The Third Angel: A Novel

very poor, the same page twice almost every page, very poor writing, could not get into the story. I know I didn't pay much for the book, just the same I would have liked to be able to read it just couldn't get into it. Not even a star.

I opened the cover of this book expecting to fall in love immediately. That has been the case for every other Alice Hoffman book I've read. Sadly, that's not what happened.

Somehow, Hoffman's usually fluid style fell by the wayside in this book. Not only are the chapters choppy, but the writing itself is, too.

She did this. She did that. The thing was this way. She liked the thing. The thing was good.

I considered that perhaps this style was a mechanism to convey a state of mind or an urgency, but that just didn't come across to me, so it may just be that I missed the point, but it certainly made it hard for me to read this book.

I also feel like the concept of the Third Angel didn't really come across very well or add much to the story. It felt forced and really not very useful to the story itself.

All that being said, by the final third of the book, the writing smoothed out and I was pulled into the story. I guess a messy start is better than a rushed or poorly constructed ending, so I wouldn't call this a failure at all, but it just doesn't stand up to her other work and I found myself disappointed.

This book was quite a disappointment. Alice Hoffman is one of my favorite authors and I expected a lot from this book, as I do of all her books. But right from the first page I knew there was trouble. I didn't like the voice of the first main character, Maddy. And as I learned more about Maddy (we do learn a little bit), the less I liked her character. I found her to be shallow, jealous, self-centered and very annoying. And what she does is despicable.

The book is sectioned into 3 parts focusing on 3 different women at 3 different times. You learn that all the women are interrelated in some way. Each section could be a novel on it's own, and probably should have been. I felt that Hoffman didn't develop any of her characters. She left them flat and in the cases of Maddy and Frieda, downright unlikeable. The only character I felt she did justice with was Lucy and unfortunately hers is the last section of the novel. All the stories are left wanting more. None come to any kind of satisfactory resolution.

And then there was the story of the Heron and the story of the Third Angel. These stories, meant to reflect in the characters, felt forced. Like an amateur writer trying to make her book 'deep' with metaphor. But Hoffman is no amateur writer so these stories just fell flat and adding nothing to the scope of the novel. Especially the heron story.

I know this is not how you are supposed to read a book, but if you want to get the most of this one, read it backwards: Lucy's section first, then Frieda, then Maddy. Or if you are a glutton for punishment, read it normally and then read it a second time. I really disliked the book so there is no way I am re-reading it.

If you are a Hoffman fan, skip this one. I wish I had.

Alice Hoffman's latest novel THE THIRD ANGEL consists of three stories connected by the same characters and places over different periods of time, beginning with the most recent events and going backward: I, "The Heron's Wife," 1999; II, "Lion Park," 1966 and III, "The Rules of Love," 1952. The stories also hang together because the same themes run through each of them. Who is better to say what Ms. Hoffman writes about than the author, herself? In a recent reading, she told the audience that her books are always about love and loss. In "The Heron's Wife," Maddy falls in love-- she thinks-- with her sister's fiance Paul, when she goes to London for her sister Allie's wedding. In "Lion Park"-- the name of a hotel in London where much of the action takes place over the years-- Frieda, who later becomes the mother of Paul, falls for a rock star addicted to hard drugs although he is in love with someone else. Finally in "The Rules of Love" the twelve-year-old Lucy (later the mother of Maddy and Allie) gets caught up in a tragedy where another character is in love with a women who marries someone else.

Ms. Hoffman's characters in this novel fall in love with the wrong person, or with the right person but too early or too late. Then they may settle-- in the case of Frieda-- for a "nice man." Although love may be simple, it is not rational. The author also writes about the love of parents for children. As one character puts it: "You won't believe how much you'll love your child." Even though Hoffman's complex characters are flawed, seldom turning out the way their parents had hoped they would (sound familiar?), and may do bad acts, betraying those they love, they also often have redeeming qualities as well. They mend their broken lives and sometimes become that third angel, described so beautifully by Frieda's doctor father whom she remembers as a "very serious, lovely, practical man." In addition to the Angel of Life or the Angel of Death, one of whom would ride with him in the back of his car when he made house calls, there was the mysterious Third Angel: "'You can't even tell if he's an angel or not. You think you're doing him a kindness, you think you're the one taking care of him, while all the while, he's the one who's saving your life.'" He walks among us.

