Morning Glory

Holy carp, what an emotional journey! This author really knows how to make two broken and heart sick individuals burrow into the reader’s hearts and just set up blissful, HEA housekeeping there. I think I cried more reading this book than I have in a long time. The emotions are extremely crisp and vibrant, making the reader live and experience every slight and fearful moment as well as every breeze of romance and love.

This romance novel turns into something else entirely, in my humble opinion. The author starts out with two very damaged people whose pasts alone will make the reader’s heart cringe for them. Their coming together and overcoming of their pasts to move into the future would be a fantastic romantic plot by itself. Yet, show more the author really does something special when she incorporates WWII and the final hurdle at the end. All the elements together elevate this book to an actual piece of historical fiction and not just a romance novel.

I really enjoyed the WWII elements, since that’s my kick this year. A family man knowing he’s going to be called away from his young family, the heart searing letters between husband and wife, the intense respect the people back home have for their veterans, and the details we get of the intense battles in the Guadalcanal region kept me on the edge of my seat and my heart twinging for these two leads.

And our two leads…. Just wow. I can’t think of two more damaged people than these two. Their pasts are so bleak that the love they find in each other seems even more elevated due to them. I guess at times their pasts might have edged into melodramatic territory versus reality. But you know what? The reader is carried away on the emotional ride so much that at least I didn’t even notice! I loved these two from page one and was sucked into their story from the very start.

Beautiful romantic connection between the two leads, great historical details, and emotions intense enough to make you viscerally experience the story in your gut make this a romantic novel to remember. Even if the lead’s backgrounds might slide into melodrama at times, it in no way takes away from the story. The reader is swept away no matter what. I might have to check out these older romantic novels now, if this book is anything to judge by. What a beautiful story!!! show less

Orphan. Bastard. Convict. Woman-killer. Boy.

Will Parker has been called every name in the book, none of them inaccurate and all of them unflattering. Drifting into Whitney, Georgia in the summer of 1941, he's just been fired from the local sawmill on account of his stint in prison for killing a woman in a Texas brothel. Bone-thin from hunger and wearing clothes stolen from a local's drying line, he decides to answer a woman's newspaper ad looking for a husband. The yard may be full of junk, the house a jumble of additions and the prospective wife a very pregnant mother of two who's known to the townspeople as "Crazy Elly," but he sees only an opportunity for redemption.

The man walking up her drive looks as beat down as a man can get, show more but with two young boys and a third child due in a few months, Eleanor Dinsmore's willing to take any man willing to do a man's work around her house. Widowed when her dreamer husband falls from a tree he was cutting - onto the beehives he kept - she's left with a ramshackle house set amid the piles of junk, scrap and salvage her husband collected aimlessly. Much as she loved him anyways, the realities of running her home with three small children demands she find a helper, and fast.

What an amazing, well-written story this was. Spencer created such lush imagery, it felt like I was seeing the story, rather than reading it. I could all but smell the northwestern Georgia woods Eleanor's house lounged in and hear their bees buzzing about the junk heaps that dotted the yard. A passage early on in the book stood out for me in how it took something as mundane as carrying firewood and managed to make it visual and sensual:

He knelt and loaded his arm with wood - good, sharp, biting edges that creased his skin where his sleeve was rolled back; grainy flat pieces that clacked together and echoed across the clearing.

Much of the book is written like this, drawing a full picture that's a feast for the senses. When I can hear each bootstep and see the motes dancing in the sunbeams, it heightens my sense of immersion and turns the volume up on the emotions.

And emotion this book has. Both Elly and Will are drenched in feelings, both for each other and about themselves. They've come from dreadful, unloving childhoods - Will growing up in indifferent orphanages and foster homes and Elly living in a windowless house with her pious grandparents castigating her for being born out of wedlock - and are both learning to value themselves. They surprise each other a bit, I think, with how they seem to balance each other out. Will gets in Elly a rare friend and lover, but also a bit of the mother he never had. Elly gets from Will a friend and lover as well, sure, but she also gets needed confidence and a challenge to overcome her fears.

They work through their insecurities, weathering childbirth, WWII and a murder trial along the way, to come out stronger, healthier people in the end. It's a slow-moving, slow-burning sort of romance. They're continually growing together as the story progresses, rather than feeling an immediate passion which they then actively resist. It's an organic story of two people weathering the challenges life can throw at people and coming out stronger because of it.

It was a delight to read from start to finish. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who loves a story of two broken souls healing each other and a story that doesn't end with the "I love you" or the "I do." show less

This book is exactly what I am looking for in a romance novel. Plot centered around the hero/heroine's relationship while showing the intricacies and complexities of a loving bond. It is never going to be simple or easy. They aren't just naturally attracted to one another and easily fall into love. This showed the work it takes to build and SUSTAIN a relationship, and I love how the author took the time to show that to us.

Both hero and heroine had imperfections that did not miraculously disappear. Both had strengths that were wrapped in insecurities. The ring of truth in their emotions was heart wrenching and absorbing.

