Review: Roses
The Tolivers, the Warwicks and the Dumonts are the founding families of the small east Texas town of Howbutker. The Tolivers own a cotton plantation, the Dumonts sell dry good and the Warwicks are timber barons. The families have been friends for years and their histories are intertwined. Percy Warwick and Mary Toliver were deeply in love but, sadly, never married. That horrible mistake, and all of its consequences, have haunted Percy and Mary and their descendants for years. Mary’s great-niece and Percy’s grandson find themselves trying to wade through all the deceit, secrets and lies.
Roses by Leila Meacham is a grand, sweeping multi-generational saga set in east Texas. It’s over 600 pages long, but once I got into the story, I found it went very quickly. At first, I thought it would be difficult to tell the families apart, but found that wasn’t a problem since there weren’t too many characters and they all had strong, distinct personalities. I liked all of the characters in this book, except for Lucy, and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. I loved the fact that most of the female characters in this book are strong, driven women.
There were enough unexpected twists and turns in the plot to keep me interested and I found myself staying up late more than once to find out what was going to happen next. I enjoyed this book and think it would be a great read for cold winter days.
Leila Meacham is a retired English teacher. She should give hope to all aspiring authors, since she was in her sixties when she wrote Roses. She will be interviewed on Blog Talk Radio on January 7 at 9PM Eastern Time.
I kept thinking of Dallas whilst I read this. I love reading about big American families through the generations.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this book – I have it to be read and plan on starting it soon so I can review it when it comes out in January.
A multi generation family saga sounds really interesting. Would love to read this someday when it’s available here.
I think I’ve loved strong heroines ever since I saw Gone with the Wind for the first time.
Roses sounds like perfect winter reading.
I’m so glad you liked this one. I just received my copy this week, and I was worried when I saw how long it was. I love family sagas, so I can’t wait to dig in.
–Anna
I love the fact that the author is a retired teacher…yes, you never know what you might still achieve!
I love family sagas too and this one has been on my readar screen for a while. I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it as we seem to have similar tastes.
Have a great week and happy reading.
I love the cover, it’s so pretty and definitely draws your attention. I enjoy a good family saga and one with strong female characters. This sounds like a great book, will be adding it to my wishlist. Interesting details about the author, that is inspiring to hear stories about authors that get their start later in life. They have more wisdom from life experience as well, IMO.
I can’t wait to get to this one in the next year!
This sounds like one of those books I love to get lost in. Great review!
Great Review Kathy, You are the second person I know who’s read it and loved it. I have this one sitting on my shelf to read. I have to admit when it came I was pretty scared as I tend to stay away from thick books but now i am really excited to dig into this one.
Thanks for the review Kathy…I soooo want to read this book!
Sounds like this would make a good tv miniseries!
You said multigenerational saga and I immediately got turned off…but then I thought of Anna…She’d love this book. Was it as good as Galway Bay? That’s the only multigenerational saga I’ve read completely and loved.
Great recommendation. Big books can be intimidating, so it’s good to know that you not only enjoyed this one, but at points, couldn’t put it down.
Helen
Straight From Hel
I love stories like this, yet another book to add to my growing wish list. haha!
This sounds like a great book! I love nice thick books that keep me so interested that I can’t put them down at night.
What a gorgeous cover (I am partial to roses) and wonderful review, as usual! This sounds like a book I’d thoroughly enjoy. Thanks for your review. 🙂
I’ve seen this one around on a lot of blogs. I’m not sure I would enjoy it, but I happy you seemed to.
I have this to read so I’m quite pleased you liked it.
This looks good!
This sounds excellent! I love finding a long book that sucks me in and holds my interest.
In her 60’s? There’s hope for me yet!
Glad to know the book was as good as the cover…those roses are gorgeous!
I just started to read it. How exciting! I’m in Chapter 1.
I got this at BEA and am looking forward to it!
Wow that is inspirational that she was able to get this published later in life. Good for her!
This one sounds really enjoyable but I’m a little bit intimidated by 600 pages + maybe this summer I’ll try it!
I am intimidated by the size of the book, but I might pick it up if I ever feel ambitious! 🙂 And I love the cover. Gorgeous!
Reading between the lines, I can’t help but wonder if you only just liked it, but didn’t love it. I have an ARC (from work) and may or may not read it.
Sounds like the kind of book I would like to read. I like books that span generations.
I’ve had this one on my list…and now I really can’t wait to read it. Glad you enjoyed it…!
I love chunky family sagas 🙂 This one is going on my list.
Thanks to you I have a copy of the book. Like Meghan, I plan to read it in January.
I love multi-generational sagas, but had not heard much about this book, apart from the fact that you mentioned it in a Mailbox Monday post! It sounds like this would be a good read for me, so I am going to be on the lookout for it. I really like the fact that it has a set of really strongly portrayed characters. Great review!
I’ve never been much into multigenerational sagas, but this one sounds interesting.
I’m glad you liked this one Kathy. I’m just going to start it today. You say it’s a good one to relax with on cold winter days so it should fit right in for me.