Ms. Hoffman is so good at creating events that remind us that, yes, this is just the way it is or the way a similar event in our own lives affected us: for example, the sudden shock and suffocating loneliness of learning that a person-- perhaps an old friend we have lost contact with or someone we once cared about deeply-- whom we thought was alive has been dead for months or even years. She writes as eloquently and movingly about death as anyone I can think of-- passages from Thomas Wolfe's LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL and Alan Gurganus' PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS come to mind; and her writing is filled with a magic-- i.e., blue herons and white rabbits-- worthy of the best of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Although Ms. Hoffman's prose has not one unnecessary word or phrase, it is beautifully descriptive and often poetic. Consider this: "It was that silver-colored time between night and morning, when the sky is still dark, but lights are flicking on all over the city. It was quiet, the way it is in winter when snow first begins to fall."

If you are not careful, you will be undone by this novel for it gives a poignant picture of what it means to be human.

"The doctor believed there were three angels," Alice Hoffman wrote in her 2008 novel The Third Angel, "The Angel of Life, who rode along with them most nights. The Angel of Death, who appeared wearing his funeral clothes on those visits when there was no hope. And then there was the Third Angel. The one who walked among us, who sometimes lay sick in bed, begging for human compassion." Hoffman's novel magically intertwines the stories of three women and their life's quests for faith, love, acceptance, and meaning.

We are first introduced to Maddy Heller, an American lawyer in London for her sister Allie's wedding to Paul in 1999. The themes of Maddy's life are misguided love, jealousy, and faith. Maddy is a very lonely, insecure woman who is desperately jealous of her sister. She never feels satisfied with her life. Maddy resents her father for leaving them when she was a child, her mother for loving her sister more than herself, and her sister for being "perfect." She falls in love with a man whom she knows does not love her back. She longs for him to call her, all the while professing that she has no faith in love or marriage. She has spent her life searching for something to believe in. A bundle of contradictions and raw emotion, Maddy is a realistic, complicated, and memorable character.

The second portion of the book deals with the story of Frieda Lewis, the mother of Paul. Frieda was present in the first chapter, but it is here that her character truly unfolds. Her story takes place in 1966 London. Frieda is the intelligent daughter of a country doctor who moves to London in search for something spectacular. She works at the Lion Park Hotel as a maid and falls for an up-and-coming rock star, Jamie. In the end, Frieda married another man because he was appropriate, and Jamie was killed in an accident. She wrote the songs that made Jamie famous, yet she is still alive and with her infant son because he rejected her. "[The Third Angel]'s the most curious," Hoffman writes, "You can't even tell if he's an angel or not. You think you're doing him a kindness, you think you're the one taking care of him, while all the while, he's the one who's saving your life."

The final portion ties the stories together flawlessly. It is the story of Lucy Green, the mother of Maddy and Allie Heller. The story takes place in 1952, when Lucy (a twelve-year-old) joins her father and step-mother in London to attend a wedding. She befriends a man named Michael Macklin at the Lion Park Hotel. He is the only adult who takes the time to talk to and understand the child. The reader will recognize his name from the two previous stories. In Lucy, we find the concepts of the need for acceptance and love, the desire to be heard, and uncontrollable grief for something you believe is your fault.

The themes of love and marriage run through all three story lines. But Hoffman does not romanticize them in the least. "There was good love, and there was bad love," she wrote. "There was the kind that helped raise a person above her failings and there was the desperate sort that struck when someone least expected it." Her concept of marriage is of a failed institution that does not necessarily work and certainly isn't "happily ever after."

Another important element in the novel is faith. All three main characters are searching for something to believe in.

