Susannah's Garden by Debbie Macomber

Susannah's Garden by Debbie Macomber
rating: 4 of 5 stars
There is not much I can write as a review for this book as there were so many twists and turns and surprises at the end I know I would give something away. This book turned out to be some what suspenseful and I couldn't put it down until I had it all figured out.

Susannah is a woman in her 50's who has been married to Joe for 25 wonderful years. Although her life is happy in Seattle her mother is failing in health back in her home town of Colville. After her father's and brother's deaths life hasn't been the same for either Susannah or her mother. The only option is assisted living. There is some discussion in the book about the issues mother Vivian goes through making friends and moving in, but this definitely isn't a book about Alzheimer's.

I was a little disappointed to find out that this book is not about a garden like I had hoped. I was hoping for some inspiration for my garden and a jump start for the summer. There are 2 references to 'Susannah's Garden' and they are both at the end. Vivian was an avid flower gardener and there are several references to her flowers throughout the book.

This book took me in a totally different direction than I thought it would, and I totally enjoyed it. This would be a wonderful book for someone who wants an easy summer read with many, many twists and turns.

I have added the blurb from goodreads.com that first attracted my to this book, and I must say it is well written but there is so much more that seems to go on and tie all of these things together. I guess I'm still shocked by the ending.

(Copied from Goodreads.com)

It was the year that changed everything.

When Susannah Nelson turned eighteen, her parents sent her to school abroad. She said goodbye to her boyfriend, Jake -- and never saw him again. She never saw her brother again, either; Doug died in a car accident while she was away.

Now, at fifty, she finds herself regretting the paths not taken. Especially the chance to be with Jake . . . Long married, a mother and a teacher, she should be happy. But she feels there's something missing, although she doesn't know exactly what. Not only that, she's balancing the demands of an aging mother and a temperamental twenty-year-old daughter.

Because her mother, Vivian, a recent widow, is having difficulty coping and living alone, Susannah prepares to make some hard decisions. In returning to her hometown of Colville, Washington, to her parents' house, her girlhood friends and the garden she's always loved, she also returns to the past -- and the choices she made back then.

What she discovers is that things are not always as they once seemed. Some paths are dead ends. But some gardens remain beautiful . . .