TEST
It is difficult to think of a way to describe Angel Falls that will not turn off readers who hate amnesia stories. This book, technically speaking, is an amnesia story, that is it is a story where one of the main characters, the heroine, gets amnesia. But saying that Angel Falls is an amnesia story is like saying that Jane Eyre is a mystery story. The amnesia in Angel Falls is not of the typical romance novel variety. This is more the kind of amnesia story you would see on ER than on a soap opera. The details of the heroine’s accident are so harrowing that in the opening chapters I assumed that she was dying. Even when she wakes up and slowly recovers her memory, the nightmarish quality of a serious head injury and the fear of real brain damage remains. No, this is not your mother’s amnesia story. It is real amenesia, real brain damage and it is scary.
Angel Falls is a story about family, a real family, and how they pull together in a terrible crisis. It isn’t a romance, although romance surrounds the story. It is about a husband and children and how they manage as their wife and mother struggles to remember who she is and what is important about her life. Mostly, it is about Liam Campbell, the wonderful gentle husband who would do anything to make his wife better.
The story begins when Mikaela Campbell, known as Mica tumbles off her horse and headlong into a stone fence post. Mica is rushed to the hospital and is soon in the care of her loving husband Dr. Liam Campbell. Mica lapses into a coma. For days Liam and Rosa, Mica’s mother sit by her bed speaking to her about her life, trying desperately to get some kind of reaction. Then, as Liam is searching for a dress for their daughter to wear to her prom he discovers for the first time, the identity of Mica’s first husband, Julian. He is a movie star, a big one. Think Robert Redford or Harrison Ford ten years younger and you have Julian. Trying desperately to get a reaction from Mica, Liam goes to the hospital and tells her he has found the wedding pictures from her first marriage. He mentions Julian’s name and, for the first time, gets a reaction from her.
Just from that tiny reaction Liam knows two things. First, that Mica loved Julian in a way that she never loved him. Second, that no matter what, he must convince Julian to come to Angel Falls and see his wife because otherwise Mica may never wake up. Julian, a vain and spoiled man, does make the trip. To Liam’s joy, Julian’s presence wakes Mica from her coma. But it is a mixed blessing for Mica wakes remembering only her marriage to Julian. Not only has she forgotten Liam, she has forgotten the existence of their little boy and remembers only her daugher from the first marriage. The remainder of Angel Falls is about how Mica eventually regains her memory and learns to look at her life differently.
Liam Campbell is an unusual romance hero. He is one of those steady, responsible men to whom family is everything. He is a lot less compelling than the charismatic Julian and he knows it. But what Liam has going for him is an enormous capacity for love. Liam loves Mica more than anyone else could ever love her and he knows it. He loves her in the all encompassing non-judgmental way for which so many of us long. The scene where Liam must bring himself to call Julian to ask him to visit Mica is heart wrenching.
Mica is a bit harder to like. Over and over again we see that she has never completely committed herself to Liam because she has never gotten over her first love to a selfish man. But Mica grows with the experience of her accident and by the end of the book we see that she is a better person than she was before.
I liked this book very much, but one of the few things I didn’t like about it was the device of making Julian a movie star. It struck me as too easy and it made Mica’s attachment to Julian seem more shallow than it was. I hear enough about Hollywood day to day and, for the most part, I would prefer to avoid stars in romance novels. Many many women go through their lives with a handsome Julian stalking the corners of their minds. He need not have been an actor to have had this effect on his first wife.
Despite this I enjoyed Angel Falls very much for its warmth and its honest depiction of a real marriage. This is my first Kristin Hannah book. I plan to read many more.
Grade: B+
Book Type: Women's Fiction
Sensuality: Kisses
Review Date: 29/01/01
Publication Date: 2001
Related Reviews
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.