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A Family for Keeps
A Family For Keeps by Lucy Gordon released on Apr 26, 2005 is available now for purchase.
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 2005
4 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
Lucy Gordon
693 books90 followersChristine Sparks was born in England, UK. She wanted to be a writer all her life, and began by working on a British women's magazine. As a features writer, she gained a wide variety of experience. She interviewed some of the world's most attractive and interesting men, including Warren Beatty, Richard Chamberlain, Charlton Heston, Sir Roger Moore, Sir Alec Guiness.
Single life was so enjoyable that she put marriage, and even romance, on the back burner, while she went about the world having a great time. Then, while on vacation in Venice, she met a tall, dark handsome Venetian artist, who changed all her ideas in a moment, and proposed on the second day. Three months later they were married. Her friends said a whirlwind romance would never last, but they celebrated their 25 anniversary, they are still married, still happy and in love.
After 13 years on the magazine Christine decided that it was now or never if she was ever going to write that novel. So she wrote Legacy of Fire which became a Silhouette Special Edition, followed by another, Enchantment in Venice. Then she did something crazy gave up her job. Since then she has concentrated entirely on writing romances for Mills & Boon, Harlequin and Silhouette and has written over 75 books. Her settings have been European and her heroes mainly English or Italian. Christine now claims to be an expert on one particular subject. Italian men are the most romantic in the world. They are also the best cooks.
A few years ago she and her husband returned to Venice and lived there for a couple of years. This proved the perfect base for exploring the rest of Italy, and she has given many of her books Italian settings: Venice (of course), Rome, Florence, Milan, Sicily, Tuscany. She has also used the Rhine in Germany for Song of the Lorelei, for which she won her first RITA Award, in 1991. Her second RITA came in 1998, with His Brother's Child, set in Rome.
Eventually Christine Fiorotto and her husband returned to England, where they now live. She write and he paints, they have no children, but have a cat and a dog.
Single life was so enjoyable that she put marriage, and even romance, on the back burner, while she went about the world having a great time. Then, while on vacation in Venice, she met a tall, dark handsome Venetian artist, who changed all her ideas in a moment, and proposed on the second day. Three months later they were married. Her friends said a whirlwind romance would never last, but they celebrated their 25 anniversary, they are still married, still happy and in love.
After 13 years on the magazine Christine decided that it was now or never if she was ever going to write that novel. So she wrote Legacy of Fire which became a Silhouette Special Edition, followed by another, Enchantment in Venice. Then she did something crazy gave up her job. Since then she has concentrated entirely on writing romances for Mills & Boon, Harlequin and Silhouette and has written over 75 books. Her settings have been European and her heroes mainly English or Italian. Christine now claims to be an expert on one particular subject. Italian men are the most romantic in the world. They are also the best cooks.
A few years ago she and her husband returned to Venice and lived there for a couple of years. This proved the perfect base for exploring the rest of Italy, and she has given many of her books Italian settings: Venice (of course), Rome, Florence, Milan, Sicily, Tuscany. She has also used the Rhine in Germany for Song of the Lorelei, for which she won her first RITA Award, in 1991. Her second RITA came in 1998, with His Brother's Child, set in Rome.
Eventually Christine Fiorotto and her husband returned to England, where they now live. She write and he paints, they have no children, but have a cat and a dog.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 21, 2021
The author Lucy Gordon can really write some emotionally powerful stories.
And if you read the book without reading the blurb, it has some surprising twists in the tale which are something different from the usual. This is not an easy or lighthearted read and I’m not ashamed to admit that I shed copious amount of tears while reading this book.
The story opens with a dramatic prologue with the Heroine thinking that “This would be a good place to die.”
It is shown to us that the Heroine has reached the end of her tether physically, emotionally as well as financially. A Good Samaritan takes her by the hand and leads her to shabby and abandoned palace. There he introduces himself as Piero and when he asks her for her name, she picks up the name Julia from the choice of names that he gives her. Piero and Julia strike up a strange sort of camaraderie and bond very quickly over their “homeless” state. Julia sees Piero as a cadaverous, tall and thin old man. While, through Piero’s eyes, we get to see Julia as a woman in her mid thirties who is a little too slim to be ideal, having a weary, haggard, troubled face with large eyes which seem to view the world with distrust. Piero then shows Julia a painting of a young lady who is supposed to be Annina. He then regales Julia with her tragic story.
“Annina was a Venetian girl with a vast fortune. She fell in love with Count Ruggiero di Montese, but he married her only for her money. When she’d borne him a son, he locked her away. Legend says that she was murdered and it’s her ghost which haunts the Palazzo di Montese.”
