Returning (Harper Monogram)

Rating:
Summary: Susan Bowden's " Returning"
Review: I found that this book's plot was not very interesting, however, the characters are alive and full of human emotions. The plot of the story, which I thought was very English and would probably shock a modern day prude or Victorian, was somewhat lacking. Helen Lawrence, a 49 year old woman is suddenly reunited with her daughter, Emma Turner, after all these years, 30 years to be exact. Her daughter calls her for the 1st time in 30 years in search of her birth mother and birth father. Throughout the story, the story gets a little weaker. The past of the mother is not as shocking. I mean, come on, here! I'm talking about how this woman was unhappy with her parents and like the famous Anne Frank, didn't get along with her mother and therefore lived with her grandmother, her aunt, and their housekeeper, and then gets infatuated with a man who's 8 years her senior, sleeps with him twice in their time that they are together, and gets pregnant and is forced to flee back home to her parents so as to not bring shame upon her loving grandmother and aunt, moves to Canada, gets married and starts a family, while all the while feeling ashamed about what small thing she has done in her past. The abadonment from both her parents in times of her pregnancy was good, her revenge by hating them in turn and never seeing her father until 30 years later was fine, and the shock of her family in Canada when they heard the news from the tabloids was even better. Julian Holbrooke was a very deceptive villian.This type of book is not shocking enough for the average non prude and the average American's reading eyes but will be for any prude and British person because the main character is British. I recommend that if you read it, to make a bad commentry for the romance between Alan Grenville and Emma Turner. If you like romance novels and are a prude, I suggest that you read this book.