Parting Gifts

by Charlotte Vale Allen

Book Overview

On the day of her late husband's funeral, widow Kyra Latimer is confronted by a young woman claiming to be her long-lost daughter, given up for adoption twenty years earlier, who leaves her toddler... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 155166853X
• ISBN13: 9781551668536
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Mira Books
• Length: 374 Pages
• Weight: 3.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Excellent read

I enjoyed this book and would not hesitate to recommend to others.

Parting Gifts Powerful and Moving

I have read a number of Charlotte Vale Allen's novels, and this is up there with the best of them, deserving to rank with Mood Indigo. The reader is involved emotionally--intensely, but without maudlin sentimentality. This is achieved through the very skilful treatment of the characters; they are so deftly drawn that one believes in them and cares about what happens to them, even the minor ones. Children are presented as real human beings; the boy Jesse, in particular, is movingly convincing and ultimately heroic. Kyra, the central character, is seen developing through growth in self-knowledge; this can be seen as the great theme of the whole novel. I don't mean to suggest that everything comes up roses for everyone, or that all the characters are charming feel-good types. There is a convincingly cold-blooded surgical technocrat, obviously drawn from life, who reminds me forcibly of some--by no means all--high-powered medical people I have encountered, and the immoral world of chequebook journalism is scathingly displayed. Parting Gifts is far from a preachy novel, but it looks honestly and compassionately at life and takes the side of authenticity and integrity against sneering arrogance and pretentiousness. It expands one's awareness, so that the reader is drawn into sharing the painful but necessary development of the sympathetic characters.

Another Winner From Charlotte Vale Allen

Charlotte Vale Allen's latest novel, Parting Gifts, catches and holds your attention from the very first page. Kyra Latimer has just lost her huband, Gary, in an accident. Still reeling from the trageedy and the funereal, she returns to her apartment to find a young girl and an obviously neglected three year old in the lobby of her building, demanding to see her. Kyra has no idea who they are and is stunned when the girl, Jennifer claims that Kyra is her mother, Jesse her grandchild, and that she wants to Kyra to raise Jesse or she'll turn him over to foster care. Kyra agrees to take the child, and a marvelous story unfolds. Charlotte writes very convincingly of the challenges of raising a child who has been abused and neglected. Jesse is a character that you won't soon forget, an enchanting, wise beyond his years little boy, who thanks to the love and nurturing of Kyra and her family is able to learn to love and trust. The end of this book was heartwrenching. Both the characters and their stories will stay with you long after you've finished reading the book. I have read all 35 of Charlotte's books, and after each one have said that this is her best work so far. I had the same reaction at the end of Parting Gifts and urge everyone to read this book and any of the ones before it that you may have missed.

Smashes your emotions

From the opening line, "The concierge called to say two police officers wanted to speak to her," Charlotte Vale Allen holds your attention as we enter the world of Kyra Latimer. Kyra has to face reality and conditions that are not easy to accept and doesn't have an hourglass figure: she's fat, real. Sorry, this isn't Harlequin romance dribble. "Parting Gifts" is gut-wrenching, funny, and informative (I cried and laughed once in the same chapter). Kyra's friends and family are real as well. I didn't want the book to end. The book will embrace your heart and then smash your emotions as you keep reading, unable to do anything as the story unfolds. Just like in real life. This book is brilliant and takes you to a place that you soon won't forget. You will hate some characters and love others. I've been an avid reader of Charlotte Vale Allen for years and this book is a winner!

Brilliant storytelling

The New York City police inform Kyra Latimer that her spouse Gary died in an accident. A cab spun out of control, jumped the curb, the breaks failed and hit Gary as he was strolling to the bank.Unable to cope, Kyra barely makes it through the funeral when shock number two hits her in the solar plexus. Jennifer Cullen insists that she tracked down Kyra who is the mother who gave her up years at birth. Kyra insists the young woman is wrong, as that occurrence is impossible. However, Jennifer does not want anything from Kyra for herself. Instead she wants "her mother" to care for her "grandson." Not willing to allow three-year-old Jesse to atrophy in state facilities, Kyra accepts the raising of the child. As Kyra and Jesse bond, illness threatens to take him away too.The EPA will want to ban PARTING GIFTS as a violation of the Paper Reduction Act because readers will need a rain forest worth of tissues. The characters are so very real, they can be you or me. The story line is charged with so much emotion that the reader empathetically shares it vicariously with the cast. Charlotte Vale Allen has written a heart-wrenching tale that reaches inside the souls of her audience.Harriet Klausner