Quite simply...It was a beautiful story.

3.5 stars

*This is a #TBRChallenge review, there will be spoilers, I don't spoil everything but enough, because I treat these reviews as a bookclub discussion.

WANTED—A HUSBAND. Need Healthy man of any age willing to work spread and share the place. See E. Dinsmore, top of Rock Creek Road

April's TBRChallenge theme was No Place Like Home, so I chose Morning Glory, a book on my tbr for decades. A drifter who's never had a home but works hard to make one with a widow, sounded like a perfect fit to the theme. The first half of this, I raced through. There's a prologue of a young mother bringing her baby home and her parents locking her up in the house because they're ashamed of her “sin”, it's 1917 and unwed mother's are not looked show more upon kindly. The story then quickly jumps to 1941 and to a drifter named Will about to be fired from a sawmill because it's found out that he served five years in prison for murdering a woman. I had to pause to imagine one of those graphics with arrows pointing at the book listing tropes, “Murderer!” “Shut-in recluse!”.

Will Parker's eyes were drawn to her stomach as she rested a hand on it. He thought about how maybe there was more than one kind of prison.

Will starving and having no money, decides that he will check out the widower at the edge town “Crazy Elly” and her newspaper ad asking for a husband. When I tell you, the pain of these two, gah. Will's constantly thinking, please let me stay, knowing he looks like a half-starved vagabond, who Elly knows, because he told her, that he served jail time for killing a woman but drawn to something warm in Elly's aura. The house and property are run down but Elly and her two small boys seem happy and for someone who was abandoned as a baby and on his own his whole life, Will can't help but want to be welcomed into that magic, even if Elly is pregnant with a third child. Elly for her part knows she needs help and is constantly thinking, please stay, even though she knows she's not pretty, has children and pregnant, run down farm, and is called “Crazy Elly” because of her past. They're both yearning for what the other can give and I honestly felt like a voyeur reading their relationship this first half as they slowly grew to trust one another.

She was a good mother, a fine woman who'd been locked in a house and called crazy, and if he didn't tell her she wasn't, who would?

The first half also gives a pov from a woman in town called Lula, who is said to run “hot” and wants Will but he rebuffs her because he knows those kind of women can lead to trouble because of his past. Readers do learn about the murder he went to jail for and it's, probably of course, nothing that makes him nonredeemable. Lula is that classic “other woman” villain that makes you uncomfortable reading because she's backed by a whole lot of slut-shaming, but it's, pretty obvious, why she's included and while she disappears for the majority of the middle of the story, her set-up comes into play for the last half. There's also a Miss Beasley, librarian, that was a great character (Mentally, I've given her a novella HEA with the lawyer) but, geez, yeah for women with facial hair being talked about but did the hair on her upper lip have to be mentioned, SO MANY times? Like, damn, give the gal a break. Anyway, by midpoint, Will and Elly have decided to marry and they have grown to the I love yous. I can say, even if it didn't feel over-the-top passionate (which can be considered better by some romance readers) I did believe they loved each other. Elly growing up locked up in her home, constantly being told she's a sin, until the law forced her grandparents (side question: I thought it was going to be directly said but am I the only one who thought her grandfather raped her mother and that was what was with the “drawn shades” business?) to let her go to school, but she was considered “crazy” because of her lack of socialization, and only getting befriended by her first husband (he died a'la Bridgerton, bee stings) had never really had a man care for her the way Will did, or turn her on. Will was never cared for either and had no one to care for, so when they meet, it's a pretty simple scenario of two people deserving love and finding the person that connects with them to give it. It felt real their feelings and why I said it gave a voyeuristic feeling for me.

She smiled into the bluebird's painted eye, her own shining with delight. "A bluebird...imagine that." She pressed it to her heart and beamed at Will. "How did you know I like birds?"
He knew. He knew.

The second half is where things really slowed down for me. Pearl Harbor gets bombed and Will gets drafted. There's a couple chapters of letter writing between Will, Elly, and Miss Beasley and then a really great scene where Elly has to rush to see Will before he gets shipped to the Pacific. She's had the baby by now (the birth scene was something else with Will playing doctor) and while they managed to have sex once before he left for boot camp, these two are ramped up. I love how the author described their attraction, from how Will was sitting in the chair and Elly eyeing him up and Elly breastfeeding with Will seeing her exposed boob, could definitely feel the tension in the air. Will gets injured and he's eventually sent home after being medically discharged because of shrapnel in his leg. The townspeople view him differently and he gets the respect he's craved but he's also suffering from PTSD and that delivers some strain between him and Elly until he eventually opens up to her. We're at around 80% when Lula comes back into the picture and Will's suddenly arrested for her murder. The ending was the court case and Elly trying to help prove him innocent until the last 5% gives us the HEA.

He wanted to take her close, cradle her head and rub her shoulder and say. "Tell me...tell me what it is that hurts so bad, then we'll work at getting you over it."

