The Angel Tree
-
-
4.4 • 115 Ratings
-
-
- $10.99
Publisher Description
Thirty years have passed since Greta Marchmont left the mansion in which she had once found a home. Now she returns to Marchmont Hall in the snowy mountains of Wales - but she has no memory of her past because, since a tragic accident, she suffers from amnesia. But a walk through the wintry landscape leads to a disturbing discovery: she comes across a grave in the forest, and the weathered inscription on the cross tells her that a little boy is buried here - her own son.
Greta begins to make the search for the woman she once was. However, a truth comes out that is so shocking that Greta must summon the greatest courage of her life . . .
*First published as Not Quite an Angel under the name Lucinda Edmonds, now extensively reworked*
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
U.K.-based bestseller Riley (The Seven Sisters) applied years of writing perspective to this rewrite of her 1995 novel, Not Quite an Angel (written as Lucinda Edmonds), and the story shines through her smooth prose. But its expansion into a nearly 700-page behemoth is unjustified even by its sweeping melodrama, stretching across three generations of women from WWII into the 1980s. The story is too shallow and linear for an extended family chronicle and not nearly tight enough for a thriller. Greta Marchmont, who's had amnesia for 20 years following an accident, returns with her best friend (and nephew by marriage), David Marchmont, to the estate in Wales where she spent her early adulthood. She stumbles across the gravestone of her young son, Jonny, and suddenly begins to recall her life's events. She remembers that she struggled to raise Jonny's disturbed twin sister, child star Cheska, by herself; to her shock, she realizes that she harbored romantic feelings for David. The novel's framing, the roughly chronological revelation of decades of history, and the book's length leave readers slogging through endless details to get to the plot points they know must be there.
Customer Reviews
The Angel Tree
Another one of Lucinda’s that had me captivated till the end!