Constance - Starburst - Garden Spells (Rosie Thomas - Robin Pilcher - Sarah Addison Allen)

Collection :  Of Love & Life

Category :  Novel

English

Format :  Paperback

480 pages

ISBN 13 :  978-0-276-44223-0

Publisher :  Reader's Digest 2007

Dimension :  220x150x25mm

Weight :  501g

Condition :  good

Book Summary :

Constance :

Over the course of three decades of writing, bestselling novelist Rosie Thomas has earned an untold number of awards and critical praise. Her latest novel, Constance, is a powerful story of a woman’s anguished reckoning with her past. Constance Thorne was a foundling, left by her mother within days of her birth. Decades later, she leads a happy, independent life in Bali, but when she hears the news that her sister Jeanette is dying, the last thing she wants is to return to London. As a child, Connie was aware only of the differences between herself and her sister, yet they both fell in love with the same man. With the bitterness of betrayal still between them, Connie and Jeanette have to learn to forgive each other. Do the bonds of shared childhood lie deeper than they had believed? And, surrounded by family, can Connie make her peace with who she really is—and who she loves?

Starburst :
When the fireworks cascade over Edinburgh castle on the Festival's final night, the magic begins…
Every summer, the Edinburgh International Festival attracts celebrated artists, musicians, comedians, and actors to the beloved Scottish city. Hundreds of thousands of people descend on the town to join in the magnificent celebration.
This year, the annual Edinburgh festival draws six unique and vibrant individuals, who all come together to follow their dreams---seeking success, love, fame, and Angélique, the beautiful and renowned violinist whose fame hides her secret heartache; Tess, a member of the festival marketing team and a newlywed struggling with her own secrets; Roger, whose dazzling fireworks display will be the grand finale of the festival and his career; Leonard, the aging cinematographer who wants one last time to shine; Rene, the feisty comedienne who is reaching for the stars; and Jamie, the handsome young flat owner who brings everyone together and finds love along the way. Each of them is trying to discover what destiny holds in store, and during this one magnificent summer, paths cross and lives are forever changed.
Inspiring, funny, engrossing, and full of vivid descriptions of the incredible sights and sounds of Edinburgh, Starburst is a poignant and enchanting novel in the grand Pilcher tradition.

Garden Spells :
In a garden surrounded by a tall fence, tucked away behind a small, quiet house in an even smaller town, is an apple tree that is rumored to bear a very special sort of fruit. In this luminous debut novel, Sarah Addison Allen tells the story of that enchanted tree, and the extraordinary people who tend it.…

The Waverleys have always been a curious family, endowed with peculiar gifts that make them outsiders even in their hometown of Bascom, North Carolina. Even their garden has a reputation, famous for its feisty apple tree that bears prophetic fruit, and its edible flowers, imbued with special powers. Generations of Waverleys tended this garden. Their history was in the soil. But so were their futures.

A successful caterer, Claire Waverley prepares dishes made with her mystical plants—from the nasturtiums that aid in keeping secrets and the pansies that make children thoughtful, to the snapdragons intended to discourage the attentions of her amorous neighbor. Meanwhile, her elderly cousin, Evanelle, is known for distributing unexpected gifts whose uses become uncannily clear. They are the last of the Waverleys—except for Claire’s rebellious sister, Sydney, who fled Bascom the moment she could, abandoning Claire, as their own mother had years before.

When Sydney suddenly returns home with a young daughter of her own, Claire’s quiet life is turned upside down—along with the protective boundary she has so carefully constructed around her heart. Together again in the house they grew up in, Sydney takes stock of all she left behind, as Claire struggles to heal the wounds of the past. And soon the sisters realize they must deal with their common legacy—if they are ever to feel at home in Bascom—or with each other.

Enchanting and heartfelt, this captivating novel is sure to cast a spell with a style all its own…