Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jan 2010
624 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
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.
"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 Does it convey 'timeless charm' or simply 'outdated'?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.
This information about Roses was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Marie Mangmore/Langmore Photography
Leila Meacham lived in San Antonio, Texas. She was the author of a number of bestselling novels including Roses, Somerset and Tumbleweeds. She died in September 2021.
Name Pronunciation
Leila Meacham: me-chuhm
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
