At seventeen, Rosalind 'Lin' Townsend finds herself pregnant and alone. Her father, deeply religious yet cruel, throws her out of the house. Nick Pemberton, her baby's father and the man she naively hoped might marry her, rejects her. Yet even at the lowest point in her life, Lin vows to succeed on her own terms, and to give her son, Will, all the love and happiness she's been denied. Nineteen years later, Lin has made good on her promises. She's the owner of a thriving diner in her Georgia hometown, and Will has grown into a fine, intelligent young man who's about to start his freshman year at NYU. But when Lin visits New York with Will, she crosses paths with the one man she was sure she'd never see again - Nick Pemberton, now a millionaire CEO, the man who sent back all her letters unopened, marked 'Return to Sender'. Seeing him fills Lin with anger - and she resolves to right the wrong he did to Will. Helped by Jason, a hired detective, and her best friend, Sally, Lin sets out to disrupt Nick's life and his finances, with spectacular results. But the truth is more complex and surprising than she imagined. And soon Lin must choose - between the revenge she thought would free her, and the bright new future that's about to be delivered to her door...
Return To Sender
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Even if the plot of Michaels's latest (after The Scoop) was meant to be a farce, it remains unbelievably ludicrous. Lin Townsend, raised by a religious zealot, had a rough childhood and got pregnant when she was 17. Thrown out of her home, she raises her son, Will, poor and alone, and the letters she sends over the years to Nick Pemberton, Will's father, are returned to sender. Lin eventually saves enough to send Will to NYU, but just before his freshman year, Lin runs into Nick, who is now married, wealthy, and has no clue who Lin is. And so Lin vows revenge: her plot is to tie up Nick's money and to make him suffer like she did for all those years. Meanwhile, Nick discovers he has leukemia and decides to cut off his bitch of a wife, who has her own dastardly plans. None of it is especially believable, and the characters are either underdeveloped or maddeningly inconsistent. Additionally, Michaels's prose is frequently slapdash (It wasn't possible, yet her common sense told her it was highly probable!), but that's unlikely to diminish the book's commercial prospects. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Lin Townsend is the owner of a successful diner in Georgia. Her son Will is kind, courteous, intelligent, and about to embark on his freshman year at NYU. Little would anyone know that almost 20 years earlier Lin had been pregnant and alone, kicked out by her religious father and rejected by the baby’s father. But with that life behind her, Lin is excited about bringing her son to New York where he can start the life she worked so hard to give him. But all is turned upside down when she runs into Nick Pemberton—Will’s father, the man who abandoned her all those years ago. Michaels tells a story that is simultaneously heartbreaking, suspenseful, and tender. Filled with anger and resolved to punish Nick for his past actions, Lin, with the help of a hired detective, begins to unravel the truth of her past and make important decisions about her future. --Claire Orphan
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More About the Author
Fern Michaels is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Fool Me Once, Sweet Revenge, The Nosy Neighbor, Pretty Woman, and dozens of other novels and novellas. There are over seventy million copies of her books in print. Fern Michaels has built and funded several large day-care centers in her hometown, and is a passionate animal lover who has outfitted police dogs across the country with special bulletproof vests. She shares her home in South Carolina with her four dogs and a resident ghost named Mary Margaret.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Terrible Story, Awful Characters,
By Hawaii 5-0 (Glendale, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Return To Sender (Hardcover)
I used to like Fern Michaels' earlier work. Haven't read her in quite awhile, so when I read the inside jacket of this book it sounded like something I might enjoy --- NOT!
Other reviewers' comments about the contents were right-on. There was just so much wrong with this book I can't believe it. The thing that struck me right off is that Will was born in 1989, not 1889 for pete's sake, and most of Lin's struggles and suffering could have been alleviated by filing a paternity suit. DNA testing wasn't so readily available at that time, but paternity blood tests sure were! No, Nick wouldn't have been forced to have a part in Will's life if he didn't want to, but the court would have made him pay child support nonetheless. Next thing that bothered me was the child abuse aspect. Again, we are talking about the modern 80's here when Lin was growing up, and surely her going to school smelling like urine and vomit, and that she was also dirty and unkempt most days would alert a teacher or someone in authority to the fact that something just wasn't right in the Townsend household, small town or not. Then we move on to the 'revenge' aspect in present day. Reading about ruining a man via identity theft and manipulation of banking records, even if he was an a**, really just turned my stomach. And kidnapping? Both of these are Federal crimes with prison (not jail) time involved... The rest of the story was drivel. And repetitive - 2 or 3 page narratives in their entirety were repeated a few times near the end of the book. Only reason I could figure why this was done was for page count purposes to meet a contractual obligation. Don't waste you time with this book. It really was pretty awful.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The letters are the key,
This review is from: Return To Sender (Hardcover)
Lin Townsend has made something of her life. She had a horrendous childhood and is kicked out of her home when she becomes pregnant. The son, Will is a wonderful boy who goes off to NYU, where Lin discovers the father-Nick, that she has told Will is dead and now to her horror the secret will most likely come out because of a bone marrow drive where Will's parentage will be discovered.
Lin, even though she is wealthy now and has a good life, sets out to ruin and make Nick feel her pain and have revenge on the man who she believes returned her letters and gave her no support. Nick is super wealthy, but has cancer. Lin's revenge is really over the top and that is where this book, that I was really enjoying started on its' downhill plunge. Lin kidnaps and drugs Nick's wife- Chelsea. This is really a serious act even for someone bent on payback for a wrong. It also doesn't seem realistic that a smart lady like Lin would carry around letters for years that she never notices two important words on them that would have given her a vital key. It also seems unrealistic, that it would never occur to her that maybe Nick's wealthy, influential, rich family would have been the ones to return letters and he might not have known about it. The characters are written well and you really get to know them, including Nick and his wife who are horrid to each other. But... then in the last 40 pages, the story telling becomes disjointed and choppy. Lin's story of her life is told twice - yes to two different people, but to have two pages of the same words repeated word for word?? And then it happens again with a recording that was made which is sent to Nick, word for word it is repeated. At another place in these last pages ...all of a sudden it's past Thanksgiving and we learn Lin had a wonderful ski vacation...what? It just makes the last part of the book too rushed, when the ending could have been a great part of Lin's life that comes together. This is a complicated but interesting story line. There is far more to read in it than most of these novels and questions that occur: What is it in Lin's childhood that affects her? What is Nick and his wife's life like? What is really stamped on the letters? Why does the bone marrow drive threaten Lin's relationship with her son? How has Lin made so much money? And most of all Does Lin live happily ever after? These should create enough interest for those who want to get the book.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
JUST PLAIN AWFUL---AND THAT'S BEING KIND,
This review is from: Return To Sender (Hardcover)
This is one of those books that you start reading and you keep hoping it will get better. Let me save you the agony of reading this book and let you know from the get go it does not!
The story never really developes beyond an outline---and a very bad one at that. The characters are not people that I would care to know---the only saving grace is that I borrowed it and did not spend any of my own hard earned money on it. Skip this one and read ANYTHING else instead. Some things are better left alone and this is one of them.
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