Daughters of Fortune. Tara Hyland

I was expecting this book to be a YA novel along the lines of Gossip Girl based on the front and back covers. I quickly found out it's anything but. Sure, it starts off with teenagers away at boarding school, but it quickly develops into a tale that takes place over a 14 year span in the lives of three sisters. This book is a look into how personalities are shaped and how life's events can change a person. Daughters of Fortune is the perfect blend of heartbreaking sadness, deep love, and the power of family. It's the perfect blend of YA fiction, chick lit, and drama. I highly recommend this book and dare you not to be touched by the lives of the Melville sisters.

With her mother on the verge of death, 15-year-old Caitlin O'Dwyer believes she is alone in the world. But a startling deathbed confession reveals that the father Caitlin thought was dead is really alive and well, and living in England. Caitlin, the product of her mother's affair with a married man, is now going to meet her father for the very first time. William Melville is just as surprised to learn of Caitlin's existence as she is of his. Little did he know that the love of his life, Katie O'Dwyer, gave birth to their child all those years ago. While he may have failed Katie in life, he'll be darned if he is going to leave their daughter wanting in any way. He brings the dark, voluptuous beauty who is the image of her mother home from her native Ireland to live with his wife and two legitimate daughters, Elizabeth and Amber, at the sprawling family home Aldringham in Somerset, England. The welcome Caitlin receives at Aldringham is anything but warm. While she finds her father's wife to be an understanding woman, her half-sisters are more foes than friends, and her father is away more than he is home running the family fashion empire, Melville's. Sensitive and artistic Caitlin is left to find her own way in the world, albeit with more money than before but with much less love and guidance. She doesn't fit into this world of wealth and privilege, yet is expected to make her place as best she can. Elizabeth --- the eldest sister, a cool, blonde beauty --- is an overachiever who lives only to garner her father's attention and finds Caitlin to be a definite rival for his affection. Amber --- the youngest sister, a blonde, wide-eyed angel, to all appearances --- follows the lead of her sister, and neither becomes close to the lonely and grieving Caitlin. Over the years, the girls each go their own ways, and differing careers lead them to such varied locales as London, Paris, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and New York City. While they may have dreams and goals to pursue, Melville's and their relationship with their father are always there beckoning them back home if only they will heed the call. DAUGHTERS OF FORTUNE is an amazing tale of three rich and privileged girls born into a world of fame and fortune most of us will never know. This is a story that will keep readers riveted throughout and touch their hearts as Elizabeth, Caitlin, and Amber struggle to find their true identity and their place in the family and the family business. In spite of their attempts to separate from the family, they find out in the long run that the bonds of blood run deep, and it is not as easy to turn their backs on each other as they may have hoped. This is a story of one scandal after another, and juicy, salacious storylines abound. I defy you to take more than a couple of days to read this one because it simply isn't possible.

In 1974 in Valleymount, Ireland, single mom Katie O'Dwyer dies. On her deathbed she informs her beloved fifteen year old daughter that her father is London based retailer William Melville. They had an affair that he ended just before Caitlin's birth. William attends Katie's funeral and informs his daughter that she will move into the family estate in Somerset. William's wife Isabelle resents her husband's illegitimate daughter and their spoiled daughters, Elizabeth and Amber, treat her as if she is beneath them. At her new school, Caitlin is drugged and gang-raped, but decides not to have the animals arrested. Instead over the years she struggles to adjust from a middle class existence to an affluent one. She finishes her schooling and goes to Paris to study fashion design before traveling to New York to prove her talent. Elizabeth becomes a chip off her dad's block with her business acumen that she hopes to use to win daddy's approval; and Amber becomes a supermodel with emotional issues that lead to out of control behavior. When the focus is on the three sisters and their struggles to make it in their chosen fields and how they relate to their parents (stepmother obviously in Caitlin's case), the story line is a terrific family saga. When the plot spotlights other family members, it feels intrusive as too much of a soap opera spin occurs. Still the siblings are wonderfully complete as each has personal issues and flaws while trying to make it independently and eventually in unity. Harriet Klausner