Summer's End by Danielle Steel

Another book on my summer reading list! This one, Summer's End, came to me by serendipity. I was heading home from the gym one afternoon after a brief spring rain, and spotted a shopping bag full of discarded paperbacks. Some of them were damaged by water and too soggy to be useful but at least a dozen were in good shape. I brought home a few of these and Summer's End was one of them.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

Summer's End was entertaining and not an overly serious book, although it includes a shocking tragedy that I found unnecessary. It's the story of Deanna, a bored and neglected wife, and the love affair she has with Ben, a true soulmate who shares her passion for art and encourages her to paint and show her work. This is in contrast to her stuffy and snooty husband, Marc, who considers artists to be "hippies" and has kept her in a gilded cage throughout their marriage. Even their teenage daughter, Pilar, has been turned against her and considers herself completely French despite having an American mother.

Marc, of course, is embroiled in a love affair over in Europe where he spends a great deal of his time, supposedly travelling on business. Deanna doesn't know this but she does know that the relationship is stale, and that Marc doesn't really appreciate her for the person she is. Ben is the man who sees the real Deanna and adores her.

The jarring tragedy is the death of Pilar late in the book. This comes as an ironic catalyst for getting Ben and Deanna together even though at first she leaves Ben and tries to be there for Marc, who is devastated. But soon Deanna realizes that Marc's love affair with the young and possessive Chantal is not over, and she comes to feel she has made a mistake in leaving Ben. And then there's her pregnancy and the delicate question of paternity...

That's one secret I won't give away, and I won't give away the ending though since it's a romance novel the ending is pretty predictable. It was an interesting book, probably out of print now since the copyright date is 1979, but for a romance reader, if you run across it, it's good beach reading.