Windfallen

The silvery voice of Michelle Ford is perfect for this engaging romance set in the seaside town of Merham and filled with appealing characters. Ford's well-paced reading captures the nuances of time and place as the residential Arcadia House comes under fire throughout several generations. At the heart of the novel are Lottie and Daisy, whose stories are told with aplomb. Ford handles abrupt shifts in point of view without confusion as the story moves between characters and time periods. Moyes has crafted a generational story of love and finding oneself, and Ford's appealing delivery keeps the listener engaged. M.N.T. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

May 5, 2003
Moyes, a young Brit, again proves herself a worthy successor to Maeve Binchy and Rosamund Pilcher with her second novel (after Sheltering Rain), a warmhearted drama. A magnificent art deco house called Arcadia, built on a seaside cliff in the stuffy English village of Merham, stands at the center of her tale. Lottie Swift was born in London's East End but evacuated during WWII to Merham as a child; she's eventually taken in permanently by the Holden family and brought up in their bustling household just down the road from Arcadia. When Lottie is in her late teens, an exotic clan of bohemians move into Arcadia, and Lottie takes to visiting, sometimes with Celia Holden, her best friend, but more often on her own. Then Celia goes away to school in London and comes back with a fiancé—a man Lottie believes is her destiny. Her love is doomed, but Arcadia provides unexpected solace. Half a century later, interior designer Daisy Parsons comes to Arcadia, hired by a successful but prickly London developer who has bought the house with plans for making it into a fashionable tourist destination. Daisy's longtime lover and design partner has just departed after their baby is born, but she conquers self-pity and determines to honor the contract by herself. She's befriended by Lottie, now an acerbic matron who scorns her village contemporaries but is charmed by the baby and volunteers to act as nanny. Moyes deftly handles her involved plot, skillfully exploring the different family dynamics; her thoughtful tone and light touch make this a delightful read.