Howard Books (May 03, 2011)
Although I have several of Angela’s titles on my shelf, this is the first of her books I have read in a very long while. I have always considered her work exceptional and it seems it just continues to get better as time progresses. Ginger, Rosemary, and Pennyroyal apparently had a mother who favored plant names for her children. Rose and Penny have shortened their names to something a little simpler to fit a mouth around pronouncing. Though they’ve moved from their childhood home and lives have each progressed along their own independent track, phone calls between times that they are having a silence war amongst themselves are the last semblance of family and connection these women posess. Their Grandmother became what bit of a mother they had after their own could no longer be there for them. Summers became a time that Dad shuttled them off to Grandma and out from under foot. With no school and an island primarily focused on tourist business, summers may have otherwise been a carefree time for the girls. Now as grown women the house on St Simons is all they have left. Can the process of grieving and closing up Grandma’s long empty cottage on the island till its new owner takes possession bring unity and understanding among these sisters despite the distance both emotional and physical that has been allowed to grow between them? At times it seems we are each so focused on our own troubles and struggles we are blind to those of people around us with whom we should be the most connected. Though the circumstances of this book are regrettable in that Ginger, Penny, and Rose are thrown into situations no one should have to handle especially a child, their Grandmother’s influence begins to soak back into their lives in her absence as they choose what is most important to preserve the few joyful memories left of their childhood days. In the end they all three not only have to face hard truths about their own lives and how to clear the hurdles that have been developing in their personal lives but take the time and effort to recognize the hurdles facing their sisters, acknowledge those hurdles, and lovingly support each other maneuvering the accompanying valleys. Though truth is sometimes hard to swallow and treating others as we ought rather than as we’d like to feels impossible, God and faith are the rocks which give the firm foundation necessary to keep us on the path over which He directs us.
(ISBN#9781439182031, 320pp, $14.99)
Codicil:
Visit Angela’s website. Click the cover for more info and to purchase a copy. Read an excerpt. Thanks to Glass Road Public Relations and Howard Books for a review copy.
