Jewels by Danielle Steel (Hardcover, 1992)

Jewels By Danielle Steel. A journey through five eventful decades, Jewels, Danielle Steel's twenty-ninth work of fiction, is the story of a family whose lives are woven into the fabric of history. On the eve of Sarah Whitfield's seventy-fifth birthday, she stands at the window of her château bedroom in France, waiting for her fam ily to join her. As she watches her children and grandchildren arrive, Sarah is reminded of the years that have brought her to this moment. Sarah's memories take her back to New York in the 1930s, where she was raised in Manhattan and Southampton, a beautiful young woman. with a magnetic personality and rare intelli-gence. But when her marriage to a childhood friend ends after just one year, Sarah is shattered and ashamed. She turns inward and withdraws. In a time when only "that" woman, Wallis Simp-son. the Duchess of Windsor, took such a shameful step, divorce becomes Sarah's guilty secret. After great protest, Sarah's parents finally convince her to join them on a trip abroad. And despite the growing turmoil in prewar Europe, they set sail on the Queen Mary