Power Play

December 9, 2013
Through shrewdness and hard work, Fiona Carson has shattered the glass ceiling at a Palo Alto, Calif., tech company, NTA (National Technology Advancement), but that's not the only thing that sets her apart in the boardroom. What makes the intensely private 49-year-old CEO and divorced mother of two truly unique, as shown in this biting critique of the corporate gender gap, is her unwavering commitment to both job and family. Prolific bestseller Steel (Winners) elevates an otherwise formulaic tale of love, ambition, and loyalty by drawing a pointed contrast between Fiona's search for romantic happiness and that of duplicitous Marshall Weston. The San Francisco captain of industry keeps his 30-year-old mistress Ashley and their twin daughters in a house in Malibu, while maintaining appearances with his wife, Liz, and their three children in Marin. Marshall's thoughtless fling with an employee sets off a chain of events that exposes his double life, forces Ashley and Liz to re-evaluate their loyaltiesâand threatens the one thing the corporate titan loves above all else: himself. Steel expertly handles a well-paced morality tale while creating three starkly different heroines who share a common moral compass.

January 15, 2014
Steel's (Winners, 2013, etc.) latest contemporary romance targets the integrity of corporate executives. Connecting two powerful CEOs through their children's romantic involvement, the author uses her signature low-key, easy-to-read style to examine personal and professional morality. Fiona Carson and Marshall Weston have made it to the tops of their games with a lot of sweat equity, and both are respected leaders, but that's where the similarities end. Fiona is an accomplished divorcee and the mother of two well-balanced college students. She makes accessibility to her son and daughter a priority and rationalizes that she doesn't have room in her life for a man since her work and her children keep her busy and happy. When Pulitzer Prize winner Logan Smith, an investigative reporter, contacts Fiona for a story he's working on, she sees him as a good match for her older sister, Jillian. After all, Jillian's a psychiatrist who's working on a book about women in power, and both Jillian and Logan believe successful women in the business world conduct themselves very differently from their male counterparts. Marshall seems to exemplify that difference. While Fiona's a concerned parent and a by-the-book executive who would never compromise her principles, Marshall's actions reflect his questionable ethics. Married for 27 years to the same woman, he's been a decent provider to his wife and three children, and on the surface, he appears to achieve a perfect balance between family life and corporate duties. But looks can be deceiving. His eldest son despises him; his daughter's on a dubious path; and Marshall's hiding a secret life that threatens to harm the reputation of his company, destroy his marriage and damage others who depend on him. When he's forced to make an important decision, Marshall's loyalty to his company and loved ones is tested. Standard, appealing fare from Steel.

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January 1, 2014
In peak form, Steel examines the effects of power on the lives of male and female CEOs in this insightful, all-too realistic novel. Divorc'e Fiona Carson has only two priorities in her life: her two children and her corporation. Other than those focuses, her life might as well be spent in a convent. Her concern at the moment is finding the person on her board of directors who is leaking sensitive information to the press. CEO Marshall Weston is her opposite. He splits his out-of-office time between his two families: his wife and his three nearly grown children and his mistress and their seven-year-old twins. Marshall is able to keep all the balls in the air until a cancer-surviving former employee claims he bedded her and then fired her, and she's ready to tell her story to the press. Suddenly Marshall is on the denial trail, trying to keep his private life from imploding. Steel forthrightly juxtaposes the private lives of Fiona and Marshall to dramatize just how differently men and women handle corporate power and personal responsibility.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)