Author: Jennifer ChiaveriniTitle: Sonoma Rose
Publisher: Dutton
Publish Date: February 21,2012
Buy: Amazon
Review Copy Provided By: TLC Book Tours and the Publisher
Book Blurb:As the nation grapples with the strictures of Prohibition, Rosa Barclay lives on a Southern California rye farm with her volatile husband, John, who has lately found another source of income far outside the federal purview.
Mother to eight children, Rosa mourns the loss of four who succumbed to the mysterious wasting disease that is now afflicting young Ana and Miguel. Two daughters born of another father are in perfect health. When an act of violence shatters Rosa's resolve to maintain her increasingly dangerous existence, she flees with the children and her precious heirloom quilts to the mesa where she last saw her beloved mother alive.
As a flash flood traps them in a treacherous canyon, only one man is brave-or foolhardy-enough to come to their rescue: Lars Jorgenson, Rosa's first love and the father of her healthy daughters. Together they escape to Berkeley, where a leading specialist offers their only hope of saving Ana and Miguel. Here in northern California, they create new identities to protect themselves from Rosa's vengeful husband, the police who seek her for questioning, and the gangsters Lars reported to Prohibition agents-officers representing a department often as corrupt as the Mob itself. Ever mindful that his youthful alcoholism provoked Rosa to spurn him, Lars nevertheless supports Rosa's daring plan to stake their futures on a struggling Sonoma Valley vineyard-despite the recent hardships of local winemakers whose honest labors at viticulture have, through no fault of their own, become illegal.
Review: This is a fantastic book, the kind that it is hard to put down once you start. It is about family, prohibition, love and quilts.
From the get go, Jennifer's writing pulls you in. There's so much drama with Rosa's family, sick children, an abusive husband, who just happens to be part of a bootlegging operation, and the lover she should have married but didn't.
You want good things to happen to Rosa, because she deserves them, but no life is complete without struggles. It is just so hard to believe all the horrible stuff that happens to her. Her husband, John, is the absolute worst and as the story goes on, you find there is nothing redeeming about him.
Then there are her children. She has lost several to celiac disease, and has two more that are suffering from it.
How much more can one woman take?
But the story is so much more than just Rosa's relationship with John and Lars. The setting is the Sonoma Valley, deep in the heart of wine country, in California. Jennifer paints a wonderful picture of how the wineries survived at at time when their livelihood was illegal.
Everything about this story is beautiful, including the stunning front cover. This is definitely a must read book!
Rating: 5 flowers
Author Info: JENNIFER CHIAVERINI is the author of the New York Times bestselling Elm Creek Quilt series, as well as five collections of quilt projects inspired by the novels. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago, she lives with her husband and sons in Madison, Wisconsin.
Connect with Jennifer at her website, Elm Creek Quilts Online.
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Jennifer Chiaverini’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:
Monday, February 13th: Peeking Between the Pages
Tuesday, February 14th: 2 Kids and Tired Book Reviews
Thursday, February 16th: Christian Historical Fiction
Monday, February 20th: Angler’s Rest
Wednesday, February 22nd: All Grown Up?
Thursday, February 23rd: Brimful Curiosities
Friday, February 24th: Amused by Books
Monday, February 27th: Col Reads
Tuesday, February 28th: Life in Review
Thursday, March 1st: Reflections of a Bookaholic
Friday, March 2nd: Unabridged Chick
Monday, March 5th: A Chick Who Reads
Tuesday, March 6th: Joyfully Retired
Wednesday, March 7th: Colloquium
Monday, March 12th: Book Dilettante
Wednesday, March 14th: A Cozy Reader’s Corner
Thursday, March 15th: Unabridged Chick
Mother to eight children, Rosa mourns the loss of four who succumbed to the mysterious wasting disease that is now afflicting young Ana and Miguel. Two daughters born of another father are in perfect health. When an act of violence shatters Rosa's resolve to maintain her increasingly dangerous existence, she flees with the children and her precious heirloom quilts to the mesa where she last saw her beloved mother alive.
As a flash flood traps them in a treacherous canyon, only one man is brave-or foolhardy-enough to come to their rescue: Lars Jorgenson, Rosa's first love and the father of her healthy daughters. Together they escape to Berkeley, where a leading specialist offers their only hope of saving Ana and Miguel. Here in northern California, they create new identities to protect themselves from Rosa's vengeful husband, the police who seek her for questioning, and the gangsters Lars reported to Prohibition agents-officers representing a department often as corrupt as the Mob itself. Ever mindful that his youthful alcoholism provoked Rosa to spurn him, Lars nevertheless supports Rosa's daring plan to stake their futures on a struggling Sonoma Valley vineyard-despite the recent hardships of local winemakers whose honest labors at viticulture have, through no fault of their own, become illegal.
Review: This is a fantastic book, the kind that it is hard to put down once you start. It is about family, prohibition, love and quilts.
From the get go, Jennifer's writing pulls you in. There's so much drama with Rosa's family, sick children, an abusive husband, who just happens to be part of a bootlegging operation, and the lover she should have married but didn't.
You want good things to happen to Rosa, because she deserves them, but no life is complete without struggles. It is just so hard to believe all the horrible stuff that happens to her. Her husband, John, is the absolute worst and as the story goes on, you find there is nothing redeeming about him.
Then there are her children. She has lost several to celiac disease, and has two more that are suffering from it.
How much more can one woman take?
But the story is so much more than just Rosa's relationship with John and Lars. The setting is the Sonoma Valley, deep in the heart of wine country, in California. Jennifer paints a wonderful picture of how the wineries survived at at time when their livelihood was illegal.
Everything about this story is beautiful, including the stunning front cover. This is definitely a must read book!
Rating: 5 flowers
Author Info: JENNIFER CHIAVERINI is the author of the New York Times bestselling Elm Creek Quilt series, as well as five collections of quilt projects inspired by the novels. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago, she lives with her husband and sons in Madison, Wisconsin.Connect with Jennifer at her website, Elm Creek Quilts Online.
.
Jennifer Chiaverini’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:
Monday, February 13th: Peeking Between the Pages
Tuesday, February 14th: 2 Kids and Tired Book Reviews
Thursday, February 16th: Christian Historical Fiction
Monday, February 20th: Angler’s Rest
Wednesday, February 22nd: All Grown Up?
Thursday, February 23rd: Brimful Curiosities
Friday, February 24th: Amused by Books
Monday, February 27th: Col Reads
Tuesday, February 28th: Life in Review
Thursday, March 1st: Reflections of a Bookaholic
Friday, March 2nd: Unabridged Chick
Monday, March 5th: A Chick Who Reads
Wednesday, March 7th: Colloquium
Monday, March 12th: Book Dilettante
Wednesday, March 14th: A Cozy Reader’s Corner
Thursday, March 15th: Unabridged Chick
1 comments:
Sounds like this book was a PERFECT fit for you - don't you love it when that happens?!
Thanks so much for being on the tour. I'm featuring your review on TLC's Facebook page today.
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