Wedding Ring

A Shenandoah Album Novel

By: Emilie Richards

Narrated by: Isabel Keating

Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Needing time to contemplate her troubled marriage, Tessa MacRae agrees to spend the summer helping her mother and grandmother clean out the family home in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. But the three women have never been close.

Helen, the family matriarch, is domineering and sharp-tongued. Nancy, Tessa's mother, appears to be little more than a social climber. And Tessa herself is in turmoil following a family tragedy that has affected them all. Now, with the gift of time, Tessa's eyes are opened, and she begins to see her mother and grandmother for the flawed but courageous women they are. As she restores a vintage wedding-ring quilt pieced by her grandmother and quilted by her mother, the secrets that have shadowed their lives unfold at last. And each woman discovers that sometimes you have to clean house to find the things you thought were lost forever.

©2004 Emilie Richards (P)2008 BBC Audiobooks America

A Great Book

I couldn't put this book down! I could see the beautiful quilts as if I were in the room with them.

Another great one!

Tessa is an awesome character in the book! She gets re-connected with life and her family. The story was great and I loved the setting in the old country!! Will listen again. The narration is super wonderful - I like Isabel Keating! Keep using her narration Emilie!!

New favorite author added to the list!

This was my first experience with the author. She did not disappoint. I loved the southern accents, the different character voices, the story was compelling and drew me right in. I’ve already downloaded another one!

Delightful

I’m a quilter, so of course this storyline is pleasing for me. But I also loved the family interactions!

Loved it All Over Again

Wedding Ring was a reread for me, and I am so pleased I chose to do so by the audiobook version. I loved it the first time I read it, and totally fell in love with the characters and story line all over again as I listened to it. To be honest I had forgotten many details of the story - I just carried the general feel of the story with me. Now I have a refreshed memory of it!

Isabel Keating does a fabulous job in the narration. I loved her Helen voice and the way she just totally brought her to life for me. Whenever I thought of this book I remembered the opening scene when Helen was holed up in her house and her daughter Nancy and grand daughter Tessa were trying to get in. Wonderful scene.

The story follows the lives of these three remarkable women. We are taken back in time to Helen's early life and see where she came from and her joys and sorrows. We are also taken back in time to Nancy's earlier times too.

As the story develops changes happen for all three women, and they are bonded together in ways they would not have thought of earlier.

It is with this series I began my obsession with quilting, Helen is an expert quilter and I just wish she was a real live actual person and I'd love to go see her quilts. I loved the way her daughter Nancy, helped her see the value in what she had done.

In short - love, love, loved it all. Guess who will be revisiting the whole series via audiobook!

Outstanding

Stellar in every way and beautifully narrated. If you grew up in the South, you most likely knew a grandma Helen!

Southern Real People

The realness of people and their reaction to life hurdles. This story kept my attention from the first paragraph.
There were parts that brought me to tears. Other times I laughed out loud.
I found myself anxious and excited to get back to the book.
A really good read! Thank you!

I tried, but I struggled

Emilie Richards has great reviews. However I struggled with how the pace of the plot was slowly unfolding. Perhaps the details about the quilting world were a bit much for me. Yet, Richards is still a great writer but this one was not exactly my favorite.