This is the prequal to The Christmas Box and the second of the triology. Another touching book.

Back Cover Blurb:
This book is based in Salt Lake City in 1908. When David Parkin - thoughtful and sensitive person, millionaire head of Parkin Machinery Co., and collector of clocks - hires as his secretary one MaryAnne Chandler, the young woman (originally from England) destined to become David's wife and who learns lessons of how time spent with loved ones is precious and brief. ( )

Timepiece by Richard Paul Evans is a melodramatic novella set in California one hundred years ago. Fabulously rich, handsome, and very honorable bachelor David Parkin falls madly in love with his beautiful, poor, orphaned secretary…etc! Clocks, time, friendships, loss, are important sub-themes.

I didn’t expect much from this novella—in the end, it disappointed more than I thought possible. If I had a print copy, I would not have finished it, but I had downloaded the audio CD to my ipod and listened for four hours while I walked in the neighborhood and worked in my garden. If the book hadn’t started with a bit of a mystery that piqued my interest, I would have changed the playlist from audiobooks to music and listened to something far better instead. I wish I had. ( )