Windfall

Penny Vincenzi

Average Rating 7/10 (1 Review)

Cassia Fallon has been married to her doctor husband for seven years when her godmother leaves her a fortune. She is determined to be sensible, to stay in control. Suddenly, for the first time in her life, she is able to do exactly as she likes.

She starts to question her marriage, her past, present and future. The money gives her confidence and her husband Edward can only look on resentfully as she resumes her medical career, sheds some of her domestic burdens, and re-forms old relationships - one of them of a most dangerous kind.

But where did her legacy really come from, and why? Too soon the windfall has become a corrupting force. One that Cassia cannot resist…

Review by Chrissi (300601) Rating (7/10)

Review by Chrissi
Rating 7/10
Windfall was the other book which I picked up for the holiday, prompting joy from Nigel that the author's name began with a "V", a letter which he is finding difficult to fill in the alphabetised section of the Past Reviews list.

Windfall is the story of Cassia Fallon who had originally trained to become a doctor but whose life became mired when she got married to another doctor and her children thwarted her ambitions.

She receives a legacy from her godmother, the windfall of the title. The money is a large amount for the time, and enables her to do more with her life than the meagre income of a country doctor may allow.

Unfortunately, it causes her to question whether she could do more with her life than play second fiddle to her husband. The money, though, comes from a godmother whom she finds out was living in near poverty towards her death, but was rescued by a man she finds difficult to be around. Having known Harry since they were children, and been at daggers drawn for a great part of that time, Cassia finds it difficult to equate the behaviour she has heard of him with the behaviour he has exhibited towards her.

Their relationship has always been a stormy one, with her thinking that he is a frightful bully and him thinking that she looks down on him from her lofty ambitions to be a doctor. Their animosity is fuelled by his attraction for her which has led him to act in strange and misunderstood ways.

One thing that the money allows her to do is return in a way to medicine, albeit in the then undervalued form of contraception and women's health. This leads her to be away from her husband and family more than she had planned, and eventually to rent a small house in London for her late evening work, leading her to spend more time in a circle of friends, including Harry. Dangerous stuff, I agree...

Once again, with the heroine of Penny Vincenzi's novel, I found myself getting a bit impatient with her, having embarked on a relationship with Harry, the source of the money intrigues her and she sets out to investigate it. She feels that she cannot spend it if the source is not appropriate. This conscience is not an unappealing character trait but it seems to be applied in strange ways at inappropriate times.
Chrissi (30th June 2001)