Author : Danielle Steel
Publisher : MacMillan (UK)
Release : 2025
Prix / Price : 11,99 € (Ebook)
Reading time : 5 hours (72.000 words)
Alexandra Bouvier is born in Paris in 1900, at the dawn of a new century. From an early age, she is encouraged to think for herself by her enlightened family: her father, a French doctor; her mother, an American nurse; and her maternal grandfather a highly regarded newspaperman back in the Midwest.
At age fourteen, Alex’s comfortable life is upended as war erupts across Europe. Her parents follow their sense of duty to the front, performing triage at a field hospital and confronting the horrors of poison gas and trench warfare. The merciless fighting, coupled with the fast-spreading Spanish flu, wreaks havoc on the continent, as well as on Alex’s loved ones. By the time she is eighteen, she has suffered unimaginable losses.
With her grandfather’s support, she attends the University of Chicago and decides to follow his footsteps into journalism. As a newspaper intern she meets reporter Oliver Foster, who is covering the gang wars sparked by Prohibition. He too has known devastating loss, and the two are drawn to each other, though both fear any attachment. As it turns out, Alex has good reason to be cautious.
It had been over fifteen years since I had seriously read a novel in English — not since the release of the final Harry Potter book. Ironically, I switched to digital reading three years ago, yet 90% of the books I still own in print are in English. The truth is, British hardcovers are simply stunning — a far cry from the often underwhelming paperback editions published in French.
As a devoted reader of Danielle Steel — I own over fifty of her novels in their British editions — I finally took the plunge and left behind the language of Molière. Ten pages. That’s all it took for me to forget I was even reading in another language. Not because my English is flawless, but because Danielle Steel’s storytelling is so immersive. She has a rare gift for creating characters we can instantly relate to — deeply and genuinely.
The first half of the novel moved me profoundly. I quickly grew attached to Alexandra Bouvier, a young woman who is both brilliant and vulnerable, determined and wounded. I felt as though I were walking through her struggles with her — as if her story was unfolding not on the page, but within me. Fiction had become a mirror.
I’m fortunate to still have my grandmother, who will soon turn 90. She often shares with me her experiences during the war, and stories about her parents. My great-grandfather was a member of the resistance; my great-grandmother, who was deported, saved numerous children from certain death. Their legacy is a beacon. Reading Alexandra’s journey brought back that emotional weight, and I found myself in tears for much of the book.
Danielle Steel has a trademark style: poignant tragedies often softened by hope, illuminated by love. A Mind of Her Ownfits perfectly into that tradition — but it carries something more. A deeper intensity. A unique spark. An unforgettable quality.
As someone deeply committed to promoting equality in all forms, I was also shaken by the reminder that less than a century ago, women had virtually no rights. And even now, in 2025, they still aren’t paid equally. When will humanity finally understand that equality isn’t an ideal — it’s a necessity?
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