Parting Gifts [Mass Market Paperback]

Charlotte Vale Allen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2002

On the day of her husband's funeral, Kyra Latimer is confronted by a young woman claiming to be her daughter. Though she knows the young woman is not related, Kyra is drawn to the stranger's three-year-old son, Jesse -- a child who has obviously suffered from neglect -- and agrees to care for him. After the boy's mother disappears, it becomes apparent that Jesse is no ordinary boy. Soon Kyra begins to face the truth about this remarkable child and why he came to be in her life.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

New York Times bestselling author Charlotte Vale Allen's 35th novel, Parting Gifts, introduces Kyra Latimer, who was reared in a Barrymore-esque family feeling like she never quite fit in with the rest of her beautiful, talented relatives. Devastated when her beloved older husband is killed in a tragic accident, Kyra can barely function, though her eccentric family does their best to help her cope. But Kyra quickly snaps back to reality when salvation arrives in the form of a dirty, bruised little scrap of humanity: a 3-year-old boy named Jesse. Literally dumped on her doorstep by his hard-eyed young mother, who claims to be the daughter Kyra gave up for adoption as a teenager--an interesting proposition, as Kyra is unable to have children--Jesse has seen and experienced too much ugliness in his young life and keeps warily silent. Given the choice of taking the tiny stranger into her home and heart or letting his mother place Jesse in foster care so she can move away with her boyfriend, Kyra begins negotiating the rough waters of teaching a child to trust again.

Thrown together by chance, this unlikely duo muddles along as well as it can. Kyra and Jesse simultaneously grieve their losses and learn to love the new opportunities they've been afforded just by being together. Along the way, the boy, who has no reason to trust others, especially a mother, grows into an exceptionally loving and talented young man. And Kyra, who once lamented her inability to conceive, devotes herself to nurturing and loving Jesse, thereby learning to nurture and love herself as well. As Kyra learns how to become a mother, Jesse learns to let her try--and sometimes fail--to parent him. But the biggest challenge of all lies ahead for Kyra and Jesse. Can a mother who loves her young son respect his life-or-death choice?

Canadian-born author Charlotte Vale Allen has never shied away from exploring less-than-admirable human behaviors, including incest and sexual abuse. In Parting Gifts, she turns her discerning eye to physical and emotional abuse, blended families, and the unique problems of foster care and adoption. Allen captures the day-to-day struggle of all women, making their problems and issues real and making readers care what happens to Jesse and Kyra. A captivating and touching read. --Alison Trinkle --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

A poignant story of parental love propels bestselling author Allen's 35th novel. A newly widowed British costume designer, Kyra Latimer, 38, is confronted, on the day of her husband's funeral, by a strident young woman who insists she is the daughter Kyra gave up for adoption 20-odd years ago. Although Kyra never had a child, she agrees to take in her alleged grandson, a ragamuffin three-year-old named Jesse, who would otherwise end up in foster care. Allen spins a compelling narrative in recounting how Jesse, who has been physically abused and neglected (a subject Allen first explored in her autobiography, Daddy's Girl), profoundly alters Kyra's life. Kyra, who has always felt that her own mother, a famous actress, never loved her, is fulfilled by being able to nurture a child. Jesse, it turns out, is unusually gifted; his extraordinary talents for observation and communication are manifest in a book he writes when he is only 12. But Jesse is soon diagnosed with kidney disease, possibly incurred when he was beaten as a toddler. Allen, who likes to inform as well as entertain, imparts much information about kidney failure, dialysis and alternative treatments. But the plot goes awry when Kyra astonishingly allows the adolescent Jesse to make a life-threatening decision regarding his health-care treatment. This plot twist undermines the plausibility of what is otherwise an inspiring story about how people cope when a loved one develops a potentially terminal illness, as well as a moving portrayal of the power of love to heal those who have been abused.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Mira (April 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1551669005
• ISBN-13: 978-0778300625
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,005,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charlotte Vale-Allen was born in Toronto and lived in England from 1961 to 1964 where she worked as a television actress and singer. She returned to Toronto briefly, performing as a singer until she emigrated to the US in 1966. She sold her first novel Love Life in 1974. Prior to this book's publication she contracted to do a series of paperback originals, with the result that in 1976 three of her books appeared in print. Her autobiography, the acclaimed Daddy's Girl, was actually the first book she wrote but it wasn't until 1980, after she'd gained success as a novelist, that the groundbreaking book was finally published. One of Canada's most successful novelists, with over seven million copies sold of her 39 books, Ms. Allen's work has been published in all English-speaking countries, in Braille, and have been translated into more than 20 languages. The mother of an adult daughter and grandmother of twins, since 1970 she has made her home in Connecticut.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Food for thought, June 11, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Parting Gifts (Hardcover)

I must say that, again, Charlotte Vale Allen has reached my heart. I feel so close to the main characters that I feel like I truly know them. Being a widow myself at a young age, I have had so many of the same feelings that the main character had. I don't know how the author can have such feeling for and understanding of her without having been there herself. She weaves such a complicated and heart warming plot. I feel like she is actually telling me the story.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Parting Gifts Powerful and Moving, May 21, 2001

By 

James Dale (Hamilton, ON, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Parting Gifts (Hardcover)

I have read a number of Charlotte Vale Allen's novels, and this is up there with the best of them, deserving to rank with Mood Indigo. The reader is involved emotionally--intensely, but without maudlin sentimentality. This is achieved through the very skilful treatment of the characters; they are so deftly drawn that one believes in them and cares about what happens to them, even the minor ones. Children are presented as real human beings; the boy Jesse, in particular, is movingly convincing and ultimately heroic. Kyra, the central character, is seen developing through growth in self-knowledge; this can be seen as the great theme of the whole novel. I don't mean to suggest that everything comes up roses for everyone, or that all the characters are charming feel-good types. There is a convincingly cold-blooded surgical technocrat, obviously drawn from life, who reminds me forcibly of some--by no means all--high-powered medical people I have encountered, and the immoral world of chequebook journalism is scathingly displayed. Parting Gifts is far from a preachy novel, but it looks honestly and compassionately at life and takes the side of authenticity and integrity against sneering arrogance and pretentiousness. It expands one's awareness, so that the reader is drawn into sharing the painful but necessary development of the sympathetic characters.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Winner From Charlotte Vale Allen, May 19, 2001

By 

suzette phillips (Burke, Va. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Parting Gifts (Hardcover)

Charlotte Vale Allen's latest novel, Parting Gifts, catches and holds your attention from the very first page. Kyra Latimer has just lost her huband, Gary, in an accident. Still reeling from the trageedy and the funereal, she returns to her apartment to find a young girl and an obviously neglected three year old in the lobby of her building, demanding to see her. Kyra has no idea who they are and is stunned when the girl, Jennifer claims that Kyra is her mother, Jesse her grandchild, and that she wants to Kyra to raise Jesse or she'll turn him over to foster care. Kyra agrees to take the child, and a marvelous story unfolds.

Charlotte writes very convincingly of the challenges of raising a child who has been abused and neglected. Jesse is a character that you won't soon forget, an enchanting, wise beyond his years little boy, who thanks to the love and nurturing of Kyra and her family is able to learn to love and trust. The end of this book was heartwrenching. Both the characters and their stories will stay with you long after you've finished reading the book.

I have read all 35 of Charlotte's books, and after each one have said that this is her best work so far. I had the same reaction at the end of Parting Gifts and urge everyone to read this book and any of the ones before it that you may have missed.