The Waiting Time [Mass Market Paperback]

Eugenia Price (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1998 | Series: Waiting Time (Book 1)

Bostonian Abby Banes thought marrying much older Eli Allyn would be a romantic dream: he would make her the pampered mistress of a plantation on Georgia's glorious seacoast. But she wasn't prepared for the realities of slavery or aching loneliness. And when she finally reached out in friendship to her housekeeper Rosa Moon, she found a lifeline during the tragedy that made her a widow. Now, in a land being pulled apart by turmoil and change, Abby defies Southern tradition to run the plantation alone and to embrace a people's call for freedom. And she never expects the intense emotion that draws her to another man...or to be struck by a passion, fierce as lightning, that knows no bounds...

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Price (Beauty from Ashes, LJ 1/95), the grande dame of Southern romantic fiction, died shortly after completing this work. In her final novel, she tells the story of Abbie Allyn, a Boston socialite who marries an older man and moves to a small coastal Georgia town where her husband has purchased a rice plantation. When Abbie's husband, Eli, dies during a trip to purchase contraband slaves, she suddenly finds herself the owner of 100 slaves and a plantation whose workings she doesn't understand. Aided by Thad Greene, her handsome young overseer, Abbie learns rice culture and develops both a feminist and abolitionist conscience; predictably, she finds love as well. Fans of Price's previous novels will find all the hallmarks of her fiction here: considerable historical research, historical figures walking the streets, and a story imbued with inspirational Christian values. A required purchase wherever Price's novels are popular.
-?Andrea Caron Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, Kan.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Price's thirty-ninth (and final--she died recently) book is set, like many of its predecessors, in Georgia's coastal lowlands. This time out, readers will meet transplanted Bostonian Abby Allyn, newly widowed at 31. Although she has lived in the town of Darien for five years, Abby apparently has never before considered what she lives on. It's not until the death of her older husband, whose closed mouth and deep pockets irritated Abby (never mind that some would consider these to be fine traits in a spouse!), that the reality of owning a rice plantation and 100 human beings hits home. A visit to her mother undams a torrent of ladylike abolitionist sentiment, and Abby returns to Darien determined to free her slaves. The heel-cooling period of the title refers both to Abby's need to work out the timing and legalities involved in freeing her slaves as war looms on the horizon, and to the official year of mourning that must pass before she can decently marry her secret beau, the plantation's handsome and voluble overseer. The book is undeniably corny, much of the dialogue reminds one of 10-year-old girls playing dress-up, but not without an innocent charm. June Vigor --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks; Reprint edition (September 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312965060
• ISBN-13: 978-0312965068
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,216,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Ailing Price, December 28, 2000

By 

"lmarmarmar" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Waiting Time (Mass Market Paperback)

As an avid reader of Eugenia Price novels, I was very excited to read this novel. Unfortunately, I did not think that the Waiting Time held a candle to Price's previous works. I did not feel the strong connection to the characters in this book as I did with the characters in the St. Augustine trilogy or the Savannah quartet. Even at the end of the novel I did not feel that I truly knew the main character, Abby Banes. The story also did not flow as did Price's previous stories. It took too long for problems to be resolved and the love interest for Abby did not capture my heart as did Mark Browning in Savannah or David Fenwick in Maria. One can tell that this book was in fact the last effort of Ms. Price before she passed away in 1996. I will always read anything and eveything written by this brilliant woman, but if I were not such a big fan I would have been even more dissapopinted.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Often Annoying, June 29, 2002

By 

Christine F (Mt. Airy, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Waiting Time (Mass Market Paperback)

"Predictable" might be a good word to summarize this book. "Repetitious" would be another. I thought, if Miss Abby tells one more person how much she wants to talk to somebody, I'll put the book down. Instead I found myself highlighting the instances, at least for a little while. There were many.

In related news, we learn (for the 50th time) that Eli doesn't talk at all, Obediah talks a lot, Laura Mabrey is helpful AND talkative, and Rosa Moon didn't talk before they hugged and became friends, but now she does. Thaddeus offers, within 3 sentences of their introduction, to talk to dear Miss Abby. Hooray!

Characterization is shallow. Plot - well, will she or won't she be able to talk to dear dependable Thad and find happiness? Let's guess.

It's grammatical, but beyond that hard to enjoy.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars as always the story was great . ms price will be missed ., November 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Waiting Time (Mass Market Paperback)

i have read almost everything she has written and each book has touch my heart. because of ms price i also have fallen love with her island an the people who lived there. this book like all the others is great. i visted the island in sept. its as peaceful as she said.