This Trilogy is my all time favorite. The writing by Richard Paul Evans is done with such flare. He is a truly wonderful writer who has the ability to paint a picture of the places and people in his book for you. I doubt I will ever find a trilogy that made me so anxious to get the next book!

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A beautiflly written novel of life's greatest joys and deepest sorrows.

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An unforgettable story of hope and the source of the wisdom MaryAnne Parkin shared with Richard in The Christmas Box. With the help of David Parkin's diary, Richard discovers the mystery of the timepiece and the significance of MaryAnne's request.

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In 1967, on the eve of his daughter's wedding, a man reflects on his memories of her childhood as well as the gift that his one time employer has bequeathed to him to give to her. Nineteen years previously, only eleven days before her death, a loving widow named MaryAnne Parkin had gifted a beautiful rose-gold wristwatch to her household caretaker, Richard. She had only one request: that he give the beautiful heirloom to his then toddler daughter on the day before he would give her away. At the time, he is puzzled by her simple request, yet deeply touched by her kindness.

The story of how the wristwatch came to belong to MaryAnne, forms the basis of Timepiece - the prequel to Richard Paul Evans' heartwarming holiday classic, The Christmas Box. In 1908-era Salt Lake City, Utah, millionaire businessman and avid collector of clocks, David Parkin hires one MaryAnne Chandler - originally from England - to be his secretary. Thoughtful and sensitive David is the owner of the highly successful Parkin Machinery Co., and the spirited and spunky MaryAnne will someday become his wife.

Fragments of David's journal highlight this tale of the couple's courtship, marriage, and the development of their family. The elegantly fashionable rose-gold wristwatch was originally bequeathed to David's friend Lawrence Flake, a black man who repairs clocks. This priceless heirloom eventually passes into David's possession through a series of events which culminates in an horrific family tragedy.

In the devastating aftermath of such a tragedy, David and MaryAnne will each discover the extraordinary healing power of love, loyalty and forgiveness. Their shared experiences will ultimately prove that even in our darkest moments, we are still capable of shining the brightest light, demonstrating the incredible strength and remarkable resilience of the human spirit while revealing the best qualities of humanity; even as we suffer unspeakable cruelty.

I actually didn't think that I was going to enjoy this book quite as much as I did. However, I found the story to be extremely evocative and poignant. I found that the characters were very believable and I truly connected with them as they went through their various trials and tribulations. I would give this book a definite A!

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Timepiece, the unforgettable story of hope and the source of the wisdom MaryAnne Parkin shared with Richard in The Christmas Box. With the help of David Parkin's diary, Richard discovers the mystery of the timepiece and the significance of MaryAnne's request.

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Timepiece by Richard Paul Evans is about a couple in the early 1900's--their love, grief, forgiveness and loyalty. It is an emotional romance between Mary Anne (David's secretary) and David (wealthy business man) who find great happiness together but also experience tragedy, losing a child. This is an interesting and enjoyable read including some excerpts from David's diary, but it took me a little time to get used to the writing style.

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Like the titular treasure chest of Evans's bestselling The Christmas Box, the eponymous timepiece?"a beautiful rose-gold wristwatch"?of this heart-plucking prequel fairly vibrates with sentimentality. Readers of the former novel will recall how the author met aged widow MaryAnne Parkin and learned of her deceased husband, David, a successful businessman, and how their infant daughter, Andrea, died a tragic death. Here, Evans traces events some 80-odd years back to tell this family's story, but not before recalling the eve of his own daughter's wedding, in 1967, when he presents her with the wristwatch, given to him by MaryAnne. Fragments of David Parkin's diary, dated 1908-1918 and set in Salt Lake City, weave evocatively throughout the author's account of the Parkins' courtship, marriage and family tragedy. At the thematic center of the tale lies the timepiece, bequeathed by a wealthy widow to David's friend Lawrence Flake, a black man who repairs clocks. Events force Lawrence to kill another in self-defense; fearing for his friend, David tells police that he fired the shot, and is exonerated. In revenge, the dead man's friends set a fatal fire at the Parkin house and steal the symbolic timepiece, which will come back to the Parkins only after an extraordinary act of kindness and forgiveness by MaryAnne. Evans has a more ambitious tale to tell here than in The Christmas Box, and he generally carries it off with aplomb, though the dark events of the central story and an unabashedly sappy wedding-eve coda don't quite mesh. The nation's supply of Kleenex is bound to deplete after this hits the bookstore shelves.

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