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I have read this author since her Barbara Samuel days, and even a few Ruth Wind category novels. She is an "auto buy" for me. A good read always guarenteed; she's not let me down even once. But this book was something more. With each novel, O'Neal gets better, digs deeper, does more than transport me, but more something like transforms me. I'm saying this clumsy, the things she says clear. Notice I don't give summaries of stories. Today, after finishing this book, I needed to vent. A few of the
This is not the type of book that a normally read, but a friend read it in a day, and loaned it to me, hoping I'd enjoy it too. And, I did enjoy some of the book - there are several characters, and I had powerful feelings about all of them.The story mainly revolves around a woman named Elsa who has been through a few periods of doubting her faith, including a horrible encounter with a priest who destroyed her dreams of becoming a Catholic Priest, her fiance dumping her to become a Catholic pries...
RomanceI kept seeing The Garden of Happy Endings on Amazon Vine’s Last Harvest list. It kept calling to me so when there were only two left I put in a request. I am glad I did. Although this is a book filled with religion I would never label it Christian fiction. The book starts with a prolog about Elsa as she turns her back on God the second time. The book moves on to Elsa as she turns her back on God the third time. The theme it really about a crisis of faith, any type of faith and could be ab...
I picked this up because Gayle recommended it, and then was somewhat disconcerted when I started it and discovered it was about a woman grappling with her faith. This is not territory I usually pursue, as I'm not terribly interested in feel-good Christian fiction. The story: after the violent death of one of her young parishioners, the Reverend starts falling apart, and takes a leave of absence to grapple with her doubts. She goes home to Colorado, during which her sister discovers that her husb...
After a young child in her parish is murdered, Rev. Elsa Montgomery has a crisis of faith. Fleeing her church in Seattle and returning to the poor community in Colorado where she grew up, she finds purpose by making meals for the poor in the soup kitchen of her best friend's church. With the help of a recovered alcoholic and the community they take over a rubbish strewn vacant lot and create a garden. But gang violence is a constant threat. The Garden of Happy Endings is an unconventionally spir...
I liked Elsa's story quite a bit, Tamsin's a little less so, Alexa was mostly an eye roll (luckily she wasn't in the book too much). Thankfully the majority of the story is about Elsa.Elsa's suffering from a lack of faith, made more difficult because she's a reverend, but she still has the urge to serve and help people.Going back to her hometown of Pueblo, she reconnects with a former flame turned priest, works out her turmoil by helping with the soup kitchen and starting a community garden, and...
Wow, what a thought provoking book this is. Elsa is a minister in a Seattle church who finds herself questioning her calling after the murder of one of her parishioners. Elsa has had a long history of being disappointed by God, starting with her run in with a misogynist Catholic priest in her youth.After being told by her church council that she needs to take a sabbatical, she ends up working with her lifelong friend, Joaquin, now a priest in their home town. She has a history with Father Jack,
I'm not sure what I had expected going into this book. It had popped up as a recommendation awhile ago, and even that I'm fuzzy on the origin. But it had "garden" in the title, was supposed to be romantic, and supposed to be about food, and so I was in! Elsa is a Minister who's having a crisis of faith; needing to recover she is somewhat forced by her sister and an old friend to come back to her hometown to recover. But unfortunately they both have issues of their own, some of them serious, that...
Absolutely loved it!A new Barbara O'Neal book is an EVENT! Then there's the reading journey!!! I get totally caught up in the characters every time. They become part of my life and, even though I pinch every moment I can to continue reading once I've started, there is always the inevitable ending and the people ('characters' seems a little too analytical) move on and so must I. That leaves such a grieving period for me. I'm happy their lives have reached a satisfying and happy conclusion, but I'...
I didn't enjoy this quite as much as the other books I've read by Barbara O'Neal, which I've rated mostly 5 stars, though it was still very good. I think that's based more on my personal preferences--a story about a reverend having a faith crisis just isn't my cup of tea.
Another fantastic book by Barbara O' Neal. Absolutely loved it.
This book definitely wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. It's 50-100 pages too long and could've used some harsher editing, and I'm still not sure how I feel about our main character. This is about Elsa and her sister Tamsin. Elsa is a Reverend but she is asked to take a sabbatical when she finds the body of a young girl who has been murdered. She decides to go back to her hometown where her sister lives as well as the one who got away, Joaquin. They start a community garden but that is such...
