Customer Reviews

Falling Angel (Rita Award)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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The book begins with Emerson Wyatt MacVey III being in Heaven for 17 months after dieing of a heart attach. He has not changed from his greedy,selfish and self centeredness he possessed while on Earth.He is sent back to Earth with an assignment to right the wrongs he was responsible for when he was alive. He goes back as Gabriel Falconi with a new appearance and new identity.

Gabriel works very hard to accomplish his assignment because he is being weighted in the balance to see if he will be allowed to return to Heaven or will he be sent to "that other place".

Gabriel's character shows both sides of the human nature.The reader is able to feel the emotions (or lack of)in MacVey's personality which is typical of many people but also the warm,loving and caring personality of Gabriel which is found in most everyone.

I enjoyed reading the book very much.It really made me stop and think about what I am doing to others while I am alive because,in reality,I do not think I will have a second chance.

Emerson Wyatt MacVey has hurt and used a lot of people during his thirty two years on Earth. It wasn't until he died and was sent to Heaven's Waystation that he began to see the error of his ways. Now with the threat of the "other place" hanging over his head, Emerson has exactly one month to go back and right three of his wrongs. He's sent back as Gabriel Falconi, a tall, muscular carpenter who lands right in Angel Falls, Minnesota. He's taken in by Carrie Alexandra, a woman whose never met a stranger and she and the whole town embrace him wholeheartedly and welcome him to spend the holidays. Immediately, Gabriel is entranced by Carrie and the goodness she tries so desperately to represent and he finds himself tumbling head over heels in love. As luck would have it, she's one of the three wrongs he needs to right and he can hardly claim success if he loves her and leaves her. He's here on borrowed time and he tries hard to keep his distance. Being around Carrie has helped him see the error of his ways far more than the threat of hell and he tries to be honorable. But when she looks back at him with the same amount of longing, Gabriel is lost and he convinces himself that a night in her arms is worth an eternity in hell.

This was such a heartwarming Christmas story. Since it was originally written in 1993, it has a down-home, Norman Rockwell feel to it that just wouldn't be realistic in the twenty first century. Heck, it shouldn't have been realistic even then, but Anne Stuart makes it work. Angel Falls represents a time when people helped out their fellow neighbors and everyone pitched in together as a group. The fact that Gabriel's arrival is suspicious and he's a stranger makes no never mind to anyone and he's immediately enfolded into the town. He's put to work helping out the Swenson family and from there, he comes into contact with all sorts of lively characters.

Gabriel was a quintessential dream man. Tall and handsome, a good cook, good with his hands and handy around the house. He took care of Carrie with such gentle, single minded fervor that my heart just melted. Carrie was so lost and broken inside and when Gabriel began to heal her, I loved seeing her blossom again. This was such a heartwarming story and it was full of rich, warm and witty characters that I delight in revisiting time and time again. Enjoy!

I really enjoyed this book. In the beginning, I did not think I would like it because it was about someone coming back from the dead. But how wrong I was. This book was VERY, VERY good. It really held my interest.

Made me cry at the end...I won't reveal whether they were tears of sadness or happiness. This book also sends a positive message without seeming preachy.

This is not your typical Anne Stuart but it is a great book. Out of every book of hers I have read, I would have to say this one ranks in the top 5. It is not her usual dark theme but still a very interesting read. I enjoyed it very much. I read the whole thing in one sitting.

Wow! I'm a little shell-shocked after reading this book. For me, this is a new "Christmas Classic" that I will revisit every year along with "A Christmas Carol" "It's a Wonderful Life" and "The Grinch"!

For me, Christmas should be a time of giving, spending time with family, making amends, and using the season as a time of self-reflection. Reflecting on who you are to others and who you want to be in the future. This is why I love the story of Scrooge. He gets a second chance to experience what is important in life and to make changes accordingly.

Falling Angel by Anne Stuart looks into this same scenario. A selfish, greedy man dies suddenly of a heart attack and is given a second chance to go back and help 3 people that have been negatively impacted from past mistakes that he made.

For it's length, this is one of the most intense and "deep" books that I've ever read. Stuart sets you, the reader, right smack dab in the middle of a quaint Minnesota town, introduces you to it's citizens, and makes you fall in love with all of them. Carrie, of course, is the focal point. She is so GOOD, yet also carries such burdens with her. The romance between her and Gabriel is really just "destined". The ending will satisfy even the hardest of hearts and will without question put even the most cynical into the Christmas Spirit.

Enjoy!

I've been slowly picking up Anne Stuart's backlist. This one's from 1993, and it won the 1994 RITA award for Best Futuristic/Fantasy/Paranormal Romance. It was well-deserved.

Emerson MacVey was a ruthless, greedy, uncaring man, until he had a massive heart attack and died at the age of 32. Now, 17 months after his death, he has one last chance of avoiding hell--he'll return to earth in another body, and within one month, he has to make amends to 3 people whose lives he destroyed. The fine print: he gets 3 miracles--one per person, and there'll be someone there to keep an eye on him, and he can't tell anyone who he is or why he's there.

The first person, and the only one whose name he's told, is Carrie Alexander. She'd been his secretary for 3 months, and he fired her on Christmas Eve. She was also the only person who'd cried when he died.

Carrie had thought she'd seen the good hidden under Emerson's cold exterior, and she'd fallen in love with him. And when her hometown's only industry was collapsing, she thought she saw a way to help both him and her town, since his business was buying and selling businesses. Instead, he bought it and closed it down, dooming the town, and broke her heart.

Now she's being eaten up by the guilt, and making amends in the only way she can think of--being the town's resident angel.

So when Gabriel Falcone's car ran into a ditch near Angel Falls, Carrie was the one who looked after him.

Falling Angel is a sweet story of love and redemption, sort of a cross between A Christmas Carol and Heaven Can Wait. But it avoids the saccharine sappiness of so many Christmas redemption romances, by making the emotions real rather than forced, and by giving both characters real dilemmas instead of simply the expected self-sacrifice.

Carrie's not just your usual milquetoast altruistic heroine, and Emerson/Gabriel isn't just your usual hero who only seems unfeeling because he hasn't yet learned to love. They're a lot more 3-dimensional than that. The rest of the town is likewise real, and because of that, you care about what happens to them.

This is, I think, the quintessential Christmas romance--it's what so many stories aspire to, but so few completely achieve.

Anne Stuart ( one of my favourite writers) gives us a touching story of second chances. And as usual, Stuart is the BEST at the bad boy being redeemed by love. Emerson Wyatt McVey was a ruthless corporate executive that destroyed hundreds, maybe thousands of lives by closing factories. On a Wintry holiday night, his car goes off the road and he dies, but he is given once chance to come back as another man and make right three lives he destroyed. Carrie Alexander is one of those he destroyed and it is through her love McVey will be redeemed or not. A beautiful holiday tale, with Fallen Angel being a special special Stuart tale.

This is a story that is, in a word, hilarious but also sad. Loved this novel, its premise is rather stretching the imagination a bit, but yet you don't seem to mind. Emerson is the "Ebenezer Scrooge of the 20th Century" who like Scrooge is able to mend his ways. This story is warm, and yet a little heartbreaking at the same time. Tremendously funny book ... love Emerson's guardian (the old woman)... she is a hoot! Great book for being a romance!

I love re-reading this book. Redemption and remorse are strong themes - but overall there is a comforting feel about the book. I'm not sure whether it's because it's set in a loving town at Christmas or whether it's because the characters are all so heart-warming, but there is definitely a cosy, loving feel tot his book. It's one of Anne Stuart's lighter romances but definitely up there with the best!