I lost my mother unexpectedly when I was a young mother myself. Oh, how I missed the gentle wisdom that had guided me my whole life! As I journeyed through the various stages of life, there was so much I wanted to ask her. She would be in her eighties now, but in my mind, she is and will always be fifty-seven. Gone now, but I still feel the influence of her kindness, wisdom, and compassion in my life and decisions. I’m drawn to stories about families and the far-reaching influence a mother has on her daughters’ lives. Though I mostly write romance, many of my novels contain older women who've had such an influence.
This wonderful book contains many things that I love in a story; flowers, romance, and complex mother/daughter relationships.
Emancipated from a life in the foster care system, eighteen-year-old Victoria has learned not to trust anyone. She lives a solitary life, finding meaning and beauty in flowers and their unique language.
Opportunities to belong to someone come to her first in the form of Elizabeth, a woman with a broken past whose stubborn love refuses to let Victoria go, and later in Grant, who shares her passion for the language of flowers and has some trust issues of his own.
A story that by turns filled me with hope and broke my heart, this sweeping and skillfully told tale taught me as much about flowers and what they symbolize as it illustrated the power of forgiveness and the healing powers of both flowers and of love.
A flower is not a flower alone; A thousand thoughts invest it'
All over the world, flowers are an integral part of human culture whether it is the perfect table centre for a wedding, a beautiful bouquet for a birthday, a message of thanks, or to pay one's respect at a funeral. But, while everyone knows that red roses signify love, few may realise that an entire language of flowers exists with every bloom, folliage and plant having a particular emotion attached, be it hazel for reconcilliation, wisteria for welcome or ivy for fidelity. This unique language was created by…
I loved this book from start to finish. The collection of characters in this dysfunctional family were extremely well drawn and their misadventures kept me turning pages until the very end.
Polly springs to life in a curious, quirky mixture of tough and tender. Loveable Willow, her ten-year-old daughter, whose father died young, lives in fear that she will lose Polly too. Her friends’ mothers are all young and fun, but in her fifties when Willow was born, Willow fears Polly’s time is running out.
She longs to uncover the secrets of Polly’s past-secrets which Polly is determined to keep hidden. A wonderful story of the complex relationship between a mother and daughter, told with a lovely blend of warmth and wit.
An International Bestselling Author With a kick like the best hot sauce, this is the laugh-out-loud story of a girl determined to keep up with her aging, crazy-as-a-fox mother. Blending humor and sadness, pathos and hilarity, this is a bittersweet novel about the grip of love in a truly quirky family and one of the most unforgettable mother-daughter duos you’ve ever met.
I came across this little gem at a garage sale. I am not a big reader of YA fiction, but the blurb on the back jacket spoke to me, so I bought it. I’m so glad I did!
This astoundingly beautifully written book chronicles the journey of twelve-year-old Grace in the aftermath of her mother’s death. A free but tormented spirit, Grace’s “Mama” could never seem to put down roots after leaving her small town behind as a teen. But Grace longs for a real home.
After her mother’s tragic death, she goes to live with the grandmother she never knew in a town she has never set foot in. All she knows is that her grandmother sent her Mama away when she was young and pregnant.
I love small-town stories and the town and its characters come alive in this book in the most loving of ways as Grace finds herself on a treasure hunt of sorts, with clues to her mother’s past (and her own future) seeming to miraculously appear in the most unlikely places.
Her relationship with her grandmother is strained at best, but her grandmother, along with the entire town, nurtures Grace with the patience and love of a master gardener, causing the rocky soil of Grace’s heart to bear the fruits of love, community, and forgiveness.
Twelve-year-old Grace and her mother have always been their own family, traveling from place to place like gypsies. But Grace wants to finally have a home all their own. Just when she thinks she's found it her mother says it's time to move again. Grace summons the courage to tell her mother how she really feels and will always regret that her last words to her were angry ones.
After her mother's sudden death, Grace is forced to live with a grandmother she's never met. She can't imagine her mother would want her to stay with this stranger. Then Grace…
This book is my favorite in Lisa Wingate’s Tending Roses series.
I could so relate to Karen Sommerfield and her struggles. Karen’s life is falling apart. The passion in her marriage has cooled, she is unable to have the children she longs for, and on the same day she receives frightening news from her doctor and is let go from a company she put her whole heart and soul into.
On impulse, she returns to her grandmother’s farm in the Ozarks to try and regroup. Right away the old tensions resurface between her and her sister, who seems to have it all together, and Karen feels returning may have been a mistake.
But then she begins to hear her grandmother’s wisdom whispering in the century-old sycamore trees and finds the courage to examine her heart and reconstruct her life.
I loved that Grandma Rose’s influence lived on in her granddaughters even after her passing. This beautiful story gives the reader hope that no matter how broken, lives and relationships can be glued back together with love.
When a woman’s whole life falls apart, she finds refuge in the home she left behind in this touching novel in the Tending Roses series from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Friends and Before We Were Yours.
Karen Sommerfield has been hiding from the big questions of her life—the emotional distance in her marriage, her inability to have children, and her bout with cancer. Getting lost in her high-powered career provides the sense of purpose she yearns for. Until the day she’s downsized out of her job and the doctor tells her the…
Country music diva Hayley Swift has fallen off the charts and into a funk. Desperate to regain her place in the limelight, she agrees to a low-budget tour of Southern venues, starting with her 35th high school reunion.
There, in an unexpected but fortuitous reconnection, The Girls Next Door —who…
This lovely story is one of loss, tragedy, hope, family, and new beginnings that come in the most unexpected ways.
Seventy-five-year-old Sarah has a good life. She’s been married to Charles, a man she adores, for fifty years. She assumes they will live out the rest of their lives together in the tranquil setting of their Vermont country home. But when Charles unexpectedly passes away, Sarah’s beautiful life is shattered.
With her children grown and raising families of their own, she finds herself alone in her big house, no one to nurture, no place to put her love. Until a collection of displaced characters begin to find shelter in her home. Working through her grief, Sarah discovers interests she never took the time to explore, and in pouring into others, soon finds her own cup overflowing.
This story provides perspective on what things are important, and what are not. So many women, through death or divorce, find themselves alone later in life. This heartwarming story illustrates that it’s never too late and you’re never too old to recreate yourself!
Sarah Lucas imagined the rest of her days would be spent living peacefully in her rural Vermont home in the steadfast company of her husband. But now, with Charles's sudden passing, seventy-five-year-old Sarah is left inconsolably alone.
As grief settles in, Sarah's mind lingers on her past: her imperfect but devoted fifty-year marriage to Charles; the years they spent raising their three very different children; and her childhood during the Great Depression, when her parents opened their home to countless relatives and neighbors. So, when a variety of wayward souls come seeking shelter in Sarah's own big, empty home, her…
A decade ago, Rochelle Delany made a decision that changed her life forever. Wanting more than football games and potluck suppers, she boarded a bus for California. But instead of a glamorous life, she became trapped in a nightmare of labor trafficking. When she learns her beloved foster mother is dying, she makes a daring escape and returns home to Ohio.
Sandy Fairbrother has a problem with trust. Twice betrayed, he now puts his faith only in God. He's a single dad doing his best to grow his construction business and raise his son. But haunted by an impulsive kiss Rochelle gave him fifteen years ago, her unexpected return has him rethinking things. He's been given a second chance to win her heart. And this time, he plans to succeed.
Transforming Pandora, women's fiction with a metaphysical undercurrent, is written with humour and a light touch. As the plot slips between two time frames, separated by more than thirty years, the reader explores her life and loves: her ups and downs.
