Wildflowers from Winter by Katie Ganshert

Like Winter, grief has a season.
Life, however, returns with Spring.

As a young architect at a prestigious Chicago firm, Bethany Quinn has built the life she dreamed of during her trailer-park teen years. An unexpected call from her estranged mother reveals that tragedy has struck in her hometown and a reluctant Bethany is called back to rural Iowa.

Determined to pay her respects to her past while avoiding any emotional entanglements, she vows not to stay long. The unexpected inheritance of five hundred acres of farmland and a startling turn of events in Chicago forces Bethany to come up with a new plan.

Handsome farmhand Evan Price has taken care of the Quinn farm for years. When Bethany is left the land, Evan must fight her decisions to realize his own dreams. But even as he disagrees with Bethany's vision, Evan feels drawn to her and the pain she keeps so carefully locked away.

For Bethany, making peace with her past and the God to her childhood doesn't seem like the path to freedom. Is letting go the only way to new life, love, and a peace that she is not even sure exists?

Wildflowers from Winter by Katie Ganshert was a sweet, quick read that portrayed clearly the importance of forgiveness, God, and love. The plot line was straightforward and somewhat predictable, but it still held my interest for the entirety of the novel. It was a great read for a quiet evening after a long and exhausting day.

Wildflowers from Winter also had some important themes and topics that it explored. The novel clearly showed the effects of closing oneself off from God and others because of harsh circumstances. It in turn revealed the changes that love and turning to God can bring to relationships, character traits, and the quality of life in general. Another theme that became clear throughout the novel was the pattern of grief that a person experiences after the death of a loved one. Katie Ganshert did a wonderful job outlining the struggles that grieving people experience and how they are able to find solace and peace in God and those He places in their path.

The characters of Wildflowers from Winter were developed well and each was very different in their characteristics and flaws. The flaws of the characters were clearly evident, and it was easy to relate to the struggles that each character experienced in some way.

Overall, I really enjoyed Wildflowers from Winter. The plot line was fairly simple but still enjoyable. The themes and characters were well developed and really portrayed realistic situations and characteristics.

I received this book for free from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers in exchange for an honest review.