Winners

In Steel’s latest (after First Sight), Olympian hopeful Lily Thomas is injured in a freak ski-lift accident while on vacation in Squaw Valley. Her father, business tycoon Bill Thomas, refuses to accept that his talented daughter, on her way to the Ivy League, will never again walk—let alone ski. He blames Lily’s neurosurgeon, Jessie Matthews, for missing something and vows to go to the best specialists until he finds his miracle. Jessie understands how Bill feels, as she is forced to face new parenting challenges of her own when her husband is killed in a car crash the same night as Lily’s accident, leaving Jessie alone to care for her four children. Although Jessie and Bill start out as adversaries, they quickly become partners in Lily’s treatment and, as Bill plows ahead with his plans for a state-of-the-art rehab facility for kids, they become colleagues. Steel skillfully weaves the strands of the Matthews and Thomas families together in a layered story about loneliness and companionship that is marred only by stilted prose. Lily may be the patient, but all the adults are struggling with loneliness and the desire to feel important, needed, and relevant. Together, they discover friendship, loyalty, and new dreams. (Oct. 29)