The Present
Grade : C

I was really looking forward to The Present because, as Laurie said, I am a fan of the Malory family. While I found some points in this book that tempered my enjoyment of it, overall it was a fairly nice little Christmas story for Malory fans, albeit a pricey one.

Since Marianne has already summarized the book, I'll skip it and get straight to my impressions. Seeing the previous cast of characters was a treat for me because those are the ones I really like. I want to see what has happened to them after they've gotten married and started families. So I enjoyed catching up with them. Since I've often wished Lindsey would devote a whole book to just catching up with the Malorys, this book sort of fulfilled that wish. I did find, however, that I was less interested in the story of the beginning of the Malory clan than in the present family.

I thought the way Lindsey set up the book flowed pretty well. Some of the problems Molly and Jason were having, were linked to issues that Christopher and Anastasia had in the past. Their experiences with their problems, helped the present family resolve theirs.

The way Molly's character was presented was the major blight on my enjoyment. I had a problem with her turning down Jason's continued proposals. Trying not to create another scandal for a very scandalous family made absolutely no sense. Besides, how could any sane woman turn down the love of her life - for 40 years, no less - time after time? Molly didn't seem to have the strength in her that the rest of this family had. All the other Malory wives had enough strength to stand up to their respective spouses. For example. Amy, one of Jason's nieces, wanted Warren and went after him in their story, The Magic of You. Georgina defied her family to marry James Malory in their story, Gentle Rogue. But Molly was afraid of a scandal? I didn't buy it, and it made her look wimpy. If she couldn't stand it, she had no business in the Malory family anyway. But, if she had accepted Jason right away, there would have been no need for this book because Christopher and Anastasia's story was meant to show Molly the light - a Malory who married a commoner and whose marriage had a happy ending.

The thing I noticed most is that, to write this review, I had to go back and reread parts of The Presentand when I this, I got caught up in whichever part of the story I was reading. But when I read the book all the way through the first time, it didn't grab me as much as it did the second time through. I wanted to find out about the current Malorys, I didn't care about the past ones. After I reread The Present though, I could better see the links Lindsey had set up between the present and the past.

I do think you will get more out of this story if you have read the other Malory books. The dedication is to her fans who like the Malory's. Lindsey says, "This present is for you." So while a good book should stand on its own, this one is really meant for fans of the Malorys. I think it would have benefitted from making Molly a stronger character and by making the links between the present and past stories clearer - then The Present would have had a more universal appeal.

Reviewed by Andrea Pool
Grade : C

Sensuality: Subtle

Review Date : December 10, 1998

Publication Date: 1999

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