A Letter from Danielle for May ’26
Hello Everyone,
Happy May Day!! I hope life is rolling smoothly for you. May has always been one of my favorite months. It’s a time for renewal, with flowers bursting into bloom and the weather finally getting warmer. It’s such a gentle, pretty month.
My son Nick was born on May 1st, which has always made it a special date for me. In France, it’s the day when flower vendors line every street corner, selling sprigs of delicate, fragrant lilies of the valley to give to friends and loved ones for good luck. The whole city of Paris smells of lily of the valley on that day. It’s a lovely tradition. My son Trevor has a May birthday too.
(We have a lot of birthdays in our family—there are only three months of the year when we don’t have any!!)
Mother’s Day is in May too—another one of my favorite days!! It’s a time to celebrate the mother figures in our lives, as well as our biological mothers—women who have been important to us, kind to us, and who have cheered us on. When choosing meaningful books, it’s wonderful to honor the special women we admire and respect, who have made an important difference in our lives.
There have been several very significant older women in my life who loved and mentored me at different times. I try to choose books for Mother’s Day that honor those relationships—stories that pay homage to the standout influences and people we admire.
A Woman’s Place is one of those books. It’s about a young woman whose kind, much older, widowed aristocrat father adores her and, as he is about to die, entrusts her care and well-being to a close friend. His friend takes this responsibility seriously and watches over her after her father’s death—a huge loss for her.
Her father’s friend is an unusual companion for an aristocrat. He is one of the most successful industrialists of his time in the early 1900s, in a class of his own, and shunned by high society for his factories and industries. He takes the young woman under his wing, and in time, they marry. The upper echelons of London society close their doors to her, and she becomes a social outcast as the industrialist’s wife.
Recognizing how bright she is, he teaches her the ins and outs of his textile business. Within a short time, she is widowed, and there is no one to take his place. The wife he trained steps up to run the business, meeting the challenge and taking her place in a male-dominated world. She faces threats from coworkers, ridicule, and opposition from male employees. She must contend with hostile factory workers and dangerous strikes, and when World War I erupts, she bravely figures out how to staff her factories entirely with women. She becomes more than she ever dreamed possible.
It’s a story about courage, daring to enter a whole new world and mastering it—as only an exceptional woman can. I hope you love the book and share it with the women you respect and admire.
And at the end of May, For Richer For Poorer will be released in trade paperback. It’s about two brilliantly successful people—a man and a woman—who face the collapse of their respective businesses during COVID. They meet and find a way to reinvent themselves, helping each other bring their dreams to life again. Another fun read for you!!
Have a beautiful month of May.
Love,
Danielle