Author:Danielle Steel

'Watch out, world. Here I come!'
For Victoria Dawson, growing up isn't a happy experience. Born to picture-perfect parents, she never feels pretty enough. But when her parents have a second child, Victoria is thrilled - she can't help but adore her new baby sister Gracie. And her parents finally have the perfect daughter they always wanted. Meanwhile Victoria still never seems to get it quite right - she battles with her weight, she's told she'll never find a man if she's too clever, and the one career she feels passionate about her parents don't approve of.
And so Victoria decides to move to New York to fulfil her dreams and escape her family. Though her new life is exciting, the old temptations remain, and she continues to wage war with the scales.
Can Victoria find a life far from the hurt and neglect of her childhood, embrace the courage to find freedom, and become who she really is at last?
An inspiring and uplifting novel from the incomparable storyteller Danielle Steel
A story for all sisters and slimmers!
—— WomanA young writer to watch
—— V. S. NaipaulNaipaul's praise is rare enough to be notable; and Taseer lives up to it. Among the sharpest and best-written fictions about contemporary India
—— IndependentA coolly accomplished, pulsating account of modern-day Delhi
—— GuardianScathingly comic, disquieting, ironical. Vicious fun
—— SpectatorPart thriller, part investigation of male friendship, part exploration of the tension between traditional values and modern liberalism in Indian society. Assured, engaging, highly readable
—— Sunday TimesA subtle, cleverly observed comedy of manners that turns into an altogether edgier and more sinister narrative
—— Literary ReviewA brooding tale . . . desire, greed and murder all feature
—— Daily MailThe most life-changing novel
—— StylistI read it with entire interest and enjoyment, and learned a lot about H. G. Wells
—— Sam Leith , SpectatorLodge is to be congratulated for having filled [Wells's affairs] in with the relevant novelistic detail... It is a testimony to Lodge's powers that even a reader familiar with, frankly, the ins and outs of Wells's life will have trouble picking out the novel's imagined moments
—— Daily Express[Lodge's] Wells is a complex, humane figure, driven by a mixture of rebellion against stultifying Victorian values, belief in a better was of shaping society and callous, hypocritical self-interest. It's an intriguing study of a time when many of the values that are bulwarks of our society were in their infancy
—— MetroA racy...account of a life lived against the mainstream which makes one long to read Wells again
—— Alan Taylor , HeraldAn interesting experiment and well suited to a subject who does have quite a bit of explaining to do
—— Independent on SundayA treat of a read, not least because of the wonderful, rolling ease with which Lodge writes. Or, rather, with which it reads - prose like this does not come without effort.
—— Daily MailSex-charged whopper on the life and works of HG Wells
—— The WordColourful characters and outrageous events abound. Confident, pacy writing keeps the reader wondering what Wells will get up to next and pondering the complex relationships to which he seems addicted
—— Michael Sherborne , Literary ReviewVery, very good.... So confidently are facts and flights of imaginative fancy interwoven that readers will find themselves unwilling - and unable - to distinguish between the two
—— Country LifeConsistently absorbing and enjoyable. I doubt whether a better way could have been found to bring the phenomenon that was H. G. Wells to life
—— Allan Massie , Stand PointBiographical fiction is on an upswing, to judge by this lively novel, faithful to the facts but free to interpret feelings
—— SagaA Man of Parts has the lovely, loquacious qualities that typify eccentric wonders such as The War of the Worlds and The History of Mr Polly. David Lodge reminds us that Wells, an imperfect man, is still a worthy witness to his own world and to those worlds that may yet to come.
—— Andrew Tate , Third Way MagazineLodge understands the Edwardian literary and political scene extremely well, and traces Wells's entanglements with the louche world of Fabians and free lovers with real intimacy
—— Times Literary SupplementAs protean, elusive but compelling as it's hero, David Lodge's bio-novel about HG Wells breaks all the rules but still grips the reader - like Wells himself
—— Boyd Tonkin , IndependentA wry, racy and absorbing biographical novel
—— Benjamin Evans , Telegraph, Seven MagazineLodge knows how to tease the inner man out from behind the historical figure, subjecting Wells to probing interviews throughout the book in which his deeper beliefs and contradictions are laid bare
—— Alastair Mabbot , HeraldThis fictionalised version of HG Wells dramatises the author's life, which was full of politics, writing and women
—— Daily TelegraphDavid Lodge's HG Wells was both a visionary and a chancer; as arrogant as he was insecure; with as many noble goals as base instincts; a mass of very human contradictions; as Lodge has it, a man of parts
—— Sunday Express






