About the Author

Barbara Taylor Bradford was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, and was a reporter for the Yorkshire Evening Post at sixteen. By the age of twenty she had graduated to London's Fleet Street as both an editor and columnist. In 1979, she wrote her first novel, A Woman of Substance, and that enduring bestseller was followed by 12 others: Voice of the Heart, Hold the Dream, Act of Will, To Be the Best, The Women in His Life, Remember, Angel, Everything to Gain, Dangerous to Know, Love in Another Town, Her Own Rules and A Secret Affair. Of these titles, ten have been made into television miniseries or are currently in production. Her novels have sold more than 56 million copies worldwide in more than 88 countries and 38 languages. Barbara Taylor Bradford lives in New York City and Connecticut with her husband, film producer Robert Bradford.

Reviews

Apparently not one to miss a trend or popular spin, Bradford (Everything to Gain) weaves some New Age mysticism into this atypically short tale, a gender-reversed May-September romance that starts slowly but winds up handily resolving a rash of complications. Tom Cruise look-alike Jake Cantrell is 28; Maggie Sorrell is 43, a Bradford-style woman of hard-won independence and strength. In small-town Connecticut, they meet as volunteers on a community production of The Crucible: electrical whiz Jake does the lighting; interior designer Maggie does the sets. Attraction is instant, but the age barrier must be surmounted before the couple consummate their love (an event depicted in graphic detail). Meanwhile, Jake is trying to wean Amy, his dependent, depressive high-school love, whom he wants to divorce after nine years of drag-down marriage. Maggie, too, is suffering: left by her now-former husband for a younger woman, she has lost the affections of her 21-year-old twins to their wealthy father. Although all the characters seem designed merely to induce feel-good vibes in the reader, Amy-a cancer patient-is relatively compelling in that she undergoes a near-death experience after an auto accident. The aftermath of her NDE-instant enlightenment and the ability to read the future-is far-fetched, but it's gooey and sweet as well: just the right icing for this light and fluffy love cake. 750,000 first printing; $1 million ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections; simultaneous HarperAudio; simultaneous large-print edition from G.K. Hall; author tour. (Nov.)