Customer Reviews

Scattered Petals: A Novel (Texas Dreams)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved this book! This book is both heart warming and heart wrenching. A story that is filled with tragedy and heartache, as well as, compassion, understanding and romance. It was truly hard to put this book down for anything! I fell in love with the characters, especially little Thea! She was a charming child with that child innocence that will pull you right in! My heart really went out to Priscilla, or Sunny Cilla, as she's known. She endured a terrible tragedy, yet had to push on. I don't think I could have done that! And Zach....well, let's just say that I would love to have a man like Zach in my life! But amongst all these secrets, tragedies and heartaches, there is something more. There is God. God's love, God's forgiveness and His mercy, all of which you can see healing these souls.



Amanda Cabott really captured history and took me to a place in time that I would love to have truly lived in! I felt a part of Ladreville, Texas and didn't want to leave! This is book 2 in the Texas Dreams series, and while I wish I could have had the chance to read book 1, Paper Roses, I wasn't lost in this book. To me, it would be a perfect stand alone or a perfect book in the series. A well written, 5 star book from an extremely talented author. Definitely recommend and definitely looking forward to book 3's release

Paper Roses (Texas Dreams, bk 1) was my first experience reading Amanda Cabot's writing, and I found it to be pretty boring, and it moved really slow. Scattered Petals
turned out to be a lot better, in my opinion. It held my interest much more, and moved right along.

We meet Priscilla Morton as she is travelling with her parents to attend her brother-in-law, Clay Canfield's, wedding. An unfortunate tragedy, along the way, changes Priscilla's life forever, and also gives her a debilitating fear of men. She is completely terrified for any man touch her, or even get too close to her. Her new sister-in-law, Sarah, and Sarah's little sister, Thea, play an important role in helping Priscilla get her life back in order.

Zachary Webster was first introduced to us as a friend to Clay Canfield's father in Paper Roses. He has taken over as foreman at the Bar C, the Canfield ranch, and become like a brother to Clay. Once Priscilla arrives, and Zach realizes that she is absolutely terrified of him, he starts making plans to leave the ranch, and head back to his childhood home to try and make amends for mistakes he made in his past.

Through the grace of God, and the help of close friends and family, Zach and Priscilla slowly begin to form a lasting relationship. I really enjoyed getting to know Priscilla and Zach, and finding out how their story played out. My favorite character from both books is Thea, Sarah's five year old sister. She is a real hoot!

If you haven't read either of these books, I recommend that you read them in order, since Scattered Petals pretty much takes up where Paper Roses left off. Be sure to visit Amanda Cabot's website to find out more about her and her books.

"Available March 2010 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group."

*** Thank you to Donna @ Revell Publishing for providing my review copy. ***

I liked this book very much. It has a great story line and is well written. I love it because it is an easy read.

Oh historical romances tend to be hit or miss with me. While I love historical books, most of them tend to be modern day romances set in historical settings. Pretty much it's a romance of today with long dresses, horse and wagons, and no electricity. Therefore I'm pretty picky and while the story need not be completely historical, the story has to grab my attention. Luckily this series has done that. I really enjoyed reading about the adventures of the townsfolk of Ladreville.

Priscilla had a horrible way to enter the story and I felt really bad for her. I really liked how Cabot doesn't allow her to wallow in misery nor does she become too happy too fast. Rather her reactions are quite normal for someone who has gone through her situation. The same with Zach. He doesn't overplay the hero nor does try to force Priscilla into doing anything she isn't comfortable with. Everything happened naturally which was very refreshing to read. I was quite surprised with the ending because it was a situation that normally doesn't happen in Christian fiction. Let's just say, people would normally die in order to create a big happy family instead of letting them stay as they are.

I was a bit worried at first that this book would fall into the cliches of all other historical Christian novels I read. The signs pointed there. Getting pregnant after being raped (somehow this ALWAYS happens in Christian fiction), a marriage of convenience to save face, another man who's in love with the female lead who is also a good guy. Luckily even though these are all there the story still manages to give fresh insight.

One thing I really find interesting about the story is the continuing rivalry between the French and German settlers of the town. Even though they have left their native land behind, both groups are still sticking to the old ways and are very bent on keeping their lives in that way. While they are fine with just living together in the same town, they don't really want to blend together. Intermarriage is pretty much out of the question, even sending all the children to the same school is hard to manage. The fact that there are two different nationalities trying to fit in to their new country while still maintaining their native roots was very interesting.

The only qualm I had was with the villains, their story (for all 3 of them) weren't really fleshed out. They seemed to be a bit cardboard in their actions and as such, everything the scenes were switched over to their POV, I found myself wanting to go back to Priscilla and Zach. Even though this book is the second in a series, it can be read as a stand alone. So far I have been enjoying this series. While a bit predictable at times, it's sweet and I like the setting and characters. Overall if you like historical romance set during the American west, you will enjoy this book. I know I will be looking forward to the next book in the series.

If you love historical romances that pull you in, engage your heart, and wind a tapestry of elegant writing around your senses, this is one book you won't want to miss!

Scattered Petals is the sequel to Paper Roses, but can be read as a stand-alone. Paper Roses covered the developing relationship between mail-order bride Sarah and widowed rancher Clay, in the Texas town of Ladreville. Scattered Petals starts with Priscilla and her parents travelling from Boston to attend the wedding, as Clay's first wife was their older daughter, Priscilla's sister.

SPOILER (well, not really - it's from p18, not the end). Outlaws attack the stagecoach, the parents are killed and Prisilla is raped. The scene is not graphic - in fact, it's so non-graphic that it reminded me of when I read Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles at school, when it took me several pages to realise Tess had actually been raped not just attacked. Anyway, Prisilla reaches Clay's ranch with the help of a Texas Ranger, and the first person she sees is Zach, who looks very much like her attacker, and she is afraid of Zach, of men in general, and in particular, she is afraid of being touched. Priscilla spends the rest of the novel trying to recover from this experience (and its consequences), and attempting to find how God can use this experience for good.

The books was good, but it had quite a different feel to Paper Roses, which was a sweet, HEA romance in which you were waiting for Sarah to discover Clay's secret (which I won't spoil in case you want to read it). Although Scattered Petals ends with the HEA, Priscilla has a lot to work through, and the last two chapters feel a bit rushed. It's worth reading, but has a bit more angst and depth than the first book.

Amanda Cabot's latest is both inspiring and compelling. Priscilla is a wonderful heroine--sweet, yet resilient. The challenges she faces are daunting and seem almost insurmountable, but she faces them with a quiet courage that makes you want to be a better person. Threats lurking in the background keep the suspense simmering, while the heroine's search for God's purpose in her life will reaffirm your faith.

What a beautiful cover this book has, and an appropriate one at that with beauty and sadness of expression. Scattered Petals is the sequel and second book in a trilogy starting with Paper Roses, yet could easily be appreciated on it's own merit as a stand alone. Bringing together two very different yet painful pasts God uses different characters to allow healing and hope for a future. This story gives a great deal of visual insight into the mind of a madman as well as a hint of depression and pain. Through out the pages healing is found in ways unexpected and love and happiness is entirely possible.

This is a truly heart rending novel and every page fills you with the good and bad of life, all encompassing the will of God through out and especially in the end. I do recommend it. I look forward for the end of the trilogy in the spring of 2011 as well as other titles from author Amanda Cabot to come.

At first it was hard for me to read this book, as a victim of rape, it was hard to see Pricilla going through it. But then it was nice watching her recover and come to reconnect with God and come to grow again with God.

What a great story in a place so familiar from Paper Roses. I loved Paper Roses, I loved this story and I can't wait for the next!