TENDING ROSES is the first in the 5-book Tending Roses series by bestselling author Lisa Wingate, who also wrote THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS and BEFORE WE WERE YOURS. This one is a feel-good story of family, connection, and figuring out priorities in life. Awarded four stars on Goodreads.
Usually Kate, a foundation fundraiser, and her husband Ben, an architect, are busy attending to their high pressure jobs in Chicago. That is until their first son, Joshua, is born with a health issue. At the start of the book Joshua is now four-months-old and doing well. So Kate and Ben decide they need some time away and head for an extended Christmas holiday at the family farm in Missouri, where Kate’s beloved but cantankerous 89-year-old grandmother lives alone in declining health. Other members of Kate’s extended family plan to use the upcoming holiday get-together as the time to sell the farm and move Grandma into a nursing home.
For Kate, meeting up with her sister, father, and aunt is tied up with anxiety, tension, and old hurts. An ordeal to be faced rather than a reunion to be enjoyed.
But time spent at the farm also gives Kate a chance to reflect on many wonderful childhood memories. The summers she spent on the farm. The early days of her relationship with Ben. All of which launches a reexamination of her own life choices. Does she really want to return to work when her maternity leave ends? Can she come up with a better solution for Grandma than a nursing home? Is there any way to keep the farm in the family? And what options are even possible with all the debt she and Ben are carrying?
The unfolding of the story touches on many important and universal life themes. Do mothers need to be with their children full-time in the early years? How involved should fathers be with their children? How valuable is faith? How important is financial success? How much responsibility do each of us have to those less fortunate?
TENDING ROSES is a lovely novel, with three-dimensional characters who are totally distinctive AND fully believable. In fact, they are likely to remind you of people in your own lives. So, I highly recommend the book. It’s not just a well-crafted novel about family and priorities, but also one that is likely to make you reflect on your own choices.
More about the author, Lisa Wingate.
You may be interested in my reviews of other books by Wingate:
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Toby A. Smith 