You never forget your first love. Angie of the Garden, written by J.E. Hall, reminds us of how your first love can haunt you.
Hollis Simms is a psychiatrist who is dedicated to his patients. Simms, a genial character, marries a provocative and wealthy woman who buys the estate called Fairhaven, in which they begin to live.
Simms grew up at Fairhaven; his father was the caretaker there. When he was a teenager, Hollis found an old journal buried in a garden on the estate. The diary had belonged to a woman named Angie Barton, a woman who traveled on the Oregon Trail. He marked her trials and tribulations, but Simms remembered as the years went by that she was his first love.
One evening as Simms was walking past the garden he encountered the spirit of Angie. She begins to talk to him about her servitude on the estate after returning from the west. Simms could not fathom how this adventurous woman became so complacent in this purgatory of life. Simms becomes obsessed with finding the reason for her malaise. He has Angie recount her journey on the Oregon Trail, hoping that in doing so the specter will reveal how she was transformed from a pioneer to a simple domestic servant. Simms obsession with his love from the past strains his relationships with those he loves in the present.
“A great book!! It had everything in it, love, family, and friendship. All brought together by the story of a woman who traveled the trails from Boston to San Francisco many years ago. You will not be disappointed.”
-Carol Kenny
Hall is a graduate of the New York Institute of Technology. He has self-published 3 novels, The Wall, Two Men With A Mission, and Angie of the Garden. His interest in history and human nature were the principal inspirations for these books.
Review copies and interviews are available upon request.
Contact: James Hall - jmgha(at)aol.com
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