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Family Tree: A Novel
Family Tree: A Novel
Family Tree: A Novel
Audiobook12 hours

Family Tree: A Novel

Written by Susan Wiggs

Narrated by Christina Traister

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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About this audiobook

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author comes a powerful, emotionally complex story of love, loss, the pain of the past—and the promise of the future.

Sometimes the greatest dream starts with the smallest element. A single cell, joining with another. And then dividing. And just like that, the world changes. Annie Harlow knows how lucky she is. The producer of a popular television cooking show, she loves her handsome husband and the beautiful Los Angeles home they share. And now, she’s pregnant with their first child. But in an instant, her life is shattered. And when Annie awakes from a yearlong coma, she discovers that time isn’t the only thing she’s lost.

Grieving and wounded, Annie retreats to her old family home in Switchback, Vermont, a maple farm generations old. There, surrounded by her free-spirited brother, their divorced mother, and four young nieces and nephews, Annie slowly emerges into a world she left behind years ago: the town where she grew up, the people she knew before, the high-school boyfriend turned judge. And with the discovery of a cookbook her grandmother wrote in the distant past, Annie unearths an age-old mystery that might prove the salvation of the family farm.

Family Tree is the story of one woman’s triumph over betrayal, and how she eventually comes to terms with her past. It is the story of joys unrealized and opportunities regained. Complex, clear-eyed and big-hearted, funny, sad, and wise, it is a novel to cherish and to remember.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperAudio
Release dateAug 9, 2016
ISBN9780062425461
Family Tree: A Novel
Author

Susan Wiggs

Susan Wiggs is the author of many beloved bestsellers, including the popular Lakeshore Chronicles series. She has won many awards for her work, including a RITA from Romance Writers of America. Visit her website at www.SusanWiggs.com.

