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The Absence of Evelyn: A Novel

by Jackie Townsend

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5234521,482 (3.36)1
Newly divorced Rhonda, haunted by her sister Evelyn's ghost, travels to an old palazzo in Rome to confront Marco, the man who stole her sister's heart--only to find out he's vanished in the wake of Evelyn's death. Meanwhile, Rhonda's nineteen-year-old daughter Olivia, adopted by Rhonda at birth, travels to the mysterious and lush waters of northern Vietnam, where she's been summoned by the missing Marco, a man she only knows from her parents' whispers, a man she has never met or seen. Soon, truths are exposed and lives unraveled, and the real journey begins. Four lives in all, spanning three continents, are now bound together in an unfathomable way; and they tell a powerful story about love in all its incarnations, filial and amorous, healing and destructive.… (more)
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    First Things First (New Concept English) by L.G. Alexander (Anonymous user)
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Showing 1-5 of 36 (next | show all)
I found myself engaged with the characters, but at times the plot line jumped without any transistion and left me as a reader a little lost. Formatting issues, which may be due to ARC, made it hard to sometimes udnerstand who was speaking. Interesting plot and characters. Kept waiting for it to get better, but was still engaged to the end. Wanted to be more engaged with the settings in Italy and Hanoi, but those chapters seemed rushed, leaving me wanting more in those settings rather than the US.

Intreging, fast paced plot with twists and turns... ( )
  Asauer72 | Jul 3, 2023 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
The central themes of this novel surround family, belonging, and loneliness. This is a great book for those who enjoy good character development and setting. Rich descriptions are provided for each of the many places the characters end up in. A mother, Rhonda and her daughter, Olivia are the main focus. When Olivia discovers truths about her background, she is torn and unsure about her feelings for and involvement with her mother. The timeline of events (how much time has passed) was a little difficult to follow on occasion, but did not detract from the story overall. ( )
  niquetteb | Apr 28, 2019 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
This will be a very short review, as I did not finish the book. The synopsis sounded interesting, and even now, after officially DNF-ing the book, I read the synopsis and it captures my interest.
But though I tried to stick with it, after reading through about one-third of the book, I just couldn’t do it. The scenes set in Italy relatively interesting, but once the setting switched to Vietnam, I really struggled with it.

It took me a long time to give up on the book.I left it on my shelf with the idea that I would pick it up later and continue. The truth is, though, that I just don’t care what happens. I still feel like I’m missing something others were seeing in the book, so the book is still on my shelf waiting to be picked up, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. If it does, I’ll write and post a second review. But for now, the only thing I’m committing to is that the book is off my shelves by the end of this year, whether I’ve finished it or not!

I won a copy of this book through the Library Thing Early Reviewers program. ( )
  Time2Read2 | Jan 27, 2018 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
I received an ARC of this book from Librarything. Somehow, although I had read the description and requested it, it was not at all what I expected. It isn't the type of book I would usually read; that being said, I still found it interesting, although I enjoyed some parts more than others. The relationships between the characters were intriguing, especially as the reader starts to figure out some hidden aspects before the characters involved realize them. I liked reading about the daughter, and her journey. The mother was a complicated character, and at times she seemed to grow as a person but then at other times I wondered about her choices - I didn't really enjoy her story line as much. Evelyn, who lent her name to the title, only appears briefly, mostly in memories, yet I found her character and life the most interesting.
  GretchenLynn | Jan 24, 2018 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
This is mainly the story of three people coping with the loss of a loved one and to some extent how they move on. I liked the book overall and read thru it quickly. That being said looking back there wasn't much resolution and the characters stories only minimally came together. There were alot of questions and conflict that never really happened for there to be resolution between the characters. ( )
  reb922 | Jan 14, 2018 |
Showing 1-5 of 36 (next | show all)
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Newly divorced Rhonda, haunted by her sister Evelyn's ghost, travels to an old palazzo in Rome to confront Marco, the man who stole her sister's heart--only to find out he's vanished in the wake of Evelyn's death. Meanwhile, Rhonda's nineteen-year-old daughter Olivia, adopted by Rhonda at birth, travels to the mysterious and lush waters of northern Vietnam, where she's been summoned by the missing Marco, a man she only knows from her parents' whispers, a man she has never met or seen. Soon, truths are exposed and lives unraveled, and the real journey begins. Four lives in all, spanning three continents, are now bound together in an unfathomable way; and they tell a powerful story about love in all its incarnations, filial and amorous, healing and destructive.

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Book description
Newly divorced Rhonda, haunted by her sister Evelyn’s ghost, travels to an old palazzo in Rome to confront Marco, the man who stole her sister’s heart—only to find out he’s vanished in the wake of Evelyn’s death. Meanwhile, Rhonda’s nineteen-year-old daughter Olivia, adopted by Rhonda at birth, travels to the mysterious and lush waters of northern Vietnam, where she’s been summoned by the missing Marco—a man she only knows from her parents’ whispers, a man she has never met or seen.

Soon, truths are exposed and lives unraveled, and the real journey begins. Four lives in all, spanning three continents, are now bound together in an unfathomable way—and they tell a powerful story about love in all its incarnations, filial and amorous, healing and destructive. Amazon
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Jackie Townsend's book The Absence of Evelyn was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

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