventure to reunite with the men she loved and let go, in Danielle Steel’s exhilarating new novel. It all starts with a fall from a ladder, in a firehouse in New York City. The firehouse has been converted into a unique Manhattan home and studio where renowned photographer Madison Allen … renowned photographer Madison Allen works and lives after raising three children on her own. But the accident, which happens while Maddie is sorting through long-forgotten personal mementos and photos, results in more than a broken ankle. It changes her life.
Spurred by old memories, the forced pause in her demanding schedule, and an argument with her daughter that leads to a rare crisis of confidence, Maddie embarks on a road trip. She hopes to answer questions about the men she loved and might have married—but didn’t—in the years after she was left alone with three young children. Wearing a cast and driving a rented SUV, she sets off to reconnect with three very different men—one in Boston, one in Chicago, and another in Wyoming—to know once and for all if the decisions she made long ago were the right ones. Before moving forward into the future, she is compelled to confront the past.
As the miles and days pass, and with each new encounter, Maddie’s life comes into clearer focus and a new future takes shape. A deeply felt story about love, motherhood, family, and fate, Lost and Found is an irresistible new novel from America’s most dynamic storyteller.
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Maddie was a successful world renowned photographer, who people begged to her take their picture from Presidents, Famous People, High End Magazine Covers, and even for story about natural disasters and war torn countries. She was 58 and on top of her game in her professional world. In her personal life she didn’t really have one, she kept herself busy with work not to feel the loneliness. Her three children were frown and lead their own busy and recluse lives and has very little time for Maddie.
Maddie has a accident while she was alone and her oldest went a little crazy telling her mom she was too old to love alone, too fragile to live in her beloved firehouse home, that she needed to retire, sell her home and get a live in helper. Maddie was so hurt and dejected from these rants, she started to doubt her life choices now and in her past. During her a consent she stumbled upon a box of old love letters and photos of her 3 past loves. She began question if her decided to put her kids and career first where always the right choice.
This doubt lead Maddie on a road trip to visit this 3 men. Each had brought love and life to her when they were together. She learned as she visited her past, she had always made the right choices for herself and them. She was on the right path and she loved her life even if her daughter and children didn’t like them.
She meet a writer along her journey, he told her she was not old and needing of help, she was strong and capable of working until she was not. Their friendship grew quickly, his support and encouragement lead her to better relationships with her children and grandchildren.
So even though she lost people and things in her life, in the end of her journey to found herself, happiness, love and acceptance.
Slightly disappointed her writing has not been as moving but being ok shows how independent woman can find all they want regardless there age situation
Madison is a 58 year old woman who’s children are grown. She has a successful career as a photographer. When she falls off a ladder and breaks her leg she examines her past life and wonders about the men that she dated but never married. She started a cross country trip to meet the men and see if her past decisions were good ones or not.
An eye-opening journey of love, forgiveness and expendability. With her trademark story-weaving, Danielle Steel quickly whisked this reader’s heart up and carried it along throughout the book. The characters were very connectable, and though the story took some unexpected turns, it was easy to follow and left you wanting more with each turning of the page. It was bittersweet, emotional and had a lighthearted depth in the end. I loved every minute of it!
Madison Allen felt she had lived a fulfilling life until an argument with her eldest daughter led her to question her place in the world at this stage in her life. After a household injury sidelines her from her career for a few weeks, and at her wits end with the envisionment her daughter put into her head of old age and life being over, Maddie sets out on a cross-country drive to put her life into perspective. A walk down memory lane via a box of old photos and letters has her reminiscing about the three men that passed in and out of her life in the years following her divorce as she was raising her three kids alone. She sets out to look up each man and verify in her heart that the decisions she made to get her to this place in her life were justified.
The first couple of visits had her comfortable with the choices she had made, and just as the third visit was on the horizon, a curve ball was thrown and an emotional fallout ensues. In the end, it all comes down to her deciding how much living she still wants to get out of life, and how to fit all of the pieces of her world into the area she wants to revolve.
Third book I read of this writer and first in which the protagonists are in their fifties. Another challenge fulfilled to get out of my comfort zone in just reading romance and young adults . I loved every second, every page, every moment of reflection.
Maddie is a workaholic mother of three grown children who has always cherished her own independence and her children’s too. Living alone in a former firestation, she finds fascinating and rewarding the choices she made in life. When she falls down a ladder in the middle of the night and twists her ankle, she finds herself facing loneliness and when she hears from her daughter that she needs care because she is aging and the house where she lives presents many dangers, she decides to run away for a while and look for old boyfriends to know if she really made the right choices in life.
As she crosses the United States and re-encounters people who have been important in her life, she rediscovers herself and at the same time reconnects with her children in ways she did not imagine was still possible.
Maddie’s journey made me think at several times on my own journey and on my mother’s journey. At various times, I saw myself in the characters and began to question my behavior. Often, we say that we need to enjoy every second with people we love, but we let our lives goon and on and we really do not enjoy the presence of people that much. Lost and Found brings a touching and thrilling story about being lost and finding yourself beyond letting yourself be found.
The bonds that are gradually being retaken in Maddie’s family show how essential in life love is either familiar or sexual. I found it very beautiful how smooth the writer presents Maddie with a new chance to love and to love herself and to realize that when one really is willing to love everything is possible in this life.
It is never late to restart .
One minor household accident is all it takes to change Madison Allen’s perspective on life. As a vibrant, successful photographer in her late 50’s, Maddie’s life is busy and productive until she falls off a ladder one evening. The resulting broken ankle and its fallout leave her feeling vulnerable and insecure. As she takes a little time to heal, she ponders what might have been in her life.
Her retrospection about the men in her life leads her on a road trip that will aid her in regaining her self-confidence and reinforcing her earlier decisions. Not only will she explore her past, she will meet the potential of a new future along the way. Join Maddie on her journey across country as she explores old loves; renews broken family relationships; and makes new acquaintances.
I enjoyed this book very much because I could relate so well to Maddie, her age, and her issues. The story serves as a great reminder that age does not have to define us.
This ARC copy was received from Delacorte Press and Netgalley.com. The above thoughts and opinions are wholly my own.