Part of Blossom Street, book 3
First published 2007
Susannah Nelson stands in her childhood home in Colville, Washington, helping her recently widowed mother Vivian adjust to life alone. At fifty, Susannah carries the weight of choices made thirty-two years ago when she turned eighteen. That year she said goodbye to her boyfriend Jake forever and lost her brother Doug to an unexpected death. Now she juggles her demanding twenty-year-old daughter, her struggling mother, and a marriage that feels incomplete despite decades together. Her work as a teacher and role as a mother should bring fulfillment, but something essential feels absent. Returning to Colville means facing her girlhood friends and tending the garden she once cherished. The familiar surroundings force Susannah to examine the paths she chose and the ones she abandoned. As she digs deeper into her past, she learns that her memories may not tell the complete story. Some decisions lead nowhere, but beauty can endure even after years of neglect.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: second-chance, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Colville, Washington
Period: 1980s
400 pages · Mass Market Paperback · MIRA