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Oct 19, 2011

Abish rated it:

I really liked this book. There were only a few similarities to Gone with the Wind, such as, the main character lives on a cotton farm and has black hair and green eyes. That's pretty much it.

The book is divided into three parts telling the stories of three different characters, Mary, Percy and Rachel. After Mary's father dies leaving her the family cotton plantation and almost nothing to her mother and brother, her family is torn apart by resentment. Her father knew that if he left th More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 21, 2011

Tara rated it:

i thought this book was the cause of so many butterflies. and also...so many outbursts! i enjoyed every character, every paragraph, every chapter, ... such a great read.

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 28, 2011

Andrea rated it:

This book and I had a love/hate relationship. At times I felt ready to pull my hair out, and other times I was searching for the nearest tissue.

The story was about deciding what is most important in your life, and living with the consequences of those choices. It also showed how our posterity is affected by our actions.

Leila Meacham did a great job creating a story that pulls the reader in. Her characters were well developed (although so many of them were selfish, blind More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 15, 2011

Carolann rated it:

‘If I should ever offend you, I will send a red rose to ask forgiveness. And if ever I receive one tendered for that purpose, I will return a white rose to say that all is forgiven.’

This book starts at the end of the story and thus, the end of the disastrous love affair between Mary Tolliver and Percy Warwick. {I am not ruining anything, you learn that right as you open the book} Therefore, I knew as I was being taken through Mary’s and Percy’s flashbacks, that this part of the stor More...

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Apr 12, 2011

Arielle rated it:

Leila Meacham's novel centers around two rival farming families, and their offspring and the loves and losses of their offspring. Though the plot is a heartbreaking one, Meacham goes into so much detail that she leaves very little room for the reader to use his or her own imagination. At the same time, she seems to tell the reader how to feel about certain characters and their situations, rather than letting the feelings come naturally. She needs to show the interactions of her characters a bit More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Mar 23, 2011

Barbara rated it:

Leila Meacham has written a magnificent saga of love, family, and tradition where conflicting values arise when loyalty to the family business clashes with personal fulfillment in romance. It is comparable in scope and appeal to Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind" and Collen McCullough's "The Thornbirds".

This book is filled with intense emotions associated with love of the land and cotton business which threatens the survival of the Toliver family after the pa More...

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Jan 09, 2011

Juli rated it:

Hmmm. Biggest problem with this book is that's it's been compared to Gone With The Wind. Just not a good idea in general. It's like saying the new Babe Ruth, the new Michael Jackson, the new Harry Potter, etc. The comparisons always fall short. (Black hair, green eyes, and cotton alone do not a Scarlett O'Hara make.)

The story spans 60 years or so, set in East Texas, and was split into three parts, from the points of view of Mary, Percy, and Rachel. I enjoyed Percy's story best, a More...

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Jan 08, 2011

Sarah rated it:

Overall, I'd say this book is worth a read. It's a bit reminiscent of Gone With the Wind, but nowhere near as compelling or epic. But it's an interesting love story and family drama. Oh, and there's mild spoilers below, so don't read much further if you don't want a few things revealed.

I think my own values sort of made me impatient with this book. The book treated Mary's choice of Somerset, her cotton farm, over Percy, her "true love," as a mistake. Er, yeah, I couldn't re More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 12, 2010

Tania rated it:

Este libro lo compré por recomendación de Ilse mi cuñada. Decía ella que en Amazon anunciaba que si a uno le había gustado The Thorn Birds que entonces iba a disfrutar este libro. Nada me pareció más lejos de la verdad. Me parece muy ventajoso el servicio de recomendar libros basado en el tipo de lectura que uno disfruta. Sin embargo la calidad de la narración tiene mucho que ver en el por qué uno escoge un autor u otro.
Este libro es una saga multigeneracional que tiene como personajes pr More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 17, 2010

Jennifer rated it:

I fear this one is probably a 2 1/2, rather than a 3 star. I wanted to like it; the family stories sounded interesting and the beginning (Mary changing her will) hooked me. But, and it's a big "but", I just couldn't believe in the characters. Maybe my prejudice of the idea of "the land" goes back to the disillusioning classic, The Good Earth, but I had a hard time buying the idea that this land meant more to Mary (and then Rachel) than anything. It was said often enough, but More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Feb 28, 2010