The Third Angel is an excellent book with the power to break your heart and make you look into your own soul as it delves deeply into human nature and motivations. Alice Hoffman's novel is meticulously detailed and flows smoothly. Her characters are deep, believable, and so human. I enjoyed this book immensely. This was the first of Hoffman's novels that I have read, and from this experience I wouldn't hesitate to buy her books again.

by Jennifer Melville
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

"There was good love and there was bad love. There was the kind that helped raise a person above her failings and there was the desperate sort that struck when someone least wanted or expected it."

THE THIRD ANGEL --- Alice Hoffman's 20th novel for adults --- tells of three women in three different times, in the desperate sort of love that nearly always leads to a bad end.

In the late 1990s, Maddy Heller heads off to London for her sister's wedding. When she meets Allie's fiancé, Paul, there is an undeniable chemistry. She realizes that acting on her urges would be a bad idea, but Maddy has long carried a grudge against her sister. She has always felt that their mother favored Allie. Besides, Allie seems, well, almost uninterested in Paul. It's as though she doesn't really want to marry him, or is that just a convenient excuse Maddy tells herself?

Maddy checks into the Lion Park Hotel, a small old inn away from the rest of the wedding party. She recalls that her mother, Lucy, told her about a time when Lucy herself stayed there in the early 1950s. Lucy was 10 years old, and her family had come to London for her stepmother's sister's wedding. That love story didn't work out too well either. In fact, it went horribly wrong and she was right in the middle of it. Lucy knows the story behind the ghost in Room 707. She has carried that knowledge through all the years of her life. Now she watches her daughters falling into relationships destined to bring them a heartache potentially as devastating as that one.

Paul's mother, Frieda, also has a history with the Lion Park Hotel. As a rebellious young woman in the mid-1960s, she fled her rich father's home to make her way in this world. The Lion Park provided rooms, mostly shared, for a reasonable price, plus employment as a maid. That suited Frieda just fine. Her father would cringe if he could see her working as a maid, which would suit her quite fine as well. As far as she was concerned, he really had no say in her life, especially after leaving her and her mother for another woman. Ironically, she falls hard for Jamie, a man with a troubled past and a fiancé. She finds out what it's like to be "the other woman" --- and also learns about a desperate love that can kill.

But this is not just the story of the women. The men have their stories too. As do the mothers. Everyone has made mistakes in their lives. What can they do to atone for the wrongs they have done to others? There is always a price. For some, the cost is very dear.

Where, you may ask, does the third angel come in? Dr. Heller, Lucy's father, told her of the angel of Death and the angel of Life, two mythical beings that we all have heard about. Whenever he went on house calls, he claimed one of them rode in the back seat of his car. Then there is the third angel, who watches over us in a quiet, obscure way, almost unnoticed. One of them always rides with us, but knowing which one can be difficult to tell.

Don't let the size of this small book fool you. THE THIRD ANGEL contains a marvelously vast beauty, one worth far more than the modest cover price. In these troubled times, Alice Hoffman's story of love and redemption is a rare gem.

Although Hoffman's novel, THE THIRD ANGEL has already been analyzed from a considerable number of angles, that which attracts me most is her well calculated use of the recurrent theme of "three". Yes, the 3 that stands for the Trinity, the three angles and sides of the triangle, the three of the trio, the three of the triad, the three of the triplets, the three of the tercet, the three of the trine, the three of the trilogy, the three of the troika, and the three of the Triumvirate.

Believe me, I am not just imagining: the novel is about three different stories - in fact, even three different novels - in one. Its's about three women in three different eras, who fall in love with the very wrong men. In a direct relationship with the title of the novel, the story leads us into discovering the existence of three angels: the Angel of Life, the Angel of Death, and the third one who is the elusive Angel one is condemned to search for.

Very skilfully, Hoffman uses the number 3 and multiplies it by 4 to arrive at 12 which is a multiple of 3, to arrive at 12, the age at which Lucy Green has an accident. The author then makes a U-turn by using the resultant number 12, to divide it by the magic 3 to obtain 4, the number of decades Lucy spends in search of the Third Angel.

