Roses

"What a wonderful, wonderful read. I loved the idea of starting with a family and learning their history and stories but each memeber all the way down to the great-grandchildren."

"Amazing story"

"Simply sensational. I can’t put into words how much I enjoyed reading this book."

"Roses was five generations of families in the making. A story born of heartache, sadness and eventually forgiveness for three families who were eternally connected by family, friendship, love, and the blood, sweat and tears of their ancestors. The Tolivers and Warwicks, ancestors of the Lancaster's and the York's embroiled in the War of the Roses, escaped Europe to find their own destinies. The Toliver's (farmers), Warwick's (lumber kings) and the DuMont's (store owner) founded a small town in Texas called Howbutker. The founding families made a pact that they would not help each other out financially and that they would utilize the symbol of the red rose to ask for forgiveness and the white rose to forgive the transgression, and the pink rose for withholding forgiveness. <br/><br/>Through a series of devastating events Mary Toliver was left her father's plantation known as Somerset at the age of 16 leaving her brother Miles to hold the land in trust till Mary turned 21 and her mother 20% of the profits from the land. From this point in the story to the end, it a series of unfortunate events. Mary loves Percy Warwick but loves Somerset more and because of her decision, Mary loses Percy for good. Percy makes the worst decision of his life and then is left with a dissatisfied wife and a son that feels unloved. The next generation is not much better with another series of traumatizing life events brought on by the decisions made by Mary and Percy. Following Mary's death, Percy is left to clean up the mess that her last will and testament has wrought on her heir apparent Rachel Toliver and the consequences of a past transaction may have horrible consequences for Percy Warwicks lumber enterprise. Thankfully, the story has a satisfying ending, however the many and sudden tragic events leading to that end did not substantially justify the means. Mary, Mary's mother, Miles, Percy, Ollie, Lucy and the many other characters of the second and third generations made many poor choices and the consequences were catastrophic for some of those involved and just plain disappointing for others. <br/><br/>The story was well-written, the history colorful and detailed enough for the reader to understand the past and the future. The historical context was fascinating and Leila Meacham painted a very colorful portrait of each generations society and cultural mores. The plot twists and events leading up to the conclusion made it hard to put the book down especially close to the end. However, the ending felt a little lackluster and the many heartbreaking and devastating events leading to that eventuality were almost depressing enough to halt any progress further in the story. After fighting through one long series of horrific events, the story concludes on a high note but not high enough for a four star rating. This book is recommended to those who enjoyed Gone with the Wind and other such epic historical romances. Recommended."