Thirteen year old Angel Bishop is fed up with all the unanswered questions about her life, like why did her daddy run off when she was just a baby? And why has her Aunt Patsy, the only family member she feels she can talk to, been locked up in a place for crazy people all these years? It seems to Angel like her family fell apart right after she was born, which makes her wonder what her coming along had to do with it. Growing up with her mother, Ruth, who is often distant and preoccupied, and her Bible-thumping grandmother, Naomi, Angel is certain there's more to the story than she's been told. When her father, Calvin, telephones out of the blue one evening and says he's coming home for Thanksgiving, Angel thinks her dream of having a normal family is finally going to come true. Instead, she finds herself at the center of a dangerous scenario, threatened by secrets far beyond her understanding. Set in a small Appalachian town in the early 1970's, ANGEL is the compelling story of an innocent girl as the unwitting link between the two generations of her family's dark and unresolved past.
ANGEL
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More About the Author
Mary E. Kingsley was born and raised in northeastern Tennessee, surrounded by the hills of southern Appalachia. She now lives in Washington DC with her husband, two cats and a dog. When not writing she enjoys spending time with friends and family, yoga, gardening, occasional painting, paper making, and photography. Angel is her first novel.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A pure delight!,
This review is from: ANGEL (Kindle Edition)
Angel is a treasure of a story which brought me back to a period that still triggers so many fond memories. "Angel" is fun and charming with a quick sense of humor. The story pulls you in to attempt to figure out what is going to happen next. I highly recommend it for many different age groups.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Beautiful Coming-of-Age Novel,
This review is from: ANGEL (Kindle Edition)
Angel Bishop is 13, orange-haired (it is NOT red, thank you very much), and in many respects a fairly typical adolescent girl. She's a little more thoughtful and a little less obsessed with boys than most, but she's still dealing with all the inner turmoil of those years between innocence and the beginnings of maturity.For Angel that turmoil is particularly acute because she's never known her daddy. She knows his name, has a picture of him, gets cards and presents from him, and she and her mama even live with her daddy's mother, Naomi; but nobody will really talk about him. The most she can get out of her mama or Naomi is that he's too busy working to come home, and everyone else in town clams up the minute Angel starts asking questions. The only person who seems to have any answers is her Aunt Patsy, but Patsy's been locked up in a mental home for years and what she says doesn't always make a lot of sense. Then one day Angel's daddy calls to say he'll be home for Thanksgiving, and Angel's desire to have a proper family takes her on a journey that's disturbing, liberating, and nothing like what she always hoped for. ANGEL is, in a word, lovely. Kingsley has a direct, honest style that works well to convey feeling without bathos or melodrama, and Angel is a captivating heroine. She is brave and even foolhardy at times, but beneath it all is her wholly believable desire to have the kind of family she thinks of as "normal." Kingsley has captured the hot-and-cold nature of adolescence beautifully, and keeps her protagonist always perfectly balanced between a longing for the safety of childhood and a largely unconscious drive for the self-determination of adulthood. Although nothing at all like it in style or story, ANGEL nonetheless reminded me strongly of "The Catcher in the Rye" in its appeal. It could probably be argued that all coming-of-age novels share the theme that growing up never means what we expect it to, but what's rare is a first-person narrator who's truly insightful without being a prodigy - someone who reminds us just how confusing and painful that time was if we're looking back on it, while also reassuring those closer to Angel in age that feeling like an oddball is, in fact, what's truly normal. Kingsley's pacing is perfect as her engaging heroine digs deeper into the family's past, and the novel moves quickly without feeling rushed. The dialogue rings true, the characters are varied, interesting, and always utterly relatable (I don't know if it's because both my parents are from the South, but I felt like I grew up with these people), and Kingsley does a deft job of doling out the secrets to keep you turning pages. It's an engrossing, enriching read. Highly recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Engaging and Delightful,
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This review is from: ANGEL (Kindle Edition)
I intended to read Angel over the course of a few weeks like I often do with works of fiction. But the Prologue drew me in, and I read the entire book in one day. Kingsley's heroine rings true as a small-town southern girl, and unlike many teen heroines, she is neither vapid nor mature beyond her years. The storyline is realistic and engaging, and Kingsley's easy writing style and pace kept me eagerly turning the pages without being tempted to skim past the details. I eagerly await her next novel! I would recommend this book for anyone interested in small-town southern culture, family dynamics, or excellent novels. If for no other reason, read Angel to learn that redheads really have orange hair!
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