THE THIRD ANGEL is not only set in 3 worlds which are Kings Road, Nottinghill, and Kensington, but also deliberately carries us the unsuspecting readers into the 60s and 90s which are yet again multiples of the number 3. The fact that things come to a head in the 50s which is no longer a multiple of 3 is a natural breaking of the vicious circle. It is the unfolding, the denouement, the climax.

If the novel comes across as being "unplanned and without a clear cut pattern" because of its backward and forward movements which seem to us to be assymetrical and sporadic, then surely, let's think again because isn't that the pattern of love - the stuff of which this novel is made? Love can fool us an trick us and make us feel we are on top of the world. Then later, it abandons us to our own devices. It betrays us and leaves us searching for the way out: the Third Angel. Therefore, really and truly, "love is ancient and mysterious". So, Alice Hoffman has succeeded. And I like the book.

This is a tale about different characters' dalliances, or ongoing relationships, with temptation and evil. The title, some newspaper reviews, and the jacket notes lead you to expect more of a life-affirming fable. That is not the case.

The book's three sections unfold details, some small (like the rabbit), some hugely obvious (like the hotel, and two of the women's grown children getting married), of how, over and over, the paths and constellations of three women had crossed over decades.

Maddie, Teddy, and Bryn are key characters who were developed poorly and flatly. I don't get why they made, and stuck to, their poor choices that were fate-changing for themselves and/or others. For example, why didn't Bryn just wait for Michael in the lobby??!

The jacket and book club notes of my paperback edition described Lucy as the focal character but I disagree: if it were anyone, it was Teddy, and he was peripheral.

There were common threads in this tapestry but I'm not entirely sure how they wove anything substantial: passivity, cancer, sisters who were mostly distrusting and betraying (don't forget Mrs. Ridge, and Charlotte, although probably not Stella), parents who break up, and withheld information.

Teddy is given the key to his freedom from torment in the first section; his story alone is laid out THROUGHOUT the book in reverse chronological order--in contrast, the essential stories of the others played out more completely within one's own section. Teddy's early described resolution, even when considered as a closing event, was overly quick, flat, and unsatisfactory-- why couldn't he have found the same-themed peace with his missionary work?

Alice Hoffman wrote closing notes in my edition that said little, except to suggest you read the last section first, then the second, then the first. Try that, as another reviewer here suggested, if you've never read it. I'd still find it a diverting yet ineffective novel.

Alice Hoffman's latest novel, The Third Angel, is made up of three stories woven together by a common theme of love, abandonment, and betrayal. The stories go back in time beginning with The Heron's Wife is set in 1999. Maddy has to deal with the heartache and the folly of falling in love with her sister's fiancé Paul. In 1966 Frieda falls in love with a rock star addicted to hard drugs, and in love with someone else. With another jump back in time we meet Lucy. At 12, Lucy inadvertently causes the death of two of the three people caught in a love triangle.

The Third Angel is first mentioned in The Heron's Wife. As the doctor explained, The Angel of Death and the Angel of Life are well known. One or the other would always ride with him as he made house calls. He had no say in the matter. He never knew which one was along for the ride until he arrived at the designated location.

The Third Angel is different. He walks among us, but is rarely identified as an angel. He makes mistakes and sometimes needs rescuing. We think we're rescuing him but in truth, he rescues us. The characters in The Third Angel are flawed, they fell in love at the wrong time or with the wrong person, but they find a way to move on. They fix their broken lives and eventually reach out and become The Third Angel.

19/07 - After reading The Dovekeepers I was eager to read more of Alice Hoffman's work, but 69 pages into The Third Angel I'm wishing I'd chosen a different Hoffman book first, because as much as The Dovekeepers urged me to read more Hoffman, The Third Angel, so far, has had the opposite effect. I wanted and expected to love it like I did The Dovekeepers, which I gave 5 stars, but I don't see how you can love a book when you hate the character from whose point of view the story is told.