This story seems to leave a deep impact on Julia. Piero shows off the “palatial” accommodations and makes dinner for her. Seeing her exhausted state, he convinces her to stay in the “palace”. The Hero Vincenzo makes an appearance after she falls asleep. Vincenzo is actually il Conte di Montese, the owner of the palazzo. Julia falls ill and Piero and Vincenzo nurse her back to health. At one point of time she seems to be in a trance and goes sleepwalking upto the picture of Annina. Going by her agonised screaming, and whatever she says when she’s in the trance, for a few moments we are led to believe that she’s the ghost of Annina.
Over the course of the next few days, Piero and Vincenzo wonder about Julia and her history and the events in her life that have brought her to this state. By now we get snippets of information about Julia’s background. The suspense is beautifully built up and various things are alluded to which give us the impression that there has been some tragedy in her life. One gets the impression that Julia’s life has been a dreadful, agonising horror story going by the small flashes of memory she relieves at odd moments. She is at times hostile and at times awkward and bitter and the Hero is very patient with her. There are a couple of moments wherein Vincenzo is assailed by an odd feeling that there is something about her that is mysteriously familiar.
After Julia makes a recovery from her illness, she goes exploring through the rooms in the building and seems to be fascinated by the frescoes. In one of the rooms, she finds a damp patch in the ceiling and rushes to the attic. There she finds a water tank with a broken pipe. She tries to plug the leak by wrapping her sweater and shirt around it, but the water kept coming. As she goes in search of something else more reliable, she collides with Vincenzo and that moment of contact is when they become aware of each other in the physical sense. They try to cover it with a bit of humorous banter but the awakening of physical attraction is definitely there. Julia then gets agitated and rants to Vincenzo about the carelessness of the owner who was not taking proper care of the house, especially the frescoes which were genuine 16th century Veronese. Later on Piero informs Julia that Vincenzo is the owner of the Palazzo and tells her about his life story and how everyone he loved had either betrayed him or died and everything he cared for had been taken from him in some way or the other. The loss that hit him especially hard was that of his twin sister Bianca who had died a few months ago in a car crash leaving him with her two children to care for.
Then Vincenzo treats Julia and Piero to a hearty meal at his restaurant called il Pappagallo. They enjoy a good meal with fine wine and Julia finally admits that she is an art restorer. Vincenzo presses her to reveal more about herself but she refuses to do so. She warns him from reaching out to her saying that she has nothing to give, but he assures her that he doesn’t want her to give but wants her to take. To which Julia replies that she forgot how to do both a long time ago. Vincenzo then asks her how long ago was it, to which we get a starkly dramatic reply from Julia that it was “SIX YEARS, TWO MONTHS AND FOUR DAYS” ago that she packed away her feelings in an iron chest and buried it.
Meanwhile Piero falls asleep after indulging in the heavy meal and Vincenzo arranges for Piero and Julia to sleep in the rooms in the restaurant itself. Their intense conversation over the shared meal inevitably and easily moves into their first physical intimacy.
The next morning her first thought was that Vincenzo was her “FIRST MAN” in six years. She feels invigorated and energetic and it’s as though she’s woken up from a long slumber!!!!! While Vincenzo is trying to figure out how Julia is going to react, she warns him to not expect too much from her because she’s not used to being in the land of living. And in what is another dramatic moment, states that “FOR THE LAST SIX YEARS, SHE HAD BEEN IN PRISON”
What a bombshell it was to read it!!!!! All those various hints of something dark and tragic culminated in this revelation. I must admit that I didn’t see it coming at all. And we’re at just one thirds of the book.
Julia then goes searching for some relatives of a person named Bruce Haydon. Through a set of photographs we are told a very poignant story. Just when we are thinking about what a tragic story it is, in what is another tragedy, Julia loses the album of photographs. While Vincenzo worries about her state of mind, she declares that she’s just mad. Not mad-crazy, but mad-angry. Julia finally narrates her story to Vincenzo and Piero.
“ My name is actually Sophie. I got married to Bruce Haydon against my mother’s wishes almost 10 years ago. We had a beautiful daughter called Natalie who would have been 9 now. Bruce had a little import export business and I was working as an art restorer. Then there was a spate of art thefts from the houses where I had been working and I was the prime suspect. I was charged and put on trial. Though I couldn’t believe that they would find me guilty, a part of me knew exactly what was going to happen. In the last few days before the trial, I had bought a toy rabbit for my daughter. Natalie fell in love with the rabbit and used to clutch it for comfort every day during the trial period. On the last day of the trial, Natalie began to cry. It was as though she knew that I wasn’t going to come back. She clung to me crying, “Mummy, don’t go-please don’t go Mummy-”. Natalie screamed and screamed and curled up on the sofa clutching her toy rabbit. That was the last time I saw her. Wherever she is now, whatever she is doing, that’s her last memory of me.”
