#1 New York Times bestselling author Johanna Lindsay presents
a powerfully romantic Regency-era tale that is breathtaking in scope
and wondrously passionate.
When Sebastian Townshend, son of the eighth Earl of Edgewood, was banished from his family due to the tragic results of a duel, he vowed never to return to England. Now living on the continent, Sebastian has forged a new identity as a deadly mercenary, The Raven. But his former neighbor, Lady Margaret Landor, has different plans for him. Back in England, Sebastian's father has had several accidents and Margaret suspects foul play and deception that reach as far back as the infamous duel. Convinced that only Sebastian can set the situation to rights, Margaret arranges a scandalous bargain with him that includes Sebastian's returning home as her husband. As the newlyweds uncover a deadly scheme, a fierce passion blossoms between them, which neither anticipated -- and neither can resist.
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Blessings : A Novel
List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $3.10
Your Save: $ 11.85 ( 79% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Book written by: Anna Quindlen
Average Customer Rating:   
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Blessings : A Novel - book description
Binding: Paperback
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2003-08-19
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Release Date: 2003-08-19
Studio: Random House Trade Paperbacks
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Editorial Reviews:
One night a young couple sneak onto the estate of wealthy Lydia Blessing and leave a box in the driveway. In the box is a baby and Skip Cuddy, the caretaker who finds her decides secretly to keep her. When Lydia Blessing discovers this she decides to collude with him. The secrets of the past, how they influence people in the present; what makes a person, a life, legitimate or illegitimate, and who decides; the unique resources people find in themselves and in a community - all are at the centre of this novel, by the bestselling Anna Quindlen.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Lyrical, but down to earth
Comment: Blessings is the name of a house, an allegorically named house that has been blessed with a picturesque location and some human embellishments - a swimming pond, a handsome barn, a rambling white house with outbuildings, and lots of land with woods, streams and fields.
As the book begins, a teenage mother and her boyfriend leave their newborn off at Blessings, fantasizing that the baby will have a good home with the wealthy occupants.
The baby is found not by the owner, but by the caretaker Skip. Skip has had some troubles, but has found peace in his job at Blessings. The hours are long, the pay is poor, but he enjoys maintaining and improving the estate. The owner is elderly Lydia Blessing, who is easily lost in the past, reflecting on and reinterpreting past events.
Skip takes in the baby, and surprises himself by rapidly ramping up to become a devoted and attentive parent. Mrs. Blessing accidentally finds the baby, and once she is in on the secret takes great pleasure from little Faith and her infant charms.
The theme of Blessings is motherhood. Skip as mother, Mrs. Blessing as mother to her daughter and daughter to her own mother - each mother-child relationship illuminates how, although it's easy to pass the same emotional baggage from generation to generation, the cycle can be broken.
However, much of the story is taken up with Blessings itself and its significance in the lives of its owners. The charm of the place is described over and over again in sunlight, moonlight, rain, sun, spring, summer and fall - possibly the author got a little wrapped up in her own prose. Despite the physical beauty of the place, it was a prison at times for Lydia Blessing and a place of unhappiness for her brother Sunny. In the end, it's just real estate.
I experienced Blessings in audiobook form. It worked well as an audiobook because the reader, Joan Allen, did well with the lyrical descriptive passages, which I might have otherwise skimmed. She didn't do as good a job differentiating the voices for each character, but I would recommend it as an audiobook.
Blessings would make a great movie because it's a simple story that could be pared down to a few characters and a pretty set - picture a young Nicholas Cage as Skip. Most of the characters and action won't stay with you long, but Skip, Mrs. Blessing and Faith will.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Astonishly Depressing
Comment: Uh, I hated this book. I have a 22-month-old daughter and found this book so disturbing that I woke my husband up in the middle of the night after reading it to cry to him. However, it was not an "oh that book was so good it made me cry"-type reaction, it was more like "this is just not a great story with truly believable characters, so the writer had to use emotionally manipulative gimmicks to flesh it out". If you, like I, are ridiculously suceptible to stories -- both real and fictional -- that deal with the abuse, neglect, unfair treatment, etc. of small children, this book may mess up your mind for a little while, like it did to mine. Furthermore, I think Quindlen intended Lydia Blessing to be a sympathetic character, but I thought she was one of the most unappealingly horrible [expletives] in modern popular literature. She just went around ruining people's lives without enjoying herself at all. HA. In summary, here's my advice: give yourself a blessing -- by avoiding this book!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Heartwarming if a little sad
Comment: Story of an elderly woman and a young man who works on her estate and lives above her garage who work together to care for a baby who is left by a young couple who leave her in a box when they decide not to keep her. Characters ring true with the values Lydia Blessing--wealthy and raised with the beliefs of the "upper class"--contrasted with the values of Skip who has raised himself and developed his own ethics. Book demonstrates that people are not very different under the surface and that all families have their challenges. Story has humor, sadness and some heartwarming moments. Well worth reading.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Nice Book
Comment: This book does not require much effort to read. Everything slides along in a fairly predictable way, so much so that even that bigger moments in the story sometimes slide by without being noticed. Don't look to this book for a gripping plot or very-compelling characters (although Skip, the main character, is very sympathetic) but read this book for a nice story, and you'll enjoy it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Touching 3.5
Comment: While I preferred other works by Quindlen (One True Thing), I felt that Blessings was engaging, touching, and intriguing. It was richly descriptive and I felt like I was 'there' at Blessings along with the characters. I found the relationship between the two main characters to be unexpected and it proves that you can find friendship and comraderie in unlikely people. I wanted Skip to do the right thing but it was such an emotional ride. I admit I was using a Kleenex at that pivotal point that I will not reveal.
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