Maddy is a younger sister who has a giant chip on her shoulder; all she does is whine about the way her sister got everything and she got nothing and contemplate the dreadful way she treated her mother and sister as a young child and teenager - stealing her sister's belongings, forcing her cancer survivor mother to work harder because of her actions. She has almost no redeeming qualities and I feel like anything bad that happens to her now is just karma coming back to bite her. She believes that she is second best in their mother's eyes and this has lead her to feel no love, and maybe even hate, toward her. She sees Allie, her older by 13 months sister, as the good daughter, despite the fact that Allie went away to college while Maddy stayed home with their mother, Lucy. Maddy was the one who came home for the holidays and birthdays, while Allie stayed at college. Now the roles have reversed and Maddy tries to avoid human contact, enjoys sitting alone in her New York apartment looking out at the people going about their lives and hating and envying them equally. I'm hoping that when the narrator changes to Allie and Maddy's mother Lucy and her story that I will enjoy listening to her voice more than Maddy's. I see Maddy's voice as being spiteful and selfish, the likelihood that I'll read till the end will increase if Lucy's voice is more sympathetic. To be continued...

22/07 - A few pages after my last review Maddy stopped doing the talking and it changed to Allie, who I found much easier to listen to. Her part of the story was tragic - realising she wasn't in love with her boyfriend but being unable to walk away from him because of his sudden cancer diagnosis and then feeling compelled to accept his marriage proposal only to watch him die the morning after your wedding day. Now she's a widow after being married only 12 hours, or less. To be continued...

2/08 - In my opinion Lucy had the best story, I found it more interesting than either Frieda or Maddy/Allie's stories and she was the most sympathetic of the four featured women. On the back of the edition I read there was a quote from a review that said something about the book being about women who made bad choices and then having to live with them. I don't think that the choices of a 12-year-old girl should be considered to be the choices of a 'woman', so maybe that's where Lucy's likability and my extra bit of sympathy towards her comes from - the fact that I don't think Lucy should feel more than a smidgen of responsibility for the consequences of her actions. She's 12, even if she was of the more intelligent variety of pre-teens, she's not capable of forseeing the consequences of her actions or stopping herself from doing them. While I was reading Lucy's story I found myself wanting to go back to Frieda and Maddy/Allie's stories to check connections between characters (or their descendants) in later stages of their lives. I almost want to go back and read it back-to-front - read Lucy's story, then Frieda's and finish with Maddy/Allie's, because I feel like I might have missed some of the connections. It's kind of like playing 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, but you can't remember who all the people connected to Kevin Bacon are.

Like another author wrote of Hoffman "I inhale everything Alice Hoffman writes"; me too. This book, like everything she writes, is so beautiful, it's art in written form, some of the passages so delicious and so moving, I feel compelled to re-read them immediately. But her writing has taken such a dark turn for me that I find it difficult to enjoy fully, as I'm left feeling terribly sad and a bit haunted. This book is one of those. Her's is still some of the best, most lyrical and spellbinding (literally) writing I have ever experienced, but the tragedy in her recent novels I find heartbreaking.

Those who enjoy books with wrenching heartache and real life grief will love this; those of us who yearn and dream of a life (or a book) that is filled with magic and light, where the story is everything we wish life were, will be sorely disappointed. The writing never disappoints, but this book cast a cold, echoing despair over me that I couldn't shake.

I literally devoured this book over the course of two days. Sometimes like decadent chocolate, others like a full course gourmet meal. It left me truly satisfied and wanting more, either way. Ms. Hoffman is an amazing writer; her development of her characters, her sense of pacing and timing, and most importantly her beautiful yet simple command of language is always a joy. I have been an avid reader, and while I can honestly say that I think some of her books get a little too ephemeral and wordy and descriptive, I think this one is a perfect example of her excellent skills. The intertwined stories of the characters are captivating, the descriptions of London are vivid but not overdone, and the way she ties it all together in various ways throughout the novel is subtle and brilliant. This book manages to be heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time, and makes you really think about love, loss and the true character of a person. You feel as if you know the characters, even when they seem to not know themselves. All in all, a very powerful book that will stick with me and that I will highly recommend.

