An Angel's Wish

by Mary Kingsley

Book Overview

AN Angel's Wish (A Zebra regency romance) [Oct 01, 2001] Kingsley, Mary This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0821769987
• ISBN13: 9780821769980
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Zebra Books
• Length: 253 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Not your typical "formula" historical.

A really engrossing story. A happy outcome seems hopeless at times but, eventually, all is resolved in a satisfying (but realistic) manner. The story builds believably, layer by layer, and the characters are revealed in the same subtle way (and without a lot of psychobabble). I, being a die-hard romantic, would have preferred a more detailed ending (less elegance and more kissing) but still, it's the kind of book you miss and keep thinking about after you finish it.

a poignant read

David Fairfax, the Marquess of Stowe, is facing one of the biggest dilemmas of his life: his beloved six year old daughter, Jennie, has just informed her father that all she wants for Christmas is to be able to meet the mother she has never known. Almost six years ago, Tess Harwood, informed her husband that she wanted to end their marriage. The divorce proceedings proved to be a nightmare, and the end result was that Tess was exiled to the country, and forbidden to come up to London or to have any kind of dealings with Jennie at all. And now, six years later, Jennie wants to see Tess! With much misgivings, David writes to inform Tess that both he and Jennie, together with a house party will be at his Yorkshire estate, Stowcroft, for Christmas, and that Tess will be allowed to see Jennie for the duration of their stay.For Tess, this is an opportunity she never dreamt possible -- to (finally) have access to the child she never thought she would have to give up when she ended her marriage. Seeing her daughter and David again brings up all kinds of feelings in Tess: anger and resentment at David for having taken Jennie from her when their marriage ended, yet feeling regret and remorse for all the pain she caused him; and she never dreamt she could feel so much love Jennie. And while she realises that she is still in love with David, she doubts if she will ever be able to convince him that she ended the marriage for his own good. For there are secret demons in Tess's past that forced her to act as she did. And anyway, too much time, pain and anger lies between them. Or so Tess believes. Add to that the complication that David seems all set to marry a young widow, Emily Granfield, and that Tess's old beau, Adrian Rawley, seems to be hanging about an awful lot, and you have a Christmas party positively heavy with emotion! Can Tess and David look past all the old hurts and anger, in order to work out their differences? Will they admit to each other that they still care for each other so that Jennie's secret Christmas wish to have her family reunited can come true?At first glance, "An Angel's Wish" by Mary Kingsley seems like a rather somber tale of how a very forceful little girl sets out to bring her at odds parents together. However while the premise is a little dark (all the anger and anguish that David and Tess feel for and towards each other resonates throughout the pages and does preclude catergorising this novel as 'light' Regency fare), the manner in which the authour explores the entire theme of a mother and daughter getting to know each other was extremely well done, and inspired. And at first, when I got to the end of the novel when all is explained as to why Tess abandoned her marriage, I did feel a little let down. No fault of the authour's: I'd been reading too many mystery and gothic novels just before I'd embarked on "An Angel's Wish" and so was all geared up for the Big Revelation. But when I thought about it a little more, I realised t