A Novel with Thoughts and Ponderings

THE WELCOME HOME GARDEN CLUB

Author: Lori Wilde ISBN: 9780061988431 4/2011 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: AVON

The Welcome Home Garden Club by Lori Wilde
Traditional meaning of Pink and White Roses: I love you still and always will.

Caitlyn Marsh stopped believing in happily-ever-after when high-school sweetheart, Gideon Garza, left for Iraq. Now she raises her small son while her matchmaking gardening club members drive her crazy. Then Caitlyn's world turns upside-down when Gideon swaggers back to Twilight.

Gideon had left town in the middle of night with threats ringing in his ears. A lot of things have changed since then. This bad boy-turned-Green Beret bears scars from the war, the timid girl he loved is an independent mother, and the father who refused to recognize his son in life has, in death, left him a vast cattle ranch.

He still aches for Caitlyn, and now there's a dark-haired boy who looks exactly like Gideon did at that age. Could the child be his? And can this war-weary soldier overcome the scars of the past to claim the family he so richly deserves?

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Separated as teens, Caitlyn Marsh and Gideon Garza are now reunited in their hometown of Twilight, Texas.  Now an injured war veteran, Gideon returns to realize that he is still in love with Caitlyn, and that he is the father of an eight-year-old boy.  Can Caitlyn and Gideon find their way back to each other?

As readers will expect, the two have several problems to work through, including her father’s efforts to keep them apart.  While this story retains the homey, community feel of THE FIRST LOVE COOKIE CLUB, it didn’t quite flow as well as its predecessor.  THE WELCOME HOME GARDEN CLUB failed to really move me in the way I believe it was meant to.  The dialogue felt unnatural for the majority of the book.  The sabotage side plot seemed necessary.  I thought the paternity revelation at the end was too easily accepted, coming across as a bit of an afterthought.

As a whole, I thought the plot was good, but not executed as well as it could have been.  However, I still plan to read an earlier Twilight Texas book that I missed.

Christina Baker

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