A story about faith, love, loss, and letting go of the past.

Book Review -“Wildflowers from Winter” by Katie Ganshert

Bethany hates everything about the small hometown she grew up in. Every memory is a bad one with the exception of her Grandpa Dan and his farm. Bethany has tried to erase the bad memories by moving far away. She lost contact with her best friend Robin who still lives in Peaks, Iowa. Ten years later, Bethany is living her dream in Chicago as an architect with her lawyer boyfriend. She gets a call from her estranged Mother to tell her about Robin’s husband who is in the hospital. When her mom calls again she tells her Grandpa Dan had a heart attack. She has to return to that horrible town. When Bethany comes to visit her Grandpa she’s surprised to find he has a houseguest, Evan who works on the farm. Evan is extremely distraught and distracted while she is there. Then she finds out that Evan’s brother is married to her best friend Robin. Robin has to make the hard decision to turn off the life support after her husbands been in the hospital a week.

Bethany goes back to Chicago to find out that she’s been downsized at her job. When things seem like they couldn’t get any worse she gets a call that her Grandpa Dan had another heart attack and didn’t make it. Back in Peaks for the funeral Bethany plans to leave as soon as the funeral is over with. One quick meeting with the lawyer and she was hitting the road. When the will is read she finds out that Grandpa left her all the land on the farm but left Evan the house, farm equipment, and the animals. When the lawyer tells Bethany she could sell her Grandpa’s farm and get millions she thinks all her problems have been solved. Evan is angered by her desire to sell. He feels her Grandpa wouldn’t have given her the land to sell. Bethany needs Evan on her side since she can’t very easily sell the land without including the house on the land. Evan thinks Bethany is extremely selfish. When Bethany’s boyfriend takes a job in Atlanta and doesn’t really invite her along she is faced with a bleak reality; no job, no house, no boyfriend, and the only way to get money is to sell the land her Grandpa loved so much.

After Robin’s husband passed away she finds out she’s pregnant and not sure how she will go on without him. Bethany decides to stay with her, with the understanding that she will move as soon as she gets an architect job. In the meantime, trying to help Robin pull out of her depression Bethany helps her with the dream of building a cafe in town. Living in Peaks again Bethany has to face the dark secrets of her past and feels like she is in her own personal purgatory. Will she be able to forget the past so she can accept what the future has in store for her?

This is a sad story about the realities of losing loved ones and trying to figure out how to move on. It’s also an uplifting story about leaning on those who love you and see you through the hard times. I liked the little flashbacks throughout the story giving us a better insight of Bethany. I’m excited that the author is writing a second book about Robin. You can’t help but fall in love with these characters as your heart is touched by them.

To get more information about Katie and her books, check out her webstie: http://katieganshert.com/books/wildflowers-from-winter/

Release date: May, 8 2012
Publisher: Waterbrook Press
ISBN-10:0307730387
ISBN-13: 978-0307730381

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I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.