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kittietta's review
5.0
Grace Greene is such a wonderful author and always look forward to her books. This one did not disappoint! A book of relationships and loss, love and strength, and most of all healing. I was hooked from the first paragraph, and was kept there until the end. The writing was Grace Greene spectacular, the plot touching and characters relatable. Looking forward to book 2!
duchessofreadin's review
5.0
Kara Hart has been living with loss her entire life. When her mother walked out one day, never to return, it scarred Kara in ways she could not understand. After the accident which claims the life of her husband, she is back staying with her father and trying to recover some semblance of her life before the accident.
But her father has a few surprises up his sleeve as well. He is determined to sell the company he owns, and buy an older home, starting a new course in his life. Kara is surprised but goes along with her father to help him out, and she continues to heal from the accident. But when she gets there, she gets more than what she bargained for, and might just find the start of a new life where she least expects it.....
Wildflower House might be more a chance for Kara to get her life back on track, than her father's dreams of long ago.
This was a great read! I could not put it down! The story weaves and binds together so many emotions. Love, friendship, renewal, anger, redemption... there is so much here - and more.
But her father has a few surprises up his sleeve as well. He is determined to sell the company he owns, and buy an older home, starting a new course in his life. Kara is surprised but goes along with her father to help him out, and she continues to heal from the accident. But when she gets there, she gets more than what she bargained for, and might just find the start of a new life where she least expects it.....
Wildflower House might be more a chance for Kara to get her life back on track, than her father's dreams of long ago.
This was a great read! I could not put it down! The story weaves and binds together so many emotions. Love, friendship, renewal, anger, redemption... there is so much here - and more.
ashli_gwynn's review
3.0
The dialogue is a bit awkward at times and it’s a much slower read than I’d prefer, but I found the main character relatable. All in all it was enjoyable. I will read the next book when it comes out.
verumsolum's review
4.0
This is one of those books where I want to say "I liked it except…"
But when I reflect on what comes after those words, I realize that it is a reflection of my own yearnings: for a world that is fair and predictable and always sunny. One of the things that makes this book good, to me, is that it reckons with those yearnings, but has the courage to place them within the imperfect world we actually live in.
This novel is about responding to life's challenges. And it shows that well. Kara is neither a practically perfect heroine nor a grotesquely flawed doormat: she wrestles with challenges, some of which are probably larger than she would have imagined for herself, and the lines to her successes are not smooth and straight.
More importantly to me, Grace Greene has created a wonderful world here. The community we have glimpsed around Kara and her father really intrigues me and I look forward to reading the promised second book when it is available.
But when I reflect on what comes after those words, I realize that it is a reflection of my own yearnings: for a world that is fair and predictable and always sunny. One of the things that makes this book good, to me, is that it reckons with those yearnings, but has the courage to place them within the imperfect world we actually live in.
This novel is about responding to life's challenges. And it shows that well. Kara is neither a practically perfect heroine nor a grotesquely flawed doormat: she wrestles with challenges, some of which are probably larger than she would have imagined for herself, and the lines to her successes are not smooth and straight.
More importantly to me, Grace Greene has created a wonderful world here. The community we have glimpsed around Kara and her father really intrigues me and I look forward to reading the promised second book when it is available.
jhbrattlof's review against another edition
3.0
Wildflowers become the open metaphor of our protagonist's story. A weed or a flower? It's your call, after all.
Grace Green’s profound but sweet story reveals we are all aching from something, and most importantly, we are all worth saving. The first chapter of Wildflower Heart had me in tears. I immediately felt Kara’s (our protagonist) grief and pain and desperately wanted to give her a hug. Each chapter, Kara grows in deeper connection with her father as they restore an old home (quite figuratively too). It’s a sweet story for any age, even your teenage daughter struggling to cope with the harder parts of life.
I thoroughly enjoyed this sweet story. The ending was predictable in the best way.
Grace Green’s profound but sweet story reveals we are all aching from something, and most importantly, we are all worth saving. The first chapter of Wildflower Heart had me in tears. I immediately felt Kara’s (our protagonist) grief and pain and desperately wanted to give her a hug. Each chapter, Kara grows in deeper connection with her father as they restore an old home (quite figuratively too). It’s a sweet story for any age, even your teenage daughter struggling to cope with the harder parts of life.