Ms.Hoffman certainly writes about different subjects, This time it is about two sisters in conflict with each other with some redemption at the end. She is a strong craftsman with effective scene setting and character profiling, although the fantasy is stretched a little too much in this book for my taste; I mean how much can a heron actually represent? Nevertheless, its a good read if you are inclined even a little bit to fantasy. If not, don't bother.

The Third Angel is a watered-down Hoffman novel, containing all the usual Alice Hoffman trademarks - rival sisters, love gone wrong, redemption, a ghost, a fairy tale. But unlike her earlier novels, this one has so little life to it that it reads almost like a parody of a Hoffman novel. (Although it's actually an elaborate joke. Read on.)

The story is told in three parts, starting in 1999 and moving backwards in time to 1952. At the heart of the tale is a tragedy which is curiously resolved in the first section, but not described until the last. This reversal of events, along with the mystery of the "ghost" who shouts every night at the door of his lost love's hotel room, is the only aspect of the story which is in any way engaging. Otherwise, the plot would have been completely uninteresting. As it was, the stories of the three generations of women whose lives somehow interest at the Lion Park Hotel fell flat. The characters were shallow and two-dimensional, the dialogue stilted, and the descriptions, normally so lyrical in a Hoffman novel, downright dull. The whole story builds up to a punch line which completely destroys the credibility of the novel. (Don't read the next section if you prefer to discover it yourself.)

Lucy, the central character of the earliest section, receives two life-altering gifts, a dog which she names Skyler - after the sky- and a diamond. To drive home the fact that Hoffman intended this rather blatant Beatles reference, Lucy meets an imaginative boy from Liverpool named John who is on his way to live with his aunt. (John Lennon, born in 1940, would have been the same age as the fictitious "John" of Hoffman's story.) The normally taciturn Lucy spills her whole story out to John, who, we must assume, later turns it into a song.

If Hoffman is so bored with writing novels that she has to turn one of them into a joke, then she should stop. Her previous novels have been good enough to establish her as a formidable novelist, but without her own "muse" she is barely passable.

Alice Hoffman has a gift of creative writing, but there is not much substance here in "The Third Angel". About 2/3 of the way through, I felt this book was just pulling me down, down, down and for no good reason-- and toward no particular end. No message to make the dreariness of these stories about unhappy people worth the time to read them, other than the fact that life is random in what it dishes out, and that lots of people make stupid choices. How depressing! This I can get by listening to the nightly news.

Also, most of the time I did not identify with the main characters in the 3 phases of the book. My own mother died of cancer while I was a young girl but nothing about the illness or death of a mother rang true for me. Perhaps this book feels more true for those who mourn the death of a spouse or child; other themes in the stories.

"The Third Angel" was a concept that was not very clearly impressed into my mind. I would have liked more development on that concept. It may have helped the book a lot.

I normally love Alice Hoffman's novels, but I hated this one! It contains 3 interconnected stories with not a single likable character (except for maybe Lucy, but her character was too underdeveloped). If you are a Hoffman fan, just pass on this one. It's not worth the time and will leave you so disappointed.

This novel is actually a collection of three, interrelated, stories told in reverse chronological order. The first third is a complex tale of sibling rivalry, revenge, reconciliation and, ultimately, understanding. The second and third stories in the book are almost a back story explanation of the first. (That is putting it simplistically, but having read the book almost two weeks ago, I can recall in detail the first story and have difficulty recollecting the second two.) The first story is a solid five star effort, the second two probably three and a half stars.

Alice Hoffman has a particular talent for creating characters who break your heart. She does have a bit of a formula, however, and for that reason I hadn't read one of her books in a long time. I picked this one up on a whim and I have to say I'm really glad I did - this is one of her best.

