I have a copy of Jennifer Chiaverini's newest novel Sonoma Rose for one lucky winner!
1. Become a Follower of this blog
2. Leave me a comment telling me if you will be giving
the book away or will it be a gift for yourself.
Good luck and a random number will be drawn on Saturday, March 24th.
Sorry but I can only ship within the United States.
Sonoma Rose - An Elm Creek Quilts Novel
The 1920s evokes indelible cultural motifs—the Jazz Age, Modernism, Prohibition—and
inspired heralded literature—from the interwar disillusionment explored in The Great Gatsby
or The Sun Also Rises to the strong women portrayed in Alice Adams or Main Street.
But in recently published fiction, this time period has rarely been explored.
Jennifer Chiaverini, author of the bestselling Elm Creek Quilts series, is one of few writers
working today to demonstrate equal mastery of contemporary and historical fiction. In 2011,
she published two New York Times bestselling novels—The Union Quilters, a Civil-War-era
chronicle of life behind Northern lines, and The Wedding Quilt, a twenty-first-century
celebration of one of America’s most enduring and romantic traditions. In SONOMA ROSE
(Which went on sale: February 21, 2012), Chiaverini turns her imaginative powers to the story of how one woman’s courage and vision wrought true change, for her family and for herself.
Rosa Diaz Barclay is touched by the criminality surrounding Prohibition when she
unwittingly discovers that her husband, John, has given over the duties of their
Southern California rye farm in favor of armed bootlegging. Fearing the safety of her four
beloved children, Rosa flees, with little more than a suitcase filled with John’s ill-gotten gains
and her heirloom quilts. Accompanying Rosa is her true love, Lars Jorgensen, a good but
flawed man who is the father of two of her children.
Together, the six travel north to San Francisco, seeking not only refuge from danger, but a cure for two of the children, who suffer from a mysterious wasting disease. A beneficent doctor orders a special diet and a rural convalescence for which Rosa and Lars, under assumed names, hire on at a Sonoma County vineyard. There, the devotion of the Italian-American community to the craft of viticulture—which through no fault of their own, has become illegal—inspires Rosa to acquire a vineyard of her own, even as she discovers firsthand its inherent hardships and dangers winemakers face in such turbulent times.
As Rose, she creates a personal and professional identity that she would never have dared
imagine at the opening of her tale, one that brings great honor—and beauty—to all who
surround her. As the New York Journal of Books has written, “Jennifer Chiaverini’s strength is
not only writing strong female characters, but also placing them in interesting life and
times.” SONOMA ROSE is a triumph on both fronts.
