Perennials

Hello -- Poppy here as I requested to read this book, via Janet as I am more of a fiction reader than she is. I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. From the publisher -

When two estranged sisters reunite for their parents’ 50th anniversary, a family tragedy brings unexpected lessons of hope and healing amid the flowers of their mother’s perennial garden. Eva—known to all as Lovey—grew up in Oxford, MS, surrounded by literary history and her mother's stunning perennial gardens. But a garden shed fire and the burns suffered by one of her best friends seemed to change everything. Her older sister Bitsy blamed her for the fire—and no one spoke up on Lovey’s behalf. Bitsy the cheerleader, Bitsy the homecoming queen, Bitsy married to a wealthy investor. And all the while, Lovey bears the brunt of everything that goes wrong. At eighteen, Lovey turns down a marriage proposal and flees to Arizona—the farthest thing from the South she can imagine. She becomes a successful advertising executive and a weekend yoga instructor, and she seems to have it all together. But she's alone. And on her 45th birthday, she can't help but wonder what's wrong. When she gets a call from her father insisting that she come home three weeks early for her parents' 50th wedding anniversary celebration, she's at wits end. She's about to close the biggest contract of her career, but his words, "Family First," hit too close to home. Eva's journey home to the memory garden her father has planned as an anniversary surprise for her mother becomes one of discovering roots, and truth, and love, and what living perennially in spite of disappointments and tragedy really means. Eva thought she wanted to leave her family and the South far behind . . . but she's realizing she hasn't truly been herself the whole time she's been gone.

Oooooooh, there is nothing like families, special occasions, and guilt. (Face it, it happens to all of us!) This book deftly weaves a tale that is jaw-dropping and heartbreaking at the same time. And that beautiful garden was a delight to read about on this first official snow day of the winter of 2017-18. What a great book!!!!!!!!!!!