1989 Rita Award for Best Novel
Publisher's Weekly
Past and present collide predictably in a competent, though not especially exciting novel by the author of Fires of Destiny. The gothic curse hanging heavily over the Templeton family has taken a toll of violent death in each generation. Minerva Templeton, the 80-year-old matriarch who controls the tea business that clinched the family fortune, unwisely sets her grandchildren, Travis and Delilah, a task that will decide who inherits the empire. Delilah is the beauteous, very successful owner of a California herbal tea company. She returns to Boston after having been estranged from the family since a youthful, tempestuous affair with Travis, who she thought was her cousin, was ruthlessly crushed by Minerva, who was privy to the sickening knowledge that the heedless lovers were actually brother and sister. Now Delilah's cousin, Travis's brother Nick, is making his attraction to her obvious. While an ancestor, the witch Helen Templeton, spins forward in time from Puritan Boston to deliver a warning to this troubled future generation, a friend is tapping into the family's murky past with a trendy bit of channeling. The most compelling, evocative scenes take place in India, when Minerva was young. Otherwise, this is a largely overheated brew of incest, New Age mysticism and dark deeds.
Library Journal
Elements of the supernatural, infused with tidbits on the history of tea, spice up this modern saga revolving around a Boston tea empire. Since the founding of Templeton Tea in 18th-century Boston, the Templeton family motto''For they shall have prosperity, but neither joy nor peace''has actually been more like a family curse. This story focuses on two 20th-century Templeton womenMinerva, who saved the family's tea business in the 1930s, and her willful granddaughter, Delilah, who forsakes Boston and her heritage. After 16 years in California, where she has built a successful herbal tea business, Delilah comes East to gain control of the company. A well-told, entertaining tale, satisfying as a good cup of tea. Maria A. Perez-Stable, Western Michigan Univ. Libs., Kalamazoo
Genre: General Fiction
Past and present collide predictably in a competent, though not especially exciting novel by the author of Fires of Destiny. The gothic curse hanging heavily over the Templeton family has taken a toll of violent death in each generation. Minerva Templeton, the 80-year-old matriarch who controls the tea business that clinched the family fortune, unwisely sets her grandchildren, Travis and Delilah, a task that will decide who inherits the empire. Delilah is the beauteous, very successful owner of a California herbal tea company. She returns to Boston after having been estranged from the family since a youthful, tempestuous affair with Travis, who she thought was her cousin, was ruthlessly crushed by Minerva, who was privy to the sickening knowledge that the heedless lovers were actually brother and sister. Now Delilah's cousin, Travis's brother Nick, is making his attraction to her obvious. While an ancestor, the witch Helen Templeton, spins forward in time from Puritan Boston to deliver a warning to this troubled future generation, a friend is tapping into the family's murky past with a trendy bit of channeling. The most compelling, evocative scenes take place in India, when Minerva was young. Otherwise, this is a largely overheated brew of incest, New Age mysticism and dark deeds.
Library Journal
Elements of the supernatural, infused with tidbits on the history of tea, spice up this modern saga revolving around a Boston tea empire. Since the founding of Templeton Tea in 18th-century Boston, the Templeton family motto''For they shall have prosperity, but neither joy nor peace''has actually been more like a family curse. This story focuses on two 20th-century Templeton womenMinerva, who saved the family's tea business in the 1930s, and her willful granddaughter, Delilah, who forsakes Boston and her heritage. After 16 years in California, where she has built a successful herbal tea business, Delilah comes East to gain control of the company. A well-told, entertaining tale, satisfying as a good cup of tea. Maria A. Perez-Stable, Western Michigan Univ. Libs., Kalamazoo
Genre: General Fiction
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