The first half, a slower moving but pulling you in with these two and their hurts and pains, learning to come together but the second half was a slower moving left me kind of disinterested ending. I read this in almost one shot and kind of glad I did, because even though slower moving usually calls for savoring, pacing out, I feel like this would be one that would be hard to pick up again, so my two cents of advice. These two will linger with me because of how real they felt but I'm not sure I could recommended, maybe just the first half and that meet-up in Augusta. Hope springs eternal for a Donald Wade, Thomas, and Lizzy P. spin-off series! (Elly's kids)
Guess what I'm watching tonight? (Hint: check out what's on Tubi) show less

Very, very good. Not my usual type of romance novel, but easily one that I would hand to someone who looks down on them. I know next to nothing about Georgia, particularly Georgia in 1941, so I am not the best judge of this, but I found the setting and diction to be spot on and well "illustrated". Writing realistic speech so easily comes off unrealistic, but I found myself mouthing Elly's words. The language FEELS spoken. That is very unusual. This also seems "meatier" than most romance novels. There is some sex, but not much and those are easily the worst written bits of the book, the heft is in more "slice of life" situations and several plot elements. The plot elements could be cheesy, but are not, possibly because they are show more contrasted with slice of life, baking pie, harvesting honey, washing diapers elements. It runs deep, exploring trust and self esteem along with love, Will needs a mother as well as a wife and lover, and his dynamic with Elly fulfills that. This is a need that comes up often with men, and yet, doesn't it sound creepy if you explain it wrong? I suppose the theme is more "need" than "desire".

I would read again, and definitely recommend to others. show less

Morning Glory takes place in Whitney, Georgia just before the United States' entry into World War II. Ellie Dinsmore is a widow, pregnant, with two small boys, living on a ramshackle farm. Will Parker is an ex-convict who has just been fired from the first job he's had since since he left prison. He is literally starving to death. When Will sees Ellie's advertisement for a husband in the town newspaper, he walks out to her farm. When he meets Crazy Ellie Dinsmore, will is not sure what to expect. She’s several months pregnant, has two young children, and looks tired and haggard. Her place is falling apart and she looks like she could do the same. It is obvious that she is desperate, but then so is he, and both are looking for a change show more in their fortunes. They both agree to a trial period where they will see how they get along. Will is determined to prove his worth and Ellie is hoping to prove she’s not crazy.

There are a number of delightful secondary characters, from spinster librarian Miss Beasley, to Robert Collins, Lydia Marsh, and all the way down to Nathaniel and Norris MacReady, who comprise Whitney’s Civilian Guard during the war years. Lula Peak, the town slut, and Harley Overmire, superintendent at the local sawmill who cuts off his trigger finger rather than be drafted, are two other key secondary characters that are very unlikable. Throughout the book, the dialogue is so good you can virtually hear the different accents and see each character’s background and education just from hearing them talk. I though it was a slow-burning romantic tale of two broken people that learn to heal together. show less

Two lonely, wounded souls find solace in each other’s love. This tale is as old as Beauty and the Beast, and the famous song from the Disney cartoon might as well apply here. But the writer put her own spin on the story, infused it with her own unique perspective, and the result is a poignant and heart-warming novel.
The plot is not complicated: two people — Eleanor, a widow with two young sons and a third on the way, and Will, a former convict — form a union out of necessity. The town had rejected them both: her because she’s ‘crazy’; him because he’s an ex-con drifter. Both coming out of a tragic past, they at first accept their partnership because neither has a choice. Eleanor needs a man to help her with a farm. Will show more needs a home; he is tired of drifting. Both consider themselves unlovable for various reasons, but they are ready to work hard and to compromise.
Love catches them both unawares. Their tentative steps toward recognizing their mutual attraction, and even harder, believing in it, comprise the bulk of the novel. A man and a woman, both desperate for companionship, wade through their hard-won cynicism and self-doubts, through the mockery of past betrayals and the fear of future ones, while the story highlights their courage and determination to make their marriage of convenience work. In the end, the novel reads like a manual on loving.
The characterization in this novel is superb. The author is always in her protagonists’ heads, making me, the reader, privy to every insecurity and every misgiving of Eleanor and Will. Their emotional nakedness frequently made me want to weep. Or alternately, I wanted to shake them both and yell in frustration: fools, don’t you see you love each other!
Only a couple small flaws prevented me from giving this book 5 stars. First, the author jumps between POVs too abruptly, sometimes within one paragraph or even within one sentence, and it’s jarring. Second, too many minute details slow the action considerably. I wanted the story to flow faster, but it crawled instead. Although a good detail might make or break a work of fiction, too many details in this novel sometimes tempted to me to skim a few pages and plunge ahead; I wanted to know what happened next and wasn’t that interested in the description of an orchard, which stretched for a full page.
But those were minor considerations. Overall, I enjoyed this book tremendously. show less