Tending Roses Tending Roses, Book 1, (Paperback)

This is one of the most heart-warming books I have every read. The author has written well-developed characters who stick with my memory. As I understand, this is just the first of what is called the Tending Roses series of five books. I intend to read them all, after thoroughly enjoying this first book. In this book, one of the lead character is Grandma Rose, who loves her roses that she must tend. But Grandma Rose is mentally slipping some and must be tended as well, and so you have the play on words of “tending roses”. Grandma Rose befriends a little girl, Dell, who is caught up in a life that is unbearable, though the little girl does her best to get through life, with an abusive uncle, a maternal grandmother who is near death's door and dysfunctional, and a mother who is long dead from a drug overdose. Grandma Rose, a neighbor who quickly understands Dell's situation, becomes the kindness and guidance that the little girl needs. If you have a heart for taking care of the elderly as well as vulnerable children, this is a book you will be glad you read. I encourage you to make the purchase.

"Maybe you should start wanting less." Arriving at her grandmother's home, Kate Bowman comes prepared to care for her aging family matriarch, temporarily relocating with her husband and baby son on an extended maternity leave. What she finds on the Missouri farm is far richer than anything money can buy; for she finds peace, contentment, and renewed relationships with those who should be and could be dear to her heart. She listens to stories, she reads journals, she patiently endures her grandmother Rose's tendency to be cantankerous and bossy; all while her priorities quietly realign themselves and the once murky future becomes brighter again. For now, Kate can hear wisdom's soft whisper . . . "the best times of my life, the times that passed by me the most quickly, were the times when the roses grew wild." "The secret to a happy life is not in getting what you want. It is in learning to want what you get." "Tending Roses"; a beloved story by a most gifted storyteller, will surely resonate in the minds of its readers for years to come, as each one contemplates how to tend the roses that God has given them. The publisher provided me withe a copy of this book. The opinions stated are entirely my own.