Once in a Lifetime (1982)

Once in a Lifetime by Danielle Steel
Author Daphne Fields was struck by a car and her flashbacks she has of all the extreme heartache over the years she suffered.
The story of her life then is told to us...Christmas eve and the annual party of her friends Daphne is there. On her walk home she is hit by a car and a nurse at the hospital knows who she is and she loves her books and they have made a difference in her life.
Her past college life, getting married to Jeff, having a baby Amy, fire on Christmas that took them away from her but left her pregnant with a baby boy 9 months later. He's deaf and mute and others want to institutionalized.
She finds love again as she lives close by where her child is being raised in the school with kids his age...
Her novel takes off and she does the screenplay in LA with visits to Andrew and sometimes he comes to her. Her love life was going good til she returns one trip. She's always confided in Matthew who spends more time with her son than she...
Love the places this book took me to and the story behind it all. Just a handful of characters, easy to keep track of who is who.
Lots of heartache and pain and faith she will find another 'once in a lifetime' love..
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device). ( )

This was on a recommendation list for women's fiction, so, despite Steel's reputation, I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, I found this book confirms her reputation for writing forgettable trash. The novel is fronted by a truly treacly poem of the author that makes the text of Hallmark Cards seem Shakespearean in comparison. The heroine, Daphne Fields, is an obvious Mary Sue (glamorized projection of the author.) Beyond the similarity of names, she's described as a "notoriously prolific" and popular novelist. The prose commits the sins of designer-label name dropping, is cliched and melodramatic. Within the first five pages we have sentences like this: "She was quieter, the laughter of the past only showed now in glimpses in her eyes, its echo buried somewhere in her soul." "There was a loneliness in the woman's eyes, which tore at your very soul." Truly--this is a wretchedly written book and I will never understand why the author has such a following. ( )