Roses

Roses by Leila Meacham

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book and I had a love/hate relationship. At times I felt ready to pull my hair out, and other times I was searching for the nearest tissue.

The story was about deciding what is most important in your life, and living with the consequences of those choices. It also showed how our posterity is affected by our actions.

Leila Meacham did a great job creating a story that pulls the reader in. Her characters were well developed (although so many of them were selfish, blind idiots-argh, I'm still mad at the cycle of idiocy).

As a reader, I appreciate names that flow as well as the rest of the story. I hated the name of the town. Howbutker halted my progress each of the times it was mentioned over the 609 pages of the novel.

I also really disliked Lucy's crude manner. It did help build up dislike for her character, which I'm sure was the point, but I wish it had been toned down. That and the use of certain profanity. There are other ways for certain points to be made.

But, overall, I did enjoy the story. The last section wasn't as captivating for me as the rest of the book, but the ending was pretty satisfying.