Good Hope Road (Tending Roses Series, Book 1) [Paperback]

Lisa Wingate (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 5, 2005

Jenilee Lane has never been much of a Good Samaritan. But when a tornado sweeps through her home town, she puts her all into rummaging for people's mementos. She even rescues and befriends elderly Eudora Gibson. Brought close by tragedy, the two will learn lessons about the resilience of the human spirit and the ties that make a community strong.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The tornado that levels the town of Poetry, Missouri, does more than change the topography of the small town; it changes lives. Jenilee, a 21-year-old with no real future, helps her elderly neighbor, Eudora, who is grateful for her rescue from the cellar of her demolished home, although perplexed by the identity and generosity of her savior. Jenilee has been the object of scorn because of her family's poverty and the abuse she's suffered at the hands of her father. Now Eudora and the rest of the town are in for yet more surprises as Jenilee makes herself useful at the armory, helping the injured and creating a wall of the photos and lost documents she has recovered so that the rightful owners can preserve treasured memories in the face of destruction. Jenilee's courage helps Eudora realize that she, too, can change. Wingate has written a genuinely heartwarming story about how a sense of possibility can be awakened in the aftermath of tragedy to bring a community together and demonstrate the true American spirit. Patty Engelmann
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

A novel bursting with joy. (Adriana Trigiani) A beautiful story of family, friendship, overcoming loss, and...courage. (Lynne Hinton)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Signet (April 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451214676
• ISBN-13: 978-0451214676
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,380,591 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lisa Wingate is a magazine columnist, inspirational speaker, and the author of a host of mainstream fiction novels, including the national bestseller, Tending Roses, which is currently in its fourteenth reprint. Her books have been featured selections for Doubleday and Literary Guild book clubs, selected for The Reader's Club of America, and have garnered LORIES Best Fiction and Reader's Choice Awards, and been nominated for the ACFW Book of the Year Award. Recently, the group Americans for More Civility, a kindness watchdog organization, selected Lisa along with Bill Ford, Camille Cosby, and six others, as recipients of the National Civies Award, which celebrates public figures who work to promote greater kindness and civility in American life. Lisa loves sharing with readers via Facebook, Youtube, and her website. More information about Lisa's novels can be found at www.Lisawingate.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tornadoes can turn more than houses around, June 3, 2003

By 

Corinne H. Smith (Athol, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Good Hope Road (Tending Roses Series, Book 2) (Paperback)

In and around the town of Poetry, Missouri, a sudden string of tornadoes have done a great deal of damage. Jenilee Lane ("white trash") and Eudora Gibson ("garden society") find themselves literally thrown together as a result. Though they've been neighbors for many years, the two would normally not be seen in each other's company -- would probably have never spoken to each other again, if not for the unusual circumstances caused by the tornado. Through alternating chapters, these two women reveal what they're seeing and feeling. Their stories and those of the other residents of Poetry make for fascinating reading. The setting and the characters are so real that you feel as though you could drive down the road and find them all in the next town. Lisa Wingate is indeed a gifted writer. _Good Hope Road_ is the best mainstream novel I've read in years.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Hope for Improvement, October 9, 2003

By 

Joanne (San Francisco, Ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Hope Road (Tending Roses Series, Book 2) (Paperback)

Lisa Wingate tells the story of a young woman, discovering herself after a devastating tornado rips through her hometown of Poetry, Missouri. A woman named Jenilee Lane goes through the journey of finding her strengths and weaknesses for the first time. Her once sheltered life is turned upside down, forcing her to start over with the grieving townspeople of Poetry. For the first time, she gets to know her neighbors, she previously had avoided. This was especially true when she rescued a woman named Eudora Gibson, who's life, along with her grand-daughter's, was in danger after the distruction of her home. Wingate shows how humans level with their neighbor after surviving life threatening events. Often they will share a sense of be thankful for what they still have, and forget the conflict they had before. At the end of the novel, the reader is encouraged to embrace oneself, having the courage to face any one of life's challenges.
Wingate foreshadows the transformation our main character will go through with the metaphor of a moth shedding it's cocoon. Jenilee realizes something essential for her future journey, which is, "If not for the struggle....it would be a creature without strength, unable to fulfill it's purpose." The main theme of this novel is that with every conflict we encounter, we grow stronger if we want to. Jenilee lives up to her life long pressure of living up to her mother, and does so through her ecounters and events which occur after a tornado hits the small town of Poetry, Missouri.
I stumbled upon this novel, and was surprised by the author's style of writing from the first page. The one thing which kept me interested throughout the whole book is Wingate's simple and to-the-point plot. I have read many books which tend to focus too much on painting the picture for you. In "Good Hope Road," the reader is able to use their own imagination the create the characters and scenery for themselves. Also the plot was easy to understand and follow along, without struggling through meaningless detail. I give "Good Hope Road," written by Lisa Wingate, four stars because of the authors technique of sending a message of self improvement through the story of an ordinary woman named Jenilee Lane.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heart-felt and Inspirational, November 24, 2004

By 

Busy Mom (Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Good Hope Road (Tending Roses Series, Book 2) (Paperback)

I just love Lisa Wingate's writing style. She writes as if she's sitting down at a table in an old farmhouse kitchen, writing as if she's going to write a letter just to you. She is very inspirational and very thoughtful. She writes as if she knows her neighbors even if they're down the road quite a ways away. She writes about human nature and how we all struggle to be good. She writes beautifully that makes you stop and think for a moment ~~ yeah, I know exactly what she's talking about.

This one is a relationship between two neighbors. There is Jenilee ~~ one of those "no-good white trash Lanes" that live next door to Euradora Gibson, who used to be best friends with Jenilee's grandma. Jenilee is one of the forgotten children. Born to an abusive father and a sick mother who eventually died of cancer, Jenilee barely scraped by in school, taking care of her mom, her brothers and her dad. Euradora is an elderly woman with lots of regrets in her life. She didn't realize just how bitter she has become till a tornado ripped apart her house. Jenilee rescued her and together, they set off on a journey that leads to many open doors to the future and to many door-shuttings of the past.

It is beautifully written. A must-read for all mothers and daughters, sisters and friends. It's lovely, inspirational and thoughtful. Wingate writes of true things that happens to all of us ~~ in each of us is a lonely, forgotten "Jennilee" or an unhappy "Euradora". I wouldn't hesitate reading any of Wingate's books. We need more writers like her around!

11-24-04