The Legacy of Eden by Nelle Davy
Publisher: MIRA Books
Publish Date: January 24, 2012
Paperback, 400 pages
Fiction, Family Saga
ISBN: 978-0778329558
Fiction, Family Saga
ISBN: 978-0778329558
“I just finished a shift.”
“Are the girls around?”
“I’m alone, it’s okay.”
I closed my eyes and swallowed.
“Good, I—I need to talk to you. It’s—”
“Is this about Cal Jr.?” she asked abruptly.
My eyes flew open. I felt winded. My voice, when it came out, was harsh, animal.
“How?”
“The family lawyers called me.”
“When?”
“A few days ago.”
“Why?”
“Same reason I suppose that they contacted you.”
“They did not call me,” I said, looking down at the letter, which was crumpled in the fist of my hand. “They wrote instead.”
“I
told them straight out I didn’t care. Not about him dying, not about
the farm or how he had driven it so far into the ground it was halfway
to hell. They talked about my ‘responsibility.’ I told them I had done
above and beyond more than my duty by that place.”
I bit my lip so hard I thought I tasted blood.
“I
suppose I was a bit harsh,” she said reflectively, “but I got the
feeling that they would just keep calling if they thought they could get
anywhere. Check out tomorrow's excerpt at: http://theeclecticelement.
My Partial Review:
I am in the middle of The Legacy of Eden right now and I am really enjoying. I like that I am getting to know the Hathaway family little-by-little warts and all. They are definitely interesting and Ms. Davy's storytelling is great. She does a wonderful job luring you into the story and keeping you interested. I plan on posting a final review in the next couple of days, but so far this book has been really good. I was reading it in the middle of a busy doctor's office today and I can't usually concentrate in places like that, but I was drawn in and felt like I was at Aurelia as I read through the pages.
About the Book:
"To understand what it meant to be a Hathaway, you'd first have to see Aurelia."
For generations, Aurelia was the crowning glory of more than three thousand acres of Iowa farmland and golden cornfields. The estate was a monument to matriarch Lavinia Hathaway's dream to elevate the family name - no matter what relative or stranger she had to destroy in the process. It was a desperation that wrought the downfall of the Hathaways - and the once prosperous farm.
Now the last inhabitant of the decaying old home has died - alone. None of the surviving members of the Hathaway family want anything to do with the farm, the land, or the memories.
Especially Meredith Pincetti. Now living in New York City, for seventeen years Lavinia's youngest grandchild has tried to forget everything about her family and her past. But with the receipt of a pleading letter, Meredith is again thrust into conflict with the legacy that destroyed her family's once-great name. Back at Aurelia, Meredith must confront the rise and fall of the Hathaway family... and her own part in their mottled history.
"Our farm was like the world when people still thought it was flat. And when you left it, it was as if you had simply sailed too far and fallen off the surface into the void."
About the Author (from her website):
Nelle was originally born in St George’s Grenada under the name Janelle (which she always hated and immediately shortened when she went to University). She moved to London when she was nine months old because her grandfather was English and her parents supposedly wanted a better life. She got a scholarship to Sir William Perkins School for girls where she had a wonderful English teacher Mrs. Wells who encouraged her constantly in her love for books. She went to Warwick University to study English with Creative Writing where after swearing she would never marry, she met her future husband. She did a masters in Creative Writing at Trinity College Dublin and then moved back to London in 2007 where she almost immediately began working in publishing. After working at Pan Macmillan she moved to work at a literary agency while also writing and pursuing a career as a novelist on the side.
She is 27 years old and The Legacy of Eden is her first novel. She has finished writing a second novel based on the civil rights movement in Louisiana in 1963. She still lives in London with her husband and still works full time in publishing.
So far, she has not had a meltdown…
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