Wild Rose
Maternal love isn’t restricted to those who carry a child for nine months, as Alice Moore is about to find out. Following a cry she hears in the woods, she stumbles across the body of a young woman with a young child wailing for her mother. Knowing there is nothing she can do for the woman, but that the child will not survive without help, Alice takes the young girl to her remote cottage, where she raises her. As time goes by, their relationship becomes as strong as any mother/daughter bond until Alice finds that the father of the child is searching for her. Inevitably, the family is reunited, and Alice’s life will never be the same again.
Wild Rose is set against the backdrop of the Wars of the Roses, a period of history with much political upheaval, but the most that is mentioned on this topic is that the Baron is unhappy with the almost constant call for money and arms. There is also a lack of tension in Wild Rose. Only one character has a treacherous streak, but even this seems somewhat diluted. This is at once the flaw and yet the appeal of Wild Rose. With no anxiety in the book, there’s little to keep the reader turning the page apart from the fact that (aside from one) all the characters are so darned nice! You feel for them because they are lovely; they worm their way into your heart, and you find yourself wanting to make sure that life does work out wonderfully well for all.
This is a book for those who want a read that will put a warm smile on their face at the end, a comforting book, like a mug of tea and a bar of chocolate when it’s raining outside.
