In the picturesque mountains of Squaw Valley, Colorado, a girl’s dreams are about to be shattered. At just seventeen, Lily Thomas is already a ski champion training for the Olympics, her heart set on winning the gold. But in one moment, Lily’s future is changed forever – her hopes for Olympic triumph swept away in a tragic accident. Her father, Bill, refuses to accept Lily’s fate, while her neurosurgeon, Dr Jessie Matthews, is adamant that all hope is not lost. But when Jessie endures a tragedy of her own, her spirit is truly tested. Then Bill decides to build a rehab facility for his daughter and transforms countless other lives too. But will courage and kindness be enough to make winners of them all?
Record details
ISBN:9780440245254 (pbk.) :
ISBN:9780385343220 (hc.) :
ISBN:0385343221 (acid-free paper)
Physical Description:334 p. ; 25 cm. print
Edition:1st edition.
Publisher:New York : Delacorte Press ; Dell, c2013.
Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2013 September #1 Chronicling the first year after tragedy strikes two families, Steel's latest grapples with the long, painful road to recovery. When a Tahoe ski lift breaks with Olympic hopeful Lily and her coach onboard, the coach is killed and Lily severely injured. Lily's operated on by neurosurgeon Dr. Jessie Mathews, who determines that the girl's spinal-cord injury means that Lily will never walk again, much less compete in the Olympics. Lily's single-parent father, Bill, is devastated, since Lily has been his life after his wife's death. Unbeknownst to Jessie, while she's operating on Lily, her husband, Tim, and son Jimmy are in a car accident. Tim dies instantly; Jimmy survives without injury. While Jessie works to keep her four children from despair, Bill first goes through total denial, and then, when Jessie's diagnosis is confirmed by other doctors and Lily is in Denver's Craig Hospital, he decides to build Lily Pad, a center for young spinal-cord patients. Steel's unflinching look at the highs and lows of Bill's and Jessie's lives will leave readers crying and cheering. Copyright 2013 Booklist Reviews.
Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2013 June #4
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 walkâlet 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)
Book
