Product Description

After the death of his mother, Michael Keddington finds employment at the Arcadia nursing home where he befriends Esther, a reclusive but beautiful elderly woman who lives in mourning for her youth and lost love.

Michael faces his own challenges when he loses his greatest love, Faye. When Michael is falsely accused of abusing one of the Arcadia's residents, he learns important lessons about faith and forgiveness from Ester -- and her gift to him of a locket, once symbolic of one person's missed opportuninites, becomes another's second chance.

Richard Paul Evans, author of the beloved #1 bestselling classic The Christmas Box, begins a wonderful new series with this stunning New York Times bestseller -- a bittersweet reminder of life's most precious gifts....

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15703 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 448 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780671004231
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Library Journal
Having completed his phenomenally successful "Christmas Box" trilogy, Evans is set to move on. His new work features Michael Romney, an aimless young man working in a rest home whose contact with the elderly Esther turns his life around. With an 11-city tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Quickly becoming known for his easy sentimentality and maudlin tone, Evans, best-selling author of The Christmas Box and Timepiece, usually deals with the death of children or parents, old or sick people, or the down-and-out. His latest novel tells the story of Michael, a young man from a poor family who is dating a beautiful society girl, Faye, and working the graveyard shift at the local old folk's home. Things get pretty bleak for Michael when his mother dies and he is left alone in the world. He is arrested for a crime he didn't commit and loses his college scholarship; worse yet, Faye's father contrives to break up the couple. Michael learns a valuable lesson about unfulfilled dreams, lifelong regret, and lost love from a dying patient at the nursing home, which serves as the impetus for him to get on the ball. Evans' fans are numerous, and although there are many who may scoff at his work as overwritten and simplistic, Evans is laughing all the way to the bank. Kathleen Hughes

From Kirkus Reviews
For his fourth time out, the earnest and best-selling Evans moves on from the families he - s written about previously (The Christmas Box, 1995; The Letter, 1997, etc.), offering a change of names but not of plot, place, or his own trademark cartoon melodrama. Michael Keddington, poor in material things but rich in his knowledge of right and wrong, dropped out of college to nurse his mother (alcoholic Dad is dead, gone, and not regretted) through a six-month decline due to cancer. Now she - s in her grave, Michael is left alone with many debts, and he goes to work on them by taking a job at the Arcadia nursing home, a job that pays little but is rich in other rewards - such as the friendship it brings him with one of its residents, the wise Esther Huish, who gradually reveals to Michael her long-held secret of a love she was afraid to accept when a young woman and was to regret losing ever after. Her advice is especially helpful to Michael in his own - hyper-platonic, seemingly - love with Faye Murrow. Faye is about to go east from Utah for medical school and very much wants a betrothal from Michael before she does. Two problems, though: her neurosurgeon father forbids it, despising the wrong-side-of-the-tracks Michael as far beneath his brilliant daughter; and Michael himself is fairly sure - but you - re wrong, Michael, wrong! - that he - s not good enough, either. Whether or not true love conquers all will depend not only on Bad Dad, Good Faye, and Good-yet- Uncertain Michael, but also on the influence of wise Esther Huish - s long-kept secret - and on the outcome of a nasty court trial whose ludicrous origins lie in purest villainy. The Evans faithful, though, will be gripped to the bittersweet end, unlikely, as usual, to be deterred or dismayed by their author - s remarkable bumblings with his high-school English: - . . . and my mind reeled in as many directions as the slush that spun from my tires. - The reader can only concur. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Generations apart -- but each learns from the other.
How refreshing to read a book that has an inspirational message plus contains no graphic sex or "4 letter words," yet at the same time, a believable story that is not contrived...a rarity these days!! I enjoyed the thought-provoking excerpts from Esther's diary at the beginning of each chapter--a clever touch by Evans. The flow is good and his descriptions of the characters and scenes breathe with reality. A few times, however, he overdoes the character descriptions with a string of trite adjectives. This is a poignant, touching tale that has a little bit of everything and will appeal to males as well as females. I found it difficult to put down once I got into the story. Keep up the quality writing, Richard Paul Evans!

The critics really cannot stand this guy...
90% of the time, when critics REALLY hate a book or movie, it's good. Richard Paul Evans, who has never pretended that he is the next Tolstoy, pens an excellent novel that tugs at the heartstrings, with traditional values and characters. (So they can't stand him. His success speaks otherwise about his skills)

Departing from the Christmas Box trilogy, Evans has clearly altered his style a bit in "Locket." The dialogue flows a bit more easily, and the descriptions are more thorough. The main character, Michael, is an impoverished young man whose mother has just died, and who figures that it's just a matter of time until his wealthy, beautiful girlfriend Faye dumps him like a ton of bricks. Her father, additionally, is opposed to her marrying anything other than a guy with five limos and an army of servants in their lush mansion.

So Michael takes a job at a local nursing home, and befriends an elderly lady named Esther, who lives half in her tragic past, longing for a man she "let get away." Esther's journey is tangled with Michael's, especially when he is accused of beating an old man to death and risks losing Faye.

Michael is... well, indescribable. He's perfect without being annoying, because he had to suffer to gain it. Faye manages to rise above being just another rich girlfriend, by informing her boyfriend just what she wants out of her life. Esther is almost beyond human, like someone who has one foot in heaven already.

There are hints of violence, though none is actually shown, and pretty much no profanity in this. There is an attempted seduction, but the gal doesn't get past Michael's shirt. This book is proof positive that gratuitous crud to appeal to the lowest denominator does not need to be inserted for it to be a wonderful piece of work. No sex, no crudity, just a wonderful romance.

Though there are peculiar situations (two old woman in wheelchairs duking it out) Evans never plays senility or old people for laughs, but rather with regret that they can be treated callously.

The courtroom scenes in an Evans novel gave me pause, as it didn't seem much like "his thing," but he pulled it off in rare style, very realistically. The scene where Michael stands outside and learns to forgive is one of the most beautiful things I've read in modern fiction.

As soon as I can, I'm buying "Carousel," to hear more about Michael and Faye...

Wonderful, Endearing Book
I absolutely loved this book. I loved Michael. I loved the person he was, the way he took care of his mother, and his romantic relationship with Faye. I also loved Esther, but her situation was so sad. I kept asking her "Why did you allow that to happen?" But she was determined that the same thing did not happen to Michael and Faye. This book is touching and sentimental. One of Richard Paul's best books.