Product Description

The Keep - that beautiful, ancient family home where the Chadwick family had lived for generations - is still a haven from the heartbreaks and storms of life. Jolyon Chadwick, a famous television presenter, takes his new girlfriend Henrietta home meet his extended family - and also to meet Marie, the mother who deserted him and his father many years ago, now re-appeared and seeming to want forgiveness. Jolyon, however, is not in the mood for forgiveness - although his father Hal, now married to his cousin and childhood sweetheart, feels a lingering guilt about Marie and wants them all to be friends. And Henrietta, still vulnerable from the break-up of her own parents' marriage, is not sure whether she can move on.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #173799 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

About the Author
Marcia Willett's early life was devoted to the ballet, but her dreams of becoming a ballerina ended when she grew out of the classical proportions required. She had always loved books, and a family crisis made her take up a new career as a novelist - a decision she has never regretted. She lives in a beautiful and wild part of Devon where she loves to be visited by her son and his young family. www.marciawillett.co.uk

Customer Reviews

The Chadwick family revisited.
This hardback edition does not make it clear that this is a continuation of the already written about Chadwicks. Although the flyleaf talks of 'The Keep' and the 'Chadwick Family' It was not until I was some way into the book that I realized that this was a sequel to previous novels. There is a family tree at the beginning but I don't tend to look at those as sometimes they spoil the story by listing yet unread about characters.

I decided to re-read the first 3 books,Looking Forward (The Chadwick Family Chronicles) Holding on (The Chadwick Family Chronicles) Winning Through (The Chadwick Family Chronicles). As these were written from 1998, I had forgotten them. I have kept the paperbacks and in each of these on the title page it states 'The Chadwick family Chronicles' a sadly missing piece of information from this hardback edition. Also the different parts (in the previous novels)were dated which was helpful to get a timeline.

Having re-read all 3 previous stories I found that the prodigal wife actually reminisces alot of the time on the past, so for any readers who have not read the others this stands alone quite well.

Without giving the story away, I found it a bit strange that it opened with and revolved around 2 new characters that had never been mentioned before in the other books. The previous 3 stories seemed to flow together better. I would have liked to have continued with the young Chadwick that we started to get to know at the end of 'Winning Through' but he was hardly mentioned. In previous stories the 'Prodigal wife' had been practically written out and was not a nice person so to bring her to the fore seemed odd.

The very end also seemed strange to me. It involved the ginger jar( a common thread) and it seemed to me that it would not have ended up where it did.

Anyway an easy enjoyable read.

The Prodigal Wife
As usual any book by Marcia Willett is a five star in my opinion.
This one didn't disappoint me. I became so engrossed in the lives of the characters that I couldn't put the book down. I felt as though I already knew the people from her previous "Chadwick" books. A wonderful read.

Revisit the Chadwick family
The old and familiar characters are there, plus new ones. The modern setting is a distinct change, but Willett has kept the tone and ambience of the previous novels while forging a new story about the struggle of living with past mistakes. Highly recommended.