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Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33607002255308 | Adult Fiction | MEACHAM | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
Spanning the 20th century, the story ofRosestakes place in a small East Texas town against the backdrop of the powerful timber and cotton industries, industries controlled by the scions of the town's founding families. Cotton tycoon Mary Toliver and timber magnate Percy Warwick should have married but unwisely did not, and now must deal with the deceit, secrets, and tragedies of their choice and the loss of what might have been--not just for themselves but for their children, and children's children. With expert, unabashed, big-canvas storytelling,Rosescovers a hundred years, three generations of Texans and the explosive combination of passion for work and longing for love.
Author Notes
Leila Meacham was born September 7, 1938 in Minden, Louisiana but grew up in Texas. She graduated from North Texas State University with a bachelor's degree of Arts. She married a pilot in the US Air Force during the war years of Viet Nam and served in numerous capacities of volunteer work as a military wife before resuming her teaching career in San Antonio. She taught high school English until her retirement from that profession, developing the gifted and talented program still used in the tenth-grade curriculum. She was twice elected by her peers as Teacher of the Year.
Leila Meacham came to her love of writing late, even though she dabbled briefly into the process when she wrote a romance novel in the mid-eighties that she never expected to be published. It was followed by two others because she was under contract, but the experience and genre left her with a desire never to pick up a pen again. However, she soon ran out of things to do after retirement and decided to try writing again. Her bestselling novels include Roses (2010), Tumbleweeds (2012) and Somerset (2013) made The New York Times Best Seller List. Her other books included Titans (2016), Ryan's Hand (1984), Crowning Design (1984), and Aly's House (1985). Dragonfly (2019) was her last novel. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2019 and died on September 19, 2021, at the age of 83.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
This enthralling stunner, a good old-fashioned read, may herald the overdue return of those delicious doorstop epics from such writers as Barbara Taylor Bradford and Colleen McCullough. Meacham's multigenerational family saga, set in East Texas circa 1914-1985, charts the transformation of Mary Toliver, a wide-eyed 16-year-old heiress, into a calculating cotton plantation queen as hardheaded as Scarlett O'Hara. Her brother, Miles, goes off to WWI, returns home, but then goes back to France to marry Marietta, a French Communist, leaving Mary to deal with their plantation, Somerset, and Darla, their alcoholic mother (who later hangs herself ). Many years later, Mary, now an elderly, terminally ill widow, resolves to defeat the "Toliver Curse" and regrets "selling her soul for Somerset" and giving up her true love, Percy Warwick, the father of their secret child, to marry their friend Ollie DuMont, who helped her save Somerset when Percy refused. Meacham uses three well-balanced viewpoints: Mary's, Percy's and Rachel's, Mary's great-niece, who must confront Percy when she discovers some disquieting family information after Mary dies. A refreshingly nostalgic bouquet of family angst, undying love and "if onlys." (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal Review
It's been almost 30 years since the heyday of giant epics in the grand tradition of Edna Ferber and Barbara Taylor Bradford, but Meacham's debut might bring them back. This story of two founding families in a small East Texas town spans the 20th century. When Mary Toliver inherits her family's cotton plantation, Somerset, in 1916, it tears apart her family; her mother turns to alcohol, and her brother leaves. Mary's obsession with Somerset even causes her to lose the love of her life, timber magnate Percy Warwick. By the time she's 85, Mary is determined that the family curse will not continue and, despite her grandniece's love of Somerset, plans for the plantation to be sold after her death. Mary Toliver and Percy Warwick can't share anything more than friendship, but Mary's actions might allow Rachel to see past Somerset to the man who loves her. Verdict Readers who like an old-fashioned saga will devour this sprawling novel of passion and revenge. Highly recommended.-Lesa Holstine, Glendale P.L., AZ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.