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Reviews for Family Tree

Rating: 4.461538461538462 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

65 ratings14 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Masterful storytelling about a woman who discovers the secret to having it all after losing it all.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the story of the life of Annie Rush and the amazing recovery she makes from a horrific head injury and her year in a coma. This is such an amazing, interesting story. It’s well worth the readers time to pick up a copy of this book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Too predictable, too much like a Harlequin romance paperback. Not my favourite genre but that’s just me.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    OK novel of cooking show producer who finds her husband with the co-host the day she finds out she is pregnant. A traumatic incident occurs and she returns home to Vermont, to her roots, and finds comfort in her "family tree." Plot kind of formulaeic. I enjoyed the description of the family's maple sugar business, whiskey making, and other food descriptions.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Annie Rush is living the good life, with a husband she loves and her dream job producing their cooking show. When she has a devastating accident immediately after discovering that he is having an affair with his costar, her life is shattered in an instant. Now she must rebuild her life while reconnecting with her past, including her high school boyfriend Fletcher, now a judge. Their timing has always been bad, but now they have another chance. Can Annie overcome her fear of commitment without losing herself and her lifelong dream?A charming, heartwarming romance with very real characters.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is definitely Chick Lit which I knew going in. Again, I liked her previous books much better. So, it could be me but just not one of my favorites.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Annie Rush has it all, a wonderful husband and career and a great house in Los Angeles, all the things any producer of a TV show would want. Tragedy strikes and her world becomes upside down. Now living in her hometown of Switchback, Vermont she must start her life over again. I love Susan Wiggs books, and Family Tree is her best one yet. I could not put it down and read it in one sitting.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Since I am a nurse and used to work in neurotrauma, I found this book fascinating. The ending was predictable.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Annie Rush is the producer of a very successful cooking show starring her husband. They are in love and deliously happy. When she rushes to the set, to tell him that she's just found out she's pregnant, she finds out that their happy marriage was a sham. An accident on the set, puts her in a coma for over a year. When she goes home to Vermont to recover, she finds her life completely changed. Will the town she grew up in, her family and her high school boyfriend be able to help her heal?I have always enjoyed Susan Wiggs books and I thought that this was one of her best. This was a wonderful romance and a fantastic story of recovery from the major changes in life. I highly recommend this novel - it was a great story with real characters that the Reader can really care about.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I never read chick lit so once I realized what I was doing I was sucked in, damn it.a very quick read about a girl with a magical touch. anything she becomes involved with is instantly turned into gold!! her senior thesis? even before it was graded it was picked up by a fledgling FoodNetwork type channel and an instant hit! When she has to pick up the broken pieces of her life and start all over...piece of cake! Become an instant hit on Internet!!! Have another bigger network make an ever better lucrative deal!!remember that 55 gallon bourbon barrel she filled with maple syrup 10 years ago? another sensation that becomes featured in O magazine and has a plug on the Today show!!what's a girl to do with her Midas touch?why go into a coma that brings her family together. she manages to reunite her parents who have been divorced/estranged for 20 years! then gets the last laugh on her nefarious ex-husband who divorced her while she was in the coma!there was so much unrealistic b.s. in this novel I could have easily been at a Trump rally. for instance, her mother changed the "children's " name to her maiden name after the divorce. the oldest was his son....18 years of age! apparently the father (now divorced ) liked the maiden name so much he also took it!! named his diving business after his wife's maiden. trust me...makes little sense. then who gets into Harvard Law school with a pre law degree ftom the Internet? I don't care how high you score on your LSAT'and it took him 3 years to get his Dad a settlement when a faulty equipment design cost him his leg. yet when faulty equipment falls on her and puts her into a year coma her hubs has settled and stolen her money before she woken up from her deep sleep!!I could go on and on about the craziness of the plot!!I know it's only chick lit and I kinda like it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Annie Rush has it all, a Hollywood career as a producer, a handsome husband.....until it all collapses literally on her head when a scaffolding on the set falls. Her recovery back in Vermont shows her fame and fortune is not all.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is my first book by Ms. Wiggs but I am sure it will not be my last. As I’ve noted, I’m stepping outside of my usual reading box these days; I have not read many family dramas. Heck – I don’t read many books that take place in the 20ieth century let alone the 21st! I think it’s good that I’m bringing my reading into the modern world.Annie grows up in a small town in Vermont where the family has a sugaring business. Her parents are divorced; her father left to pursue a dream and her mother was left to raise the children and maintain the family business. Due to this she makes sure that Annie leaves to pursue her dreams even though Annie has fallen in love. But Annie views her relationship through her mother’s experience and doesn’t trust it. She heads off to film school to follow her dreams.She meets a man and together they seem to have it all. A hit TV show, a happy marriage and Annie just learns of some more good news. As she rushes to share it disaster strikes and her world explodes. Annie ends up in a coma and is sent home to her family. It is a long recovery after she wakes up and she is not sure what she wants. She is not sure who she is! As she remembers and learns friends and family remind her of what is truly important.The book goes back and forth in time as Annie recovers and remembers. I generally don’t care for that in a book but it’s used to good effect here. In fact, I think it’s almost necessary due to the construct of the book. The characters are defined and I enjoyed their individual stories. It’s a very sweet story as one might expect from a tale circling around the making of maple syrup but it was one I enjoyed. It was a perfect book to read while sitting in the sun with a nice glass of lemonade. I thoroughly enjoyed my foray into Annie’s world even with it’s ups and downs.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Family tree by Susan WiggsHave enjoyed other works by this author and know this one will be another good one.Starts out with Annie and Martin and he's just left for work. They had an argument about the bison but she gave in. She had so much advice from her grandmother that really made life matter.They run their own cooking show...CJ is there to do an interview about her grandmother's cookbook. She had stated there's one key ingredient in each dish. Loved hearing about this as I put together two cookbooks for my mother in law in 2000s.Martin does the cooking on the show and Annie produces it. On her way to tell him they are expecting she finds him with the female co host....Story also follows Fletcher who lives in VT with his son. Teddy watches The Key Ingredient because he knows who is producing it and glad she doesn't appear in front of the screen...he had a crush on her when she lived in town...Chapters go back in time and forward to the present making all the pieces of the puzzle fit.Love the area and maple syrup process as we've seen it, experienced it for ourselves just last year. So much to learn. Author makes you feel like you are there with detailed descriptions of the food served. It makes your mouth water!Love history of the town, so New England and details of the therapy. So many struggles for them all over the years and nothing goes as planned.Love technical culinary interjections, priceless! Loved everything I learned from this book. I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Pair a terrific family story with food, and you can bet it's a book I will be reading. Susan Wiggs' Family Tree tells the tale of Annie Rush, who grew up on a family-owned maple farm in Vermont, and dreams of moving away to pursue a life making documentaries about food.Annie becomes a big success when she makes a documentary about Martin, a handsome man who owns a food truck in New York City. Her documentary becomes a viral sensation, and Annie ends up producing a hugely popular food show with Martin as the star.They have a busy, happy life in Los Angeles until a tragedy hits, and Annie ends up back in Switchback, Vermont having to start all over again. The story moves back and forth in time, as we see Annie as a teenage girl, working long hours during maple syrup season, cooking with her beloved Gran, and falling in love with a transfer student.Wiggs writes such intriguing, real characters, I felt like I knew them as friends. Annie's high school love, Fletcher, is such a great guy. He lives with his single dad, and more often than not is the adult in that family, even more so when his dad faces a traumatic event.We learn so much in this book too. Wiggs shows the reader how a maple farm works, and how whiskey is distilled (through Annie's friend's family business). I found that endlessly fascinating.The scenes set in the hospital and rehabilitation center were so well done, as we see how the daily challenges of relearning everything we take for granted can be so stressful. I love descriptions of food, and there are plenty in here to savor. Annie's rustic cheddar, apple and beer soup that she made in a high school competition had me salivating. Gran's Cabot grated cheese sandwich with spring onions, radishes and mayo on thick bread would be perfect with that. The description of the Thanksgiving feast that Annie brought to Fletcher and his dad had my stomach grumbling- "free range, organic chicken roasted in sage butter, homemade sweet potato hush puppies with sriracha ketchup, dressing with wild mushrooms and walnuts, garlic mashed potatoes and gravy, brandied cranberry compote and pumpkin pie in a maple pecan shell." Oh my goodness.Annie's story touched my heart. She is an ambitious, determined, smart woman who loves her family, and when she needed them most, they were there for her. I didn't want to put Family Tree down, and I stayed up way too late last night finishing it. I didn't want it to end, and hope that Susan Wiggs brings us more of Annie's story. If you like the television show This Is Us, then put Family Tree on your TBR list.