At the trial, they found me guilty and I was sent to prison. Bruce came to see me in prison a few times, but never brought Natalie. The one day my mother told me that he’d vanished taking our little girl with him. That’s when I became hysterical and for a while was on a suicide watch. That was six years ago and I haven’t seen either of them since.
By the time I realised that it was Bruce who had sold me out to a gang of thieves, he had vanished. Then a couple of pictures turned up at an auction house. The trail led to the mastermind who confessed to the crime and implicated Bruce. My conviction was squashed and I was released. My lawyer is fighting for a compensation, but my only use for the money is to search for Bruce. My mother died of a broken heart while I was in prison. She left me just a little money which I used to come here and start searching for Bruce.”
At the end of the narration, I was drowning in so much of angst that I wondered what would happen in the second half of the book. The first half was nothing compared to the second half.
There is hopeless anguish.
There is overwhelming grief.
There is agonising heartbreak.
There is frozen misery.
There is violent despair.
There is gut-wrenching pain.
There is crushing bitterness.
And how they find their way to their HEA is the rest of the story.
And if you read the book without reading the blurb, it has some surprising twists in the tale which are something different from the usual. This is not an easy or lighthearted read and I’m not ashamed to admit that I shed copious amount of tears while reading this book.
The story opens with a dramatic prologue with the Heroine thinking that “This would be a good place to die.”
It is shown to us that the Heroine has reached the end of her tether physically, emotionally as well as financially. A Good Samaritan takes her by the hand and leads her to shabby and abandoned palace. There he introduces himself as Piero and when he asks her for her name, she picks up the name Julia from the choice of names that he gives her. Piero and Julia strike up a strange sort of camaraderie and bond very quickly over their “homeless” state. Julia sees Piero as a cadaverous, tall and thin old man. While, through Piero’s eyes, we get to see Julia as a woman in her mid thirties who is a little too slim to be ideal, having a weary, haggard, troubled face with large eyes which seem to view the world with distrust. Piero then shows Julia a painting of a young lady who is supposed to be Annina. He then regales Julia with her tragic story.
“Annina was a Venetian girl with a vast fortune. She fell in love with Count Ruggiero di Montese, but he married her only for her money. When she’d borne him a son, he locked her away. Legend says that she was murdered and it’s her ghost which haunts the Palazzo di Montese.”
This story seems to leave a deep impact on Julia. Piero shows off the “palatial” accommodations and makes dinner for her. Seeing her exhausted state, he convinces her to stay in the “palace”. The Hero Vincenzo makes an appearance after she falls asleep. Vincenzo is actually il Conte di Montese, the owner of the palazzo. Julia falls ill and Piero and Vincenzo nurse her back to health. At one point of time she seems to be in a trance and goes sleepwalking upto the picture of Annina. Going by her agonised screaming, and whatever she says when she’s in the trance, for a few moments we are led to believe that she’s the ghost of Annina.
Over the course of the next few days, Piero and Vincenzo wonder about Julia and her history and the events in her life that have brought her to this state. By now we get snippets of information about Julia’s background. The suspense is beautifully built up and various things are alluded to which give us the impression that there has been some tragedy in her life. One gets the impression that Julia’s life has been a dreadful, agonising horror story going by the small flashes of memory she relieves at odd moments. She is at times hostile and at times awkward and bitter and the Hero is very patient with her. There are a couple of moments wherein Vincenzo is assailed by an odd feeling that there is something about her that is mysteriously familiar.
After Julia makes a recovery from her illness, she goes exploring through the rooms in the building and seems to be fascinated by the frescoes. In one of the rooms, she finds a damp patch in the ceiling and rushes to the attic. There she finds a water tank with a broken pipe. She tries to plug the leak by wrapping her sweater and shirt around it, but the water kept coming. As she goes in search of something else more reliable, she collides with Vincenzo and that moment of contact is when they become aware of each other in the physical sense. They try to cover it with a bit of humorous banter but the awakening of physical attraction is definitely there. Julia then gets agitated and rants to Vincenzo about the carelessness of the owner who was not taking proper care of the house, especially the frescoes which were genuine 16th century Veronese. Later on Piero informs Julia that Vincenzo is the owner of the Palazzo and tells her about his life story and how everyone he loved had either betrayed him or died and everything he cared for had been taken from him in some way or the other. The loss that hit him especially hard was that of his twin sister Bianca who had died a few months ago in a car crash leaving him with her two children to care for.