I thoroughly enjoyed this sweet story. The ending was predictable in the best way.
vhardman's review against another edition
5.0
People have a way of developing ideas and beliefs of themselves and others than may not actually be accurate. We wrap ourselves in cocoons that make us believe what we want to believe as true and accurate and do so to keep ourselves safe or so we think, without sometimes having to face the reality of the truth. Kara has been surrounded by tragedy and when a tragic accident takes the life of her husband and unborn child she returns to her one safe haven, her father. While recovering from the accident, Kara begins to find out things about her mother, her father and herself she didn’t know or understand. Her father buys a dilapidated old mansion in the country and Kara is taken by the wildflowers growing in the backyard. As time goes on she makes new friends and starts to understand and see things in herself and those around her that will transform her just like the wildflowers transform through the seasons.
Grace Greene has written a beautiful and poignant story that had this reader reflecting on how I view certain things. The imagery and feeling the story provoked runs the reader through a gamut of emotions and leaves ready for the story in the series.
I truly enjoyed this book. I recommend any of Grace Greene’s books highly. If you haven’t read any of them this would not be a bad book to start with.
Grace Greene has written a beautiful and poignant story that had this reader reflecting on how I view certain things. The imagery and feeling the story provoked runs the reader through a gamut of emotions and leaves ready for the story in the series.
I truly enjoyed this book. I recommend any of Grace Greene’s books highly. If you haven’t read any of them this would not be a bad book to start with.
lsmoore43's review against another edition
5.0
This was a beautifully written story of so much love, loss, laughter, grief, friends and the love between a dad and daughter.
Kara has already had so much loss in her life when she loses her husband. Though things were not by any means perfect between them, she loved him and losing him was awful. She had a lot to overcome and her dad was right there as always to help. She had trouble walking without a cane after a car accident and wasn’t moving on with her life like she should have been.
Henry, Kara’s dad, bought an old house to redo. He had so many problems of his own that he does finally share with Kara in this book. But you have to read it to find out about that. The house is huge and Kara is not so sure about this. Her dad giving up his business to spend time working on such a huge place. There is a garden of sorts in the back and I can vividly picture it in my mind. A big field of wildflowers that the previous owner’s husband planted for her.
In parts I didn’t like Kara. I thought she had a bit of an attitude. When she found out things that her dad never shared, told her something else, she acted a bit spoiled about it to me. I did like her very much. I just thought she was way to opinionated towards some things that could hurt the people involved very much. I know she has had lots of loses but still. But in the end I did root for her for sure. I felt awful for what all she went through and the losses she experienced. They were very deep losses and hurt her so much. My heart broke for her. I root for her and Seth though.
When another tragedy strikes her life Seth, the neighbor and friend, is there for her. He seems like a very kind and good man. I think he will be good for Kara too.
The ending of this book was great and I look forward to the sequel so bad. I can’t wait to see what happens next with Wildflower House, Seth and even Victoria. Will Kara find happiness and true love. Will she finally have the family she needs.
This book was so well written, great characters, even secondary characters you will love, descriptions that make you feel like you are right there. I could even smell the musty in the old house. It was a huge house that was left rundown over the past year. It will be so beautiful when it is finished though.
Some of my favorite lines in this book are:
Don’t dwell in yesterdays. Live in the now. Frankly, you didn’t miss hugs and kisses you’d never had. You didn’t even know they were missing.
One of these days I’m going to walk that path myself and see what might await at the other end. Perhaps it would be a fairy-tale palace where mothers didn’t leave, fathers didn’t fail, and a daughter didn’t try to hold her own dad to standards she herself couldn’t keep.
A person must respect their past, even an unpleasant past, because it’s part of them, of what made a person who they are.
A kid doesn’t choose where it starts its life. You’re just born there, and you don’t know any different, and you do the best you can within whatever situation you’re given. I did that until I saw other ways to live. And then I made a different choice. A better choice for me. (This one is me all over)
“Humans along with other living creatures. Regardless of our place in line, we are renters on Earth. Tenants.”
I had always worried that I was like my father. Cold. Afraid of emotion. Wary of disorder.
Perhaps I should’ve been more concerned about being like my mom.
No one chose where or to whom they’d be born. We had to manage where we began. Like wildflowers.
This is a huge 5 star book. I loved it from start to finish. A must read.
Kara has already had so much loss in her life when she loses her husband. Though things were not by any means perfect between them, she loved him and losing him was awful. She had a lot to overcome and her dad was right there as always to help. She had trouble walking without a cane after a car accident and wasn’t moving on with her life like she should have been.
Henry, Kara’s dad, bought an old house to redo. He had so many problems of his own that he does finally share with Kara in this book. But you have to read it to find out about that. The house is huge and Kara is not so sure about this. Her dad giving up his business to spend time working on such a huge place. There is a garden of sorts in the back and I can vividly picture it in my mind. A big field of wildflowers that the previous owner’s husband planted for her.
In parts I didn’t like Kara. I thought she had a bit of an attitude. When she found out things that her dad never shared, told her something else, she acted a bit spoiled about it to me. I did like her very much. I just thought she was way to opinionated towards some things that could hurt the people involved very much. I know she has had lots of loses but still. But in the end I did root for her for sure. I felt awful for what all she went through and the losses she experienced. They were very deep losses and hurt her so much. My heart broke for her. I root for her and Seth though.
When another tragedy strikes her life Seth, the neighbor and friend, is there for her. He seems like a very kind and good man. I think he will be good for Kara too.
The ending of this book was great and I look forward to the sequel so bad. I can’t wait to see what happens next with Wildflower House, Seth and even Victoria. Will Kara find happiness and true love. Will she finally have the family she needs.
This book was so well written, great characters, even secondary characters you will love, descriptions that make you feel like you are right there. I could even smell the musty in the old house. It was a huge house that was left rundown over the past year. It will be so beautiful when it is finished though.
Some of my favorite lines in this book are:
Don’t dwell in yesterdays. Live in the now. Frankly, you didn’t miss hugs and kisses you’d never had. You didn’t even know they were missing.
One of these days I’m going to walk that path myself and see what might await at the other end. Perhaps it would be a fairy-tale palace where mothers didn’t leave, fathers didn’t fail, and a daughter didn’t try to hold her own dad to standards she herself couldn’t keep.
A person must respect their past, even an unpleasant past, because it’s part of them, of what made a person who they are.
A kid doesn’t choose where it starts its life. You’re just born there, and you don’t know any different, and you do the best you can within whatever situation you’re given. I did that until I saw other ways to live. And then I made a different choice. A better choice for me. (This one is me all over)
“Humans along with other living creatures. Regardless of our place in line, we are renters on Earth. Tenants.”
I had always worried that I was like my father. Cold. Afraid of emotion. Wary of disorder.
Perhaps I should’ve been more concerned about being like my mom.
No one chose where or to whom they’d be born. We had to manage where we began. Like wildflowers.
This is a huge 5 star book. I loved it from start to finish. A must read.
mae0524's review against another edition
2.0
*ARC Review*
This was written as a first person narrative. The characters are described directly and the main conflict is character versus self and nature. The theme includes some popular ones such as love, death, survival, and prejudice.
Kara Hart has gone through a lot in her life and is just attempting to find a balance in all of the chaos. She is our protagonist and is a round character who has gone through many dynamic changes before and during the story. Her main confidant is her father Henry and new friend. She can be described as resilient because each time her world has taken a wrong turn she ends up pulling herself back together in order to become a stronger person. The exposition shows us what kind of life Kara lead up until the accident that took her husband. The rising action is all about Kara’s recovery and her father’s decision to move to Virginia countryside. The climax is all about the journeys that Kara and her father have restoring an old Victorian Mansion. The falling action show Kara starting to adjust to what could be her new normal. The resolution does not really conclude anything as it sets up for the next novel in the series.
The author does have a unique flow and organization of the story but does give lots of details and a full background on the reasons behind Kara’s personality. Her word choice is smooth and lets readers easily follow what she is writing and lets the readers begin to form ideas about what is going to happen with Kara and her father’s lives as the embark on the journey of restoration. No, I would not recommend this book. This book would be good for readers who enjoy slower paced novels, or are into artistic or restoration projects. This book would not be good for readers who enjoy some sort of action or drama, enjoy lots of character interaction or are looking for a love story.
This was written as a first person narrative. The characters are described directly and the main conflict is character versus self and nature. The theme includes some popular ones such as love, death, survival, and prejudice.
Kara Hart has gone through a lot in her life and is just attempting to find a balance in all of the chaos. She is our protagonist and is a round character who has gone through many dynamic changes before and during the story. Her main confidant is her father Henry and new friend. She can be described as resilient because each time her world has taken a wrong turn she ends up pulling herself back together in order to become a stronger person. The exposition shows us what kind of life Kara lead up until the accident that took her husband. The rising action is all about Kara’s recovery and her father’s decision to move to Virginia countryside. The climax is all about the journeys that Kara and her father have restoring an old Victorian Mansion. The falling action show Kara starting to adjust to what could be her new normal. The resolution does not really conclude anything as it sets up for the next novel in the series.
The author does have a unique flow and organization of the story but does give lots of details and a full background on the reasons behind Kara’s personality. Her word choice is smooth and lets readers easily follow what she is writing and lets the readers begin to form ideas about what is going to happen with Kara and her father’s lives as the embark on the journey of restoration. No, I would not recommend this book. This book would be good for readers who enjoy slower paced novels, or are into artistic or restoration projects. This book would not be good for readers who enjoy some sort of action or drama, enjoy lots of character interaction or are looking for a love story.
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