I should’ve seen it coming. It IS in the title after all!
No Angel, by Penny Vincenzi is a historical, family drama set in and around World War I. Celia Lytton, the protagonist is a gifted book editor and publishing guru along with her husband, Oliver. This novel follows Celia and her near, extended, and adopted family members through a few decades of drama. I very much enjoyed how this story interacted with historical events. For instance, the family is set to take a trip on the Titanic before one of the children becomes ill delaying the trip and saving numerous lives in the process!
I am a fairly fast reader and I tend to skip some details. I’ve been known to read and think in my head, “That person’s name is the long one that starts with A.” Reading like that doesn’t cut it in this book because there are oodles of characters – family members, friends, significant others, authors! I had to flip back pages a few times to catch myself up on some plot lines. If you can keep names and relationships straight, read on! If you get confused during Green Eggs and Ham, perhaps not!
The title is telling. Celia is no angel. She struggles in life. She wants more, is enraged how WWI affected her life and family, wants to succeed at work, wants to care for her children, and she wants to feel loved. She makes some blunders – both personally and professionally. And she has to live with those consequences. I appreciate Vincenzi’s writing ability here. She can both help me to identify with the desires with drown Celia, but she doesn’t live or write in a rose-colored world where love always wins and no one gets hurt. Celia is no angel, but somehow you cheer for her anyway.