Always Is Not Forever By Helen Van Slyke

Always is not Forever When Susan Langdon, a beautiful, independent young journalist, marries the man of her dreams, world-famous concert pianist Richard Antonini, she little realises the heartbreak to follow. For her handsome and talented husband is also the spoiled darling of a dynasty of temperamental musical geniuses, and she must put his music and his public image above all else – even her own happiness. She must share him with an adoring public, a succession of glamorous mistresses and, above all, with Maria Antonini, the strong-willed matriarch who has engineered her son’s success and will stop at nothing to keep control of his life. This powerful and moving novel, set against the fascinating and brittle world of the musical elite, describes an extraordinary family – its passions and triumphs, its tensions and failures, and its effect on the outsider who has yet to discover that always is not forever.