One of Hoffman's tricks is to weave a story around a set of seemingly unrelated characters and then slowly reveal their connections to one another. She does that really well here and the story builds to a conclusion that left me sobbing for twenty minutes after I had finished reading. I don't agree with the reviewers who think this book was depressing - I think it was a story of hope and redemption and about the unexpected ways in which a life can be forever altered.

If you've never read an Alice Hoffman book this would be a good one to start with and if you haven't read one in a while: welcome back.

This book was interesting and unique, with a lot of symbolism, themes and parallel situations occurring in 1999, 1966 and 1952. Lucy was my favorite character, with her spirit and determination. I would have expected her to be a better mother to her girls, not someone who would distance herself so they wouldn't become too dependent. (I'm paraphrasing.) I also enjoyed the descriptions of Stella and Marianne's clothes and wedding cake house. I was a little confused at times and found myself rereading earlier paragraphs, but it was definitely an enjoyable and different book!

I've read several Alice Hoffman books and this is not my favorite, though it is still good. My biggest complaint was that the end of the first of the 3 chapters drug on and on forever. I was listening to it on audio book in the car and was trying to skip past the never-ending unpleasantness toward the end of this chapter. The skip button, though, did not work and I thought it would never end. The next two chapters were much better.

Thank you Alice for writing such a beautiful book. I couldn't pull myself away and knew as soon as I finished it, I would read it again. It gave me chills, it warmed my heart, and touched my soul. I love, love, love this book. It is now my FAVORITE book. I have always loved your writing, but to me, this is the best! Thank you so much!

It was so beautifully written. This is my first Alice Hoffman book and I am so excited to read another that I hurried to the library to check out another one (The Story Sisters). I like how it is written in three different times and the characters all weave together. It had sad parts but I wouldn't say "depressing"- It just recounted the lives of three women, and everyone has sad parts of their life. That is just my take. I love how she writes and recommended this to my book club.

Thank you Alice for writing such a beautiful book. I couldn't pull myself away and knew as soon as I finished it, I would read it again. It gave me chills, it warmed my heart, and touched my soul. I love, love, love this book. It is now my FAVORITE book. I have always loved your writing, but to me, this is the best! Thank you so much!

It was so beautifully written. This is my first Alice Hoffman book and I am so excited to read another that I hurried to the library to check out another one (The Story Sisters). I like how it is written in three different times and the characters all weave together. It had sad parts but I wouldn't say "depressing"- It just recounted the lives of three women, and everyone has sad parts of their life. That is just my take. I love how she writes and recommended this to my book club.

Alice Hoffman is one of the finest writers of these times.Her books have received many awards from magazines and newspapers.

Now, in "The Third Angel" Hoffman writes a very original story that covers the lives of three women who love the wrong men. Maddy Heller is attracdted to her sister's fiance.

Bryn Evans and Frieda Lewis are the other characters in this book who also are involved with the wrong men.

Lucy Green who is at the heart of this story, blames herself for an accident that she witnessed when she was twelve years old. Now she has spent four decades looking for the "third angel" on earth who will renew her faith.

This is a brilliantly written story about unique love.

I enjoyed it very much.

I got the cd version which was brilliantly done by Nancy Travis. Not only is the book wonderfully surprising and well written, but this production was riveting. I hadn't realized how truly talented Travis was until I listened to this recording while driving up the long, winding coast to Monterey.

Maddy is so annoying that I almost wanted to give up; thankfully the main characters of the other two portions are more sympathetic and I liked how everything was tied together. Still, I don't think this is Hoffman's best work.

I'd just finished reading Alice Hoffman's the Museum of Extraordinary Things and wanted to read another by her. This book while well-written and with interesting aspects, really didn't do it for me. Couldn't recommend this to anyone.

I think I've read everything Alice Hoffman has ever written. In The Third Angel, Ms. Hoffman takes you places you wish you were or want to be. There's always a touch of the mystical. Something magical. She didn't let me down with Third Angel. I couldn't put it down. With a child at home, it's hard to find time to read. I found time for this book. I cried. And wished it hadn't ended. A nice summer read. Enjoy!