RNOCEAN rated it:

This enthralling stunner, a good old-fashioned read, may herald the overdue return of those delicious doorstop epics from such writers as Barbara Taylor Bradford and Colleen McCullough. Meacham's multigenerational family saga, set in East Texas circa 1914–1985, charts the transformation of Mary Toliver, a wide-eyed 16-year-old heiress, into a calculating cotton plantation queen as hardheaded as Scarlett O'Hara. Her brother, Miles, goes off to WWI, returns home, but then goes back to France to ma More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2010

Fran rated it:

Roses By Leila Meacham

When receiving a red rose the receiver will know the sender means to apologize for his or actions in life or in business. If the recipient of the red raised wishes to grant forgiveness and accept the apology he or she will send white rose. Such is the basis for this upcoming novel by Leila Meacham which expands many generations and more than one century to tell.

Mary Tolliver DuMont has little time left and is determined to set the recor More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 06, 2010

Laura rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jul 27, 2011

Maile rated it:

I grabbed this book because of a description comparing it to Gone with The Wind. And while I'm not sure that's the most appropriate comparison, I did quite enjoy this book and tore through it in a single day.

Roses covers three generations, and tells the story of the three founding families of a small East Texas town. At times I felt some of the characters were being petty or single minded, but I bought that as a reality of the characters, rather than a plot contrivance. I believe More...

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Jun 11, 2011

Christina rated it:

I loved this book. My friend lent me 13 books, one of them being Roses and said that Roses was the best of them all. I saw the cover and thought "ugh, old lady-ish" and read it last. However, Roses is a great book. I was blown away, and the old adage still holds "never judge a book by it's cover". I could not believe how much of their lives that Percy & Mary wasted because of stupidity. I was dumb-founded by Mary's mother's mean spirited last gift to her daughter. I wanted M More...

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Jan 07, 2010

Becky rated it:

I won this book as a giveaway - and I was impressed when I received it; beautiful cover, nice solid hardback book. I was even more impressed when I started reading it.

It's got a fair resemblance to Gone With the Wind - I've never read the book but I've seen the movie and Mary is just about as close to Scarlett O'Hara as they come - her obsession with Somerset (the cotton plantation) being the same driving force. This "Scarlett" though is a much more likeable person - driven More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 16, 2011

Katie rated it:

This book is well-written, however it has two elements that I can't abide. First, if the ending isn't strong it can ruin the whole story for me. The ending wasn't BAD, but it certainly wasn't GOOD either. I liked the ending with Percy and Lucy. They're much more important characters and the end of the story should've been theirs. And second, the story skirts British-style misunderstanding ruining all the characters lives. This is a VERY popular plot line in British novels. Apparently we'r More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 29, 2010

Michele rated it:

A few months back, a new release by Leila Meacham called Roses caught our attention and we rushed to download the book on to the nefarious Amazonian Devil Device. A Reader's Respite then promptly forgot all about it. We do this far too frequently these days. Perhaps it's (the booze) a degenerative brain disorder caused by mold and dust in old books. Whatever the cause, the result is dozens and dozens of books purchased and then forgotten about, unread, until we stumble across them months - e More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 18, 2010

Kathy rated it:

So my friend called me a book snob and I think she is right! I really tried with this book - I read it all the way through when there were more interesting books calling out my name, but I could not really find anything in it that I liked.

A big, sweeping, overly dramatic saga straight out of the Gone With the Wind playbook, Roses is the story of Texas tycoons, plantations, birthrights, love, and secrets. Everything you would expect to find in this genre of book is there, and more. More...

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

Mar 21, 2010

Ruthanne rated it:

It has been awhile since I have been pulled so thoroughly into a book that I can't put it down. "Roses" was a pleasant surprise to me. I was not expecting such a moving story. I was initially interested in it because it's set in East Texas and I knew that I would be familiar with the locations and terrain. What I was not expecting was the "Gone With the Wind" feel and cadence of the story involving three families whose lives were forever intwined. The story is told by th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 04, 2011

Fluffychick rated it:

A huge family epic, which tells the story of the three founding families of Howbutker in Texas; the Tolivers are cotton farmers, the DuMonts are upmarket shop owners and the Warwicks are timber merchants. They have a long standing pact which involves sending red and white roses to seek and give forgiveness. In 1916, pretty but headstrong, sixteen year old Mary Toliver inherits Somerset from her father over her mother and elder brother. Her family are understandably miffed and it goes downhill More...

