What do readers think of The Tender Mercy of Roses by Anna Michaels? Write your own review.

I'm not sure at what point I stopped enjoying this book. The plot is intriguing and the writer is excellent at lyrical descriptions. However, although the main characters, Jo Beth Dawson and Pony Jones are initially interesting, we don't really learn much more about them as the book progresses. Their character development is repetitive. We hear over and over again the insecurities of Jo Beth, the alcoholic ex-cop that "lost if all" and blamed others for her problems. Pony Jones, the murdered, feisty rodeo star "speaks" to Jo Beth and helps her regain confidence in herself. However, the character of Pony is never very well fleshed out either, just the same repetitive description of her stubborn, spunky, "never give up" nature. And how many times did we hear about Titus Jones' granite visage. In addition, the references to appearing/disappearing arctic wolves and the ever-present cloying scent of roses was just over-the-top for me. Sorry, mysticism just isn't my thing. But in fairness, in the middle of the book, the plot line tempo picked up and I became interested in learning how the author was going to tie up those plot lines. Tender Mercy of Roses isn't bad, but with some tighter editing and more complex character development it could be good.

I chose this book because the publisher compared it to The Lovely Bones and Garden Spells. Unfortunately it seemed like a failed attempt to capitalize on the success of these books. I didn't care about the characters because they weren't fully developed and it was difficult to keep track of the two families and the time lines. The language was flowery and repetitive.

I really wanted to like this book. The synopsis sounded interesting and it was my first review. I was so excited.

The descriptions are pretty. But there are so many of them and they’re extra long and flowery, they lost their impact and became tedious. It seemed they were added to a short story to make a book.

I think the author needs to find her own style. This book seems like it came from six different authors; we have the drunken detective with haunting memories, the Lovely Bones premise, the cowgirls with rodeos, the southern lifestyle and language, and the mystical animal images. Every so often she throws in some flowery adjectives and phrases. I found the book bizarre.

The mystery of who killed the girl gets lost in between piecing together the detective's relationships and her demons. There is way too much going on in one book.

I am not the intended audience for this book.

In its favor, I have to say that it is a fairly quick read and the plot moves forward without too much effort on the reader’s part, except for keeping the generations clear in one’s mind. The story is interesting enough as a mystery. There will be those who find its prose poetic and its wisdom folksy and clever. Readers who liked One Thousand White Women and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society will probably be fans of this novel as well.

To me it reads like a parody of the western romance/mystery genre, with quite a bit of the supernatural thrown in. The writing is over the top with flowery metaphors and on each page there are several sentences of this sort: “As she approached the city limits, she made sure all her windows were up, her locks on. But the shadows crawled in the pickup with her anyway, took a seat and sat there staring at her with accusing eyes.” “But she was counting on the Sam Donovan she’d once served with and admired, the man tough enough to shoot you if he had to, but wise enough to understand that the best men didn’t have to use force and guns. The best men had other weapons--honor and true courage and decency.”

The author tries too hard to be clever and comes off sounding like a collection of bumper sticker quotations, or a list of the kinds of sayings Paul Harvey used to end his shows. (“Sometimes the past could press so hard you might never be able to rise.” “Death inspired easy confessions. Life-changing events brought out hasty resolutions.”) People who like Paul Harvey might enjoy reading this book.

It is rare I meet a book I don't like, but this is one of those books. I thought it was a poorly executed attempt to piggyback on the success of THE LOVELY BONES. The characters were so stereotypical, the writing so elemental, the plot so predictable. Maybe it would do well as a Young Adult selection, but I can't imagine it appealing to discerning adult readers. I don't think I've ever given below a three rating to any author as I so appreciate the hard work that goes into writing and getting a novel published. However, if this had been a movie, I would have walked out.