Spanning the 20th century, the story of Roses takes 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, Roses covers a hundred years, three generations of Texans and the explosive combination of passion for work and longing for love.
BOOK REVIEWS
Media Reviews
"Starred Review. Readers who like an old-fashioned saga will devour this sprawling novel of passion and revenge. Highly recommended." - Library Journal
"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." - Publishers Weekly
"A suitably long and intermittently engaging descendant of such Southern-fried epics as Gone with the Wind .... just the thing for genre fans with time to spare." - Kirkus Reviews
"The writing of Roses is fraught with problems. First, it is formal and stilted, as though the book were written in the 1950s rather than in 2009. The main characters are sketchily drawn, and Mary, in particular, is as much characterized by her clothes as by her thoughts, which are few." - The Cleveland Plain Dealer
"The book has been compared to Gone With the Wind, and it will appeal to readers who cherish the ideal of Southern chivalry. Sympathetic portraits of genteel aristocrats tend to skirt the South's thorniest topics, class and race, and that's the path Meacham has taken. She's written a love story, not a treatise on social change. Mary's communist brother briefly raises questions of economic inequality, but racial tensions seem not to exist in this fictional East Texas town. Old-fashioned is a tricky phrase. Does it convey 'timeless charm' or simply 'outdated'? Chances are, most readers of Roses will vote firmly for 'timeless charm.' - The Dallas News.
Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Fran Fascinating reading. Bravo Ms. Meacham !This book is better than very good it is excellent!!!! I shall never forget "Roses" ; you surely have written a wonderful saga and I wish I could read it again for the first time. I fell in love with absolutely... Read More
Rated of 5
by bridges Wonderful Read Just finished reading the book and loved it! Could not put it down. Completely felt at home being from Northeast Texas. Have now passed on for someone else to read.
Leila Meacham is a writer and former teacher who lives in San Antonio, Texas. She is also the author of Aly's House, Crowning Design and Ryan's Hand, all published in the 1980s.
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