Seasons of Love - Softcover

Eskapa, Shirley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312953445 ISBN 13: 9780312953447

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1995

Synopsis

A story spanning three generations of two families--one poor and ruled by an ambitious woman, the other wealthy and driven by powerful men--reveals the high price of betrayal and the bond of family that triumphs over all

About this title

Review:

Cecilia Tortelli is only a teenager when she boards a ship to America in 1944. Despite her young age, Cecilia has seen the terrors of war, felt the horror of rape and experienced the loss of innocence. She leaves Italy frightened, but hopeful that all the stories she's heard of America are true. She naively marries an abusive man and thanks God for what little she has. In a few years she is unable to take her husband's abuse any longer and leaves him to start a new life with her daughter, Gina. Gina is Cecilia's whole life. Cecilia wants only the very best for her daughter and through her connections with two wealthy women, she is able to provide Gina with the best opportunities and the best education. Gina grows up to be as stunningly beautiful as her mother. Unlike her mother, she is ruthless in her pursuit for success. Despite her intelligence and beauty, Gina is still the daughter of a seamstress and she is reminded of this when the man she had hoped to marry betrays her. Gina vows to spend her life seeking revenge on his family for treating her so badly. She marries an older, dependable man and has her own daughter, Scarlett. She becomes a successful business woman and eventually fulfills her goal for revenge, but it is a hollow victory. Her personal life is a mess and she is emotionally numb. Scarlett is a disappoinment to her mother. Musically gifted, she is obese because she fights her unhappiness with a food addiction. Gina cannot stand to see her daughter be overweight and takes the matter into her own hands. Scarlett, realizing she has been a pawn in her mother's plan, shuts Gina out of her life and pursues her own happiness. Cecilia, Gina and Scarlett-- three generations of women and their search for love. Their stories are as unique as they are, and as timeless as their beauty and determination..A saga spanning three generations of powerful, captivating women! A wonderful book to curl up with on a cold night! Shirley Eskapa is a brilliant author who knows how to write a story that touches the soul! Seasons Of Love is a remarkable book! An absorbing novel you won't want to put down!Kristina Wright -- Copyright © 1994-97 Literary Times, Inc. All rights reserved -- From Literary Times

From Publishers Weekly:

With enthralling characters and a plot worthy of a juicy miniseries, Seasons of Love opens in wartorn Rome in 1944 and moves to present-day America as it chronicles the lives of three generations of women. Poverty-ridden Cecilia, after suffering a violent rape by a crazed American soldier, is offered a new life in America in exchange for perjuring herself. Her daughter Gina, spurned by the man she loves, finds revenge in power and success, while Gina's daughter Scarlett becomes a receptacle for her mother's anger. Eskapa, a British author, transplants her characters from Europe to the East coast with some awkwardness, and readers may find Seasons of Love (published in the U.K. as Blood Relations) a frustrating read. At one point Eskapa has teenagers eating pizza with a fork; at another, she writes: "Katie's mother decided to strip off and make a spectacle of herself." The dialogue is spiked with an overabundance of adverbs, and the passive narration often feels as if it has been plucked from the pages of a textbook. Small problems, to be sure, but they detract from what would otherwise be a thoroughly engaging book.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0312953445
• ISBN 13: 9780312953447
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 470