The Angel Tree

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The Angel Tree is a powerful story of family mysteries and forgotten pasts, from Lucinda Riley, international bestselling author of the Seven Sisters series.

Thirty years have passed since Greta left Marchmont Hall, a grand and beautiful house nestled in the hills of rural Wales. But after a tragic accident, more than two decades of her life have vanished from memory. When she returns to the Hall for Christmas, she has no recollection of her past there.

Then, during a walk through the wintry landscape, Greta stumbles across a grave in the woods. Though the inscription is weathered, the headstone still tells her: a little boy is buried here.

The discovery strikes a chord in Greta's mind, igniting a quest to recover her lost memories. A quest that will take her deeper into her own life, and that of her daughter . . .

'Sweeping, absorbing, beautifully written and utterly compelling' - Lancashire Evening Post

A version of this story has previously been published under the title Not Quite an Angel , under the name Lucinda Edmonds - now extensively rewritten as The Angel Tree .

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

The Welsh country lifestyle intersects with the tarnished glitter of the entertainment world in this British-focused story that spans the 40 years following World War II. Rife with secrets and tragedy and more family saga than pure romance, this rewritten narrative with a historical feel includes enough poignant love interest to appeal to romance and women's fiction fans. First published in 1995 as Not Quite an Angel under the pen name Lucinda Edmonds. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

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. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

It's been more than two decades since the accident that erased Greta Marchmont's memories. She reluctantly agrees to spend Christmas 1985 at Marchmont Hall, the home of her long-dead husband, which now belongs to his nephew, Greta's friend, David. The last thing Greta expects is for her memories to return, but when she happens upon the gravestone of her deceased son, Jonny, she starts to recall her life. We learn that, once a penniless showgirl in London, Greta was left pregnant by an American soldier. David, then just beginning his career as a comic, sent Greta to Marchmont to give birth in peace. There she met David's uncle, Owen, who proposed to her and offered to bring up her twins as his own. But she was troubled by the way Owen so obviously favored Jonny over Cheska, and after the boy's death, she was forced to return to London with her daughter. Cheska became a child star, but as the years go by, her emotional instability becomes more evident. This page-turning, multigenerational sudser by best-selling Riley (The Storm Sister, 2016) will appeal to fans of Barbara Taylor Bradford and Penny Vincenzi.--Huntley, Kristine Copyright 2016 Booklist