The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns by Margaret Dilloway

Thirty-six-year-old Gal Garner lives a regimented life. Her job teaching biology and her struggle with kidney disease keep her toggling between the high school, the hospital, and her home on a strict schedule.

Only at home, in her garden, does Gal come alive. It's here that she experiments with Hulthemia roses, painstakingly cross-pollinating various specimens in the hopes of creating a brand-new variation of spectacular beauty. But even her passion has a highly structured goal: Gal wants to win Queen of Show in a major competition and bring that rose to market.

Then one afternoon Gal's teenaged niece Riley, the daughter of her estranged sister, arrives. Unannounced. Neither one of them will ever be the same.

Filled with gorgeous details of the art of rose breeding, The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns is a testament to the redemptive power of love.

Goodreads Summary

Gal has never enjoyed good health.  She has a life revolving around her job in biology and the very physiology of her failing kidneys.  Her sister, on the other hand, was always healthy and a sore subject for Gal.  When her sister's job finds her overseas, Gal watches her niece and discovers that her day-to-day life will never be the same.

I loved the character development in this novel.  It didn't feel like the author rushed any details or the budding relationship between the character and the reader.  I grew to love Gal over the course of a couple of chapters.  I really liked her stable, nearly OCDlike need for schedule and her quiet love of roses.  Her niece was an interesting character.  I think she helped Gal to grow as much as Gal helped her, as well.  I really liked how realistic their relationship originally felt.  Riley and Gal did not instantaneously get along.  It took a while before each saw each other as worth getting to know.  I would recommend this book to flower lovers and contemporary lovers everywhere.

4 Stars

This product or book may have been distributed for review, this in no way affects my opinions or reviews.

Sick by Tom Leveen

Breakfast Club meets The Walking Dead as a group of unlikely allies tries to survive a deadly outbreak.

Brian and his friends are not part of the cool crowd. They’re the misfits and the troublemakers—the ones who jump their high school’s fence to skip class regularly. So when a deadly virus breaks out, they’re the only ones with a chance of surviving.

The virus turns Brian’s classmates and teachers into bloodthirsty attackers who don’t die easily. The whole school goes on lockdown, but Brian and his best friend, Chad, are safe (and stuck) in the theater department—far from Brian’s sister, Kenzie, and his ex-girlfriend with a panic attack problem, Laura. Brian and Chad, along with some of the theater kids Brian had never given the time of day before, decide to find the girls and bring them to the safety of the theater. But it won’t be easy, and it will test everything they thought they knew about themselves and their classmates.

Goodreads Summary

Imagine that group of delinquents from your high school, they skip

class by sneaking out the back door and jump the fence, cuss every

other word, and fill that tough guy guise by sporting a mohawk and

leather jacket. Meet Brian and his friends, who for all intents and

purposes, are not the most motivated of students out there at this

typical Arizona high school. While on their daily ditching debauchery,

they notice a few events begin to unfold that seem

individually disconnected, but soon they piece the shards together to

find horror when they return to school: bone-crunching, face-eating,

blood-spilling zombies. This horror forces them into a life-changing

apocalyptic pandemonium that will glue your face to the book till the

last drop of blood trickles down the drainpipe.

     Where the author Tom Leveen really shines 

is in the book's overly gory, very descriptive presentation of zombie attack.

If you like all the blood-spattering, flesh-ripping details, this

book is right as a severed head in a river of rotting ruby flesh.

Another way that this book really stands out is its clever use of

foul language through the character Chad. He will leave you rolling

your eyes and laughing even through all the death and moments of

suspense. A third great element that makes this book a fun read is the

mental struggle  that the kids face when they see the monsters that

are chasing them. Are they a sick friend that can be healed, or a

 zombie? There are moments where you can feel

the pain of the students as they struggle to decide "cripple or

kill?" Add in getting hosed down by blood, protruding broken bones,

and a medieval sword swinging fiercly at a mob of the undead and you

get, quite literally....... "Sick," thanks to Tom Leveen.

*Reviewed by Chris*

This product or book may have been distributed for review, this in no way affects my opinions or reviews.

15 Book Giveaway Returns!

Fifteen books right around Halloween :D a Rafflecopter giveaway

Glittering Promises by Lisa Tawn Bergren

Lisa T. Bergren’s popular Grand Tour series concludes as Cora Kensington journeys farther into Italy, wrestles with a terrible ultimatum from her father, and comes to terms with the Father who will never fail her. 

America’s newest heiress must decide if her potential fortune is rationale enough to give up her freedom and all that God is leading her toward. And when her newly-discovered siblings are threatened with ruin, her quandary deepens. Then as Cora nears Rome, more journalists are track the news story of the decade—“Copper Cora,” the rags-to-riches girl—and want to know more about her family and the men vying for her attention. Meanwhile, a charming Italian countess decides that if Cora isn’t going to claim Will’s heart, she might just try...

Goodreads Summary

I have loved this series from the beginning and this latest book is no different.  Cora discovered that she is a heiress...something that one might think is every little girl's dream.  She has to make financial decisions by thinking of siblings she didn't know existed.  I can imagine being in Cora's place, but I honestly don't think I would want the sudden, difficult decision-making.  On top of the money, Cora is having difficulty with her relationship with Will.  They aren't following God's plan and are letting jealousies get in the way.  As a love interest, I still loved Will's character.  He comes off as such a gentleman.  

Cora's character has developed and changed so much over the course of these novels.  She has truly grown up into a lovely young woman.  I felt like I really knew her.  I loved how the author spent so much time developing the setting.  The reader will feel as if he/she is actually in Europe and experiencing what Cora was experiencing.  This book is highly recommended for adult readers and anyone who is already a fan of the series.

4 Stars


This product or book may have been distributed for review, this in no way affects my opinions or reviews.