Love In Bloom

Hope Walker survived early breast cancer at just thirty-years-old, but a mastectomy left her with a lot of scarring—and some serious fears about dating. Hope owns Changing Seasons, Heart Lake’s most popular flower shop. When it comes to love and relationships, she’s able to work magic through her expert flower arranging…for everyone but herself. Then one day a handsome contractor starts coming into her shop, but Hope knows he’d rather have a whole woman than someone like her.

When Hope stakes a plot of ground at Heart Lake’s community garden, she finds that a woman can grow all sorts of things there: flowers, herbs, vegetables and even friendship. As she gets to know the two women who share neighboring plots, they discover that they can learn a lot from each other—not just about gardening, but about life. And Hope realizes that in order to live life to the fullest, sometimes you have to take a chance on love.

I'm a sucker for a friendship themed story, and throw in a cancer survivor and I'm a watering pot. I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a light, conforting read that uplifted my mood.

The women come together in a community garden. And while they're tending their gardens they develop a deep friendship. And that friendship helped and gave insight to their personal issues: an overworked daughter whose is loosing contact with her children, an out of work husband that doesn't believe in himself, and living with scars of cancer. I enjoyed the characters and each of their own stories, and how it was tied in all together. My only complaint is that I found the last few chapters to be rushed, it didn't have the flow that the rest of the book had.

Love in Bloom by Sheila Roberts (4/5) General Fiction; Published: St. Martin's Griffin (4/2009); New Author; 2009 100 + Reading Challenge (53); 2009 Support Your Local Library (48); 2009 Pub Challenge (16);