Customer Reviews

Lilac Spring (Wild Rose Series #2) (Steeple Hill Women's Fiction #31)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lilac Spring is just as compelling as her two previous novels. This is the story of Cherish (daughter of a very successful boat builder in the small community Haven's End Maine) and Silas (her father's apprentice in the business). They are briefly introduced as children and then the story resumes as Cherish returns from her education as a young woman. She has loved Silas from childhood but Silas is very aware of his place in society and in their household. He has had an emotionally barren adolesence and really made his love of building boats his world (as it has been). Cherish has a strong faith in spite of her pampered childhood, she is impetuous, vivacious, a little spoiled but overall just innocent and loving. She expects Silas to share her faith since they've gone to the same church since childhood but in reality it is only head knowledge. Ms Morren very skillfullly matures these characters and creates a very interesting story. We also meet Capain Phelps and Ginny briefly from her previous book.

Morren has quickly become one of my top authors. In a matter of months I have managed to get my hands on all of her books. While I still enjoyed it and couldn't manage to put it down, this is my least favorite of her books.

I liked the character of Silas. I found him to be honorable and steady. His even keel demeanor constantly reminded me of my husband. However, I felt that his character wasn't fully developed at the end. During the story it is mentioned that he seemed to hide his emotions within and it seemed implied that he had something from the past which caused it. However, while mentions of old love and family were made, nothing was really expanded upon and therefore I never felt he was able to overcome this particular weakness.

Cherish, on the otherhand, was very able to express emotion. I felt, like another reviewer, that she was a little spoiled and did sulk when she didn't get her way. But I didn't find her irritating. I still cheered for her because she seemed very sweet.

I went ahead and gave it 4 stars because it was very well written and had a good plot. On a scale of Morren books, however, I would really only give it a 3. But only because her other novels have left me with high expectations.

As usual, great characters, beautiful romance, realistic struggles. Thanks for another splendid story!! Write another soon!!!!!!!

I picked up this book with great excitement, only to be thoroughly let down. The plot was original, but very uninteresting and it seemed to go nowhere. Aside from that, the characters were also very poorly written. Silas was the only one in the story that I actually looked forward to reading about. Cherish to me was whiny and weak, and I found myself hoping she didn't win the love of Silas until she could change her spoiled ways. Her father did a complete 360 in the story, between paternal love and obsessive protection. He randomly over-reacted about Silas, which was not, in my opinion, part of his nature. The dialogue throughout the book was rushed and forced, the characters were extremely underdeveloped, and the end just left me unsatisfied. This one doesn't rank anywhere close to the author's first book, "WILD ROSE." There's such a drastic difference in the plot and characters that I'm somewhat leery to pick up the next one.