Then Vincenzo treats Julia and Piero to a hearty meal at his restaurant called il Pappagallo. They enjoy a good meal with fine wine and Julia finally admits that she is an art restorer. Vincenzo presses her to reveal more about herself but she refuses to do so. She warns him from reaching out to her saying that she has nothing to give, but he assures her that he doesn’t want her to give but wants her to take. To which Julia replies that she forgot how to do both a long time ago. Vincenzo then asks her how long ago was it, to which we get a starkly dramatic reply from Julia that it was “SIX YEARS, TWO MONTHS AND FOUR DAYS” ago that she packed away her feelings in an iron chest and buried it.
Meanwhile Piero falls asleep after indulging in the heavy meal and Vincenzo arranges for Piero and Julia to sleep in the rooms in the restaurant itself. Their intense conversation over the shared meal inevitably and easily moves into their first physical intimacy.
The next morning her first thought was that Vincenzo was her “FIRST MAN” in six years. She feels invigorated and energetic and it’s as though she’s woken up from a long slumber!!!!! While Vincenzo is trying to figure out how Julia is going to react, she warns him to not expect too much from her because she’s not used to being in the land of living. And in what is another dramatic moment, states that “FOR THE LAST SIX YEARS, SHE HAD BEEN IN PRISON”
What a bombshell it was to read it!!!!! All those various hints of something dark and tragic culminated in this revelation. I must admit that I didn’t see it coming at all. And we’re at just one thirds of the book.
Julia then goes searching for some relatives of a person named Bruce Haydon. Through a set of photographs we are told a very poignant story. Just when we are thinking about what a tragic story it is, in what is another tragedy, Julia loses the album of photographs. While Vincenzo worries about her state of mind, she declares that she’s just mad. Not mad-crazy, but mad-angry. Julia finally narrates her story to Vincenzo and Piero.
“ My name is actually Sophie. I got married to Bruce Haydon against my mother’s wishes almost 10 years ago. We had a beautiful daughter called Natalie who would have been 9 now. Bruce had a little import export business and I was working as an art restorer. Then there was a spate of art thefts from the houses where I had been working and I was the prime suspect. I was charged and put on trial. Though I couldn’t believe that they would find me guilty, a part of me knew exactly what was going to happen. In the last few days before the trial, I had bought a toy rabbit for my daughter. Natalie fell in love with the rabbit and used to clutch it for comfort every day during the trial period. On the last day of the trial, Natalie began to cry. It was as though she knew that I wasn’t going to come back. She clung to me crying, “Mummy, don’t go-please don’t go Mummy-”. Natalie screamed and screamed and curled up on the sofa clutching her toy rabbit. That was the last time I saw her. Wherever she is now, whatever she is doing, that’s her last memory of me.”
At the trial, they found me guilty and I was sent to prison. Bruce came to see me in prison a few times, but never brought Natalie. The one day my mother told me that he’d vanished taking our little girl with him. That’s when I became hysterical and for a while was on a suicide watch. That was six years ago and I haven’t seen either of them since.
By the time I realised that it was Bruce who had sold me out to a gang of thieves, he had vanished. Then a couple of pictures turned up at an auction house. The trail led to the mastermind who confessed to the crime and implicated Bruce. My conviction was squashed and I was released. My lawyer is fighting for a compensation, but my only use for the money is to search for Bruce. My mother died of a broken heart while I was in prison. She left me just a little money which I used to come here and start searching for Bruce.”
At the end of the narration, I was drowning in so much of angst that I wondered what would happen in the second half of the book. The first half was nothing compared to the second half.
There is hopeless anguish.
There is overwhelming grief.
There is agonising heartbreak.
There is frozen misery.
There is violent despair.
There is gut-wrenching pain.
There is crushing bitterness.
And how they find their way to their HEA is the rest of the story.
March 30, 2012
This book was surprisingly good, though let down by the convenient case of the daughter remembering her mother even though she was 2 1/2 when they were separated, then having absolutely no issue with the fact that her father had raised her upon a lie and apparently having no questions to ask other than 'where were you?' even after the half answer given.
The ending was a bit annoying too, but then again - this IS Mills and Boon I'm reviewing here.
Four stars from me :)
The ending was a bit annoying too, but then again - this IS Mills and Boon I'm reviewing here.
Four stars from me :)
September 11, 2012
This novel was good but beyond screwed up. I was biting my fingernails for a lot of the novel. It was upsetting and sad at times. It was unlike anything I've ever read.
July 8, 2016
Beautiful story. It would have made a wonderful novel. Wasted as just another Mills & Boon paperback romance.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews