The Bouquet: Flowers by Felicity/Petals of Promise/Rose in Bloom/Flowers for a Friend (Inspirational Romance Collection) [Paperback]

Janet Lee Barton (Author), Diann Hunt (Author), Sandra Petit (Author), Gail Sattler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2004

When a whirling ceiling fan disintegrates a wedding bouquet in mid-flight, four, heart-hardened observers end up catching a piece. Is love on the way?

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

When a whirling ceiling fan disintegrates a wedding bouquet in mid-flight, four, heart-hardened observers end up catching a piece. Is love on the way?

Product Details

• Paperback: 348 pages
• Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Incorporated (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593101406
• ISBN-13: 978-1593101404
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,204,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Janet Lee Barton was born in New Mexico and has lived all over the South. She and her husband now call Oklahoma home. She writes both Historical and Contemporary romance, and loves writing about faith, families, friends and or course, falling in love. Visit her at www.janetleebarton.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Charming stories, December 9, 2007

By 

Stacey (Las Vegas, NV USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Bouquet: Flowers by Felicity/Petals of Promise/Rose in Bloom/Flowers for a Friend (Inspirational Romance Collection) (Paperback)

Four romantic stories come together in "The Bouquet," a novel of love begun at a wedding celebration where the bride accidentally tosses her bouquet into the ceiling fan where it is chopped into four pieces and thrown to exactly the people who need it most.

****"Flowers By Felicity" is Janet Lee Barton's tale of the florist who created the notorious bouquet. David, the bride's brother, was photographing the event for the local paper. Now he has published the photos that may damage Felicity's business. Will he be able to make it up to his sister's friend? Especially since he is learning to love her.

***Diann Hunt's "Petals of Promise" finds Konni, a widow who is afraid to lose love again, holding a few petals from the demolished bouquet. She literally runs into Rick, a new man in town, who is a confirmed bachelor. He refuses to wed because he thinks he will be a terrible husband due to the lack of a positive role model in his life. Can these two get over their past hurts and find romance with each other?

***"Rose In Bloom" is Sandra Petit's story of Rose, the caterer friend of the bride who made the wedding cake and the best man, Lucas, the one who (through a comical circumstance) wound up smashing the cake and dislocating Rose's shoulder. He's ready for a relationship, but she's trying to start her business. Can love and forgiveness take root in this charming tale?

****"Flowers for a Friend" by Gail Stattler tells of the flowers that landed on Geoff's head. He innocently gives them to a little girl he knows - how can that cause romantic entanglements he doesn't want? But Jenni has a big sister, Clarissa. Will their relationship grow? Or will they deny what they both feel for each other?

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Foursome Of Unlikely Love Mates., September 4, 2005

By 

Betty Burks "Betty Burks" (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bouquet: Flowers by Felicity/Petals of Promise/Rose in Bloom/Flowers for a Friend (Inspirational Romance Collection) (Paperback)

It's always been my belief that whoever catches the wedding bouquet is the next to be married. Not necessarily so. Here it symbolizes a hope that love will sail into the life of the person catching it. At Abby's wedding, her nosegay bouquet gets thrown up into the ceiling fan and is torn apart into four pieces. They sail far across the throng of husband-hungry women guests and the four chosen by fate to have a piece don't exactly believe in love for themselves, only others. Love is the last thing they are looking or wishing for; but, who knows where the spirling numbers will fly or where they will land.

Into each life, love of some form does happen. It may not be the love of your life or the person you could love with all your heart. Oftimes we have to settle for second best and feel angry and unfulfilled for the rest of our lives. Sometimes, if fate is good, we will find the real love again before we die, but not usually. Konnie was a broken hearted widow who had vowed never to love again. After all, love hurts; and when you lose a loved one by death, it is twice fold. She didn't think she could ever go through that again. But fate steps in, and magic occurs.

Geoff is embarrassed when a piece of the bouquet lands in his hand and he quickly gives it to an admiring little girl. After all, he is the handsomest man at the wedding which is not his, and all glances are his way because of his good looks and charming ways. The girl who is too small to have a crush on the nice man hands it to her big sister who has loved him from afar for a long time. He has to acquiese since, after all, he did give the magic to her on a platter.

Rosie had baked the wedding cake and a clumsy groomsman, not Geoff, had crushed it to her despair. It did not damper the love and good wishes in the group of well-wishers for the now wedded couple. She now has a chance at love, which has eluded her for so long. She was standing in the right place at the right time. Lucky Rosie.

Felicity, on the other hand, is the florist who had designed the bouquet of gardenias, babies breath, and white roses and dismayed to see it torn apart and flown to the wind, so to speak. She is love-worn, watching others get married and she is never the lovely bride. Is it true that all brides are beautiful? That's what I was told by Christine when she married my son Geoff. Felicity finds that she indeed has a chance at love, at last.

Is it true that God can use fragmented flowers to plant seeds of love in 'fallow' hearts? I have a shirt with the words "Come Grow With Me" with a blue watering can and tulips with daises. Another says, "Grow Where You Are Planted." God has a plan for all of us, not to be alone and disspirited by a live without love. We may not always get the one we love the most, but please don't just love the one you're with. That is self-defeating.

This combined book used FLOWERS BY FELICITY by Janet Lee Barton, FLOWERS FOR A FRIEND by Gail Sattler, PETALS OF PROMISE by Diann Hunt, and ROSE IN BLOOM by Sandra Petit -- all combined to make this unusual love story about an unlikely occurrence at any wedding. Wish it had happened at mine; I had only one person to throw my gardenia to, the bridesmaid, as I had a small wedding. I lost touch with Colleen, so I don't know whether it worked or not as I had moved far away to Troy, Alabama, for a year after June 4, only to return 40 years later to a strange homeland where no one knows me. I met a woman on the bus who moved away to Queens, New York, to return and have the same fate -- no one knows or cares about the young you anymore. It's as if you were in an alien land, and not your hometown.

Fate plays tricks on all of us, whether we want it to or not. I was sure I would find my first love when I returned. He had other plans -- never to return, and it simply broke my heart.