Worth The Wait

The Angel Tree by Lucinda Riley is a contemporary novel that spans several generations. The action moves backwards and forwards between 1940’s to present day and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Angel Tree is about love and about a family. There are several different types of love within the novel ranging from the gentle love of a friend to the love of a mother to the all consuming love of a woman. Love takes many forms. Love can make lives bloom or it can strangle a life. Love is not tame. A passionate love may completely consume.

There is also the theme of loyalty within the pages. David is a wonderful character. He is loyal and trustworthy. How we would all love to have a David in our lives.

The novel deals with under age sex and young mums. It also explores abortion which was illegal in Britain until the late 1960’s. “I’m not a religious person, but I don’t think I’d forgive myself for killing it.”

There is also the theme of dreams within the story. Our dreams may be harmless if we pursue them. However our dreams can be dangerous if we try to inflict them on another and we live through them. She “was living through her.”

There are also the dreams one has no control over that happen as we sleep. They may be pleasant but when they take on an unpleasant twist, they become nightmares and may haunt us.

Within the novel there is the delicate area of mental health. In previous decades mental health was not treated as sympathetically as today. The modern reader gasps at some of the attitudes. Lucinda Riley has clearly researched this illness thoroughly.

The Angel Tree is an epic novel that really is easy to become engrossed in. The characters really get under your skin and into your heart. It’s a fabulous novel.

JULIA WILSON