Wildflowers from Winter by Katie Ganshert - Review

Wildflowers from Winter

by Katie Ganshert

 

Bethany Quinn, now an architect in a Chicago firm, never wanted to go back to Peaks, Iowa, her hometown. Her mother and paternal grandfather still live there and when she left there 10 years ago she never looked back. She did keep in touch but never returned and never planned on returning either.

Ruth, her mother, sent her a message one day to let her know that her best friend's husband died and Robin needed her. She wasn't going to go until she learned that Dan, her grandfather, had a heart attack, so reluctantly she went for what was supposed to be a quick visit. After all who would want to go home to a town that treated her like she was crazy, all because they think she tried to kill herself. 

Her father had been injured in a farm accident and that's when Pastor Fenton started tearing her family apart. When her father accidentally drowned in the bath tub, Pastor Fenton got under her skin even more.She blamed him for her mother moving them from the 500 acre farm into town, to a run down trailer in a run down trailer court, drove her to swim to the bottom of the public swimming pool, she was sent for counseling and none of the kids wanted anything to do with her anymore besides the fact that the adults all looked at her funny.

Bethany returns to Chicago and gets a call that Dan had another heart attack but did not survive this one. She returns once again to Peaks for the funeral. At the reading of the will she finds out that her grandfather left the 500 acres of farmland to her but he left the house, and the land it sits on, to Evan Price, who has taken care of the farm for Dan for five years. The two don't get along and Bethany wants to sell her 500 acres but it will be hard to do since Evan is planning on keeping the house.

When she returns to Chicago she finds out that her firm is downsizing and she no longer has a job, not only that she finds out that Dominic, her boy friend of about 3 years, is moving to Florida because he got a job offer there. Bethany returns to Peaks to take care of selling her land and stays with Robin who also happens to be Evan's sister-in-law. Robin is pregnant with her dead husbands baby and is a christian, Bethany does not like God because of Pastor Fenton.

Katie keeps things moving in this book, at first I wasn't too sure about it, but she did draw me in. Be sure you have some tissue handy when you get to the end, you'll need them! I don't normally read this genre, just once in a while, but I did end up really enjoying this book.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BloggingforBooks.org <http://www.waterbrookmultnomah.com/bloggingforbooks/> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”