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Jul 28, 2011

Mirah marked it as to-read

This one gets 3 stars from me. There was a comparison between 'Roses' and 'The Third Birds' on the cover but I must admit, this was nowhere near the epic saga, or pure wonderfulness (I don't know if that's a word but it's what I want to use) of 'The Thorn Birds'. The similarities existed in the character basics and element of farming/ranching but the delivery was not as superior as 'The Thorn Birds'. In 'Roses' the characters of Mary, Ollie, and Percy are wonderfully created and expressed to More...

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Feb 07, 2011

Darryl rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

2 comments like

Feb 15, 2010

Rosanne rated it:

Well, I haven’t read a saga in a long time and so I was looking forward to reading “Roses” by Leila Meacham. It certainly was not “Gone with the Wind” or “Cane and Abel” but it definitely had its moments.

While following the Toilver’s , the Warwick’s and the Du Mont’s of Howbutker, Texas, three families with descendants going back to the House of York, the story centers around Mary Toliver who inherits Sommerset a cotton plantation from her father. As her father bequeaths here with More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 02, 2010

Dawn rated it:

Not quite what I was expecting, yet when I closed the book after the final page I was satisfied and glad that I had taken this ride.
It is a inter-connected story of family, choices and birthrights. War, and money, Love and pain. Death and birth and all that comes between.

Told in separate parts, from the three main characters perspective, it chronicles the beginning of a town, it's leading families and their resulting lives. All through out is the minute details of lives lived w More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 28, 2010

Viola rated it:

This book has been compared to Gone With the Wind and The Thorn Birds. I don't know much about The Thorn Birds, but I do know quite a bit about GWTW. Roses is similar in that it's a saga that crosses a few generations with three families. There's a cotton plantation, lumber mills, and unrequited love plus a feisty, stubborn heroine and a man who lookes like a Greek god who loves her and can't get her to break her stubborn ways. Sound familiar?

Really, this book wasn't bad, and I gave More...

1 comment like

Jan 31, 2012

Doreen rated it:

THIS IS A STUPID BOOK!! THE MAIN WOMAN LOVES THE LAND MORE THAN HER MAN!! UGH!!! ALSO, WHAT A RACIST BOOK "ROSES" IS!! LEILA MEACHAM USES THE WORD 'SQUAW' AND DOESN'T REALIZE HOW HURTFUL THAT WORD IS!! DOESN'T SHE KNOW IT OFFENDS AMERICAN INDIAN WOMEN, DOESN'T SHE KNOW WHAT IT MEANS? DOESN'T SHE KNOW IT DENOTES FEMALE GENATALIA?? I LOST INTEREST IN THE BOOK AFTER SHE USES IT TO DESCRIBE THE MAIN CHARACTER'S DISHEVELED STATE! WOW!! REALLY LEILA MEACHAM?? NOT ONLY DO YOU POINT OUT THE MA More...

1 comment like

Jun 24, 2010

Tanya rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Oct 30, 2011

Peggy rated it:

Yeah for Leila Meachan for writing the sweeping three-generation story. As entertaining and readable as Roses was, it had it's problems. The beginning few chapters were unnecessary and ruined bits of the anticipation by revealing things I'd have preferred to have learned as the story unfolded. I found Mary's section weak, maybe because Mary came across as clueless and one-dimensional. The land, the land, the land. Lessened the conflict for her section tremendously. Percy's story held all the con More...

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Mar 03, 2011

Carol rated it:

Comparisons to GWTW and Thornbirds? ... NOT EVEN CLOSE! I ordered this book from the library with great anticpation. I hadn't read a good romantic saga for quite some time. I started out liking this book, but as I got further and further into it, it got weaker and weaker: too much foreshadowing, too much repetition, unbelievable characters, immature writing. There was very little romance or suspense to the plot. The relationship between Mary and Percy held my interest for a while, but the other More...

1 comment like

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