Starting over is the central theme of Must Love Flowers, a tender, graceful novel written by Debbie Macomber.
Joan
Sample of Seattle, Wash., is a 54-year-old mother of two adult sons who has
been widowed for four years. Since her husband’s passing, she’s become
paralyzed by grief. Even her flower garden, once her pride and joy, has become
grossly overgrown. When the town sends a condemning notice about the state of
her property, she is finally propelled out of her emotional malaise. She joins
a grief support group and sets out in search of hiring a landscaper “who must
love flowers.” She enlists Phil Harrison—a quiet, private local. When she later
crosses paths with Phil at the support group, she learns that he, too, is
burdened by grief and loss of his own. As Joan’s broken heart begins to heal,
she decides, on a lark, to take in a border, Maggie Herbert, a hard-working college
student who longs to escape her abusive, alcoholic father. Thus begins a
journey of second chances for each of these lost, wounded, and struggling
souls. As they forge ahead in rebuilding their lives, friendship and romance find
each of them along the way.
Examining the
gentle nuances of multi-generational smalltown life is what Macomber (The Best
Is Yet to Come, It’s
Better This Way) does best. In Must Love Flowers, Macomber’s heartfelt storytelling is on full display, showing
how hope can rebloom when cultivated with kindness, caring, and love.
Must Love
Flowers by Debbie
Macomber
Ballantine
Books, $28.00 hardcover, 9780593600559, 336 pages
Publishing
Date: July 11, 2023
To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE
NOTE: This review
is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (July 14, 2023), link HERE