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Elm Creek Quilts #19
Sonoma Rose
As the nation grapples with the strictures of Prohibition, Rosa Diaz Barclay lives on a Southern California rye farm with her volatile husband, John, who has lately found another source of income far outside the Federal purview.
Mother to eight children, Rosa mourns the loss of four who succumbed to the mysterious wasting disease currently afflicting young Ana and Miguel. Two daughters born of another father are in perfect health. When an act of violence shatters Rosa’s resolve to maintain her increasingly dangerous existence, she flees with the children and her precious heirloom quilts to the mesa where she last saw her beloved mother alive.
Mother to eight children, Rosa mourns the loss of four who succumbed to the mysterious wasting disease currently afflicting young Ana and Miguel. Two daughters born of another father are in perfect health. When an act of violence shatters Rosa’s resolve to maintain her increasingly dangerous existence, she flees with the children and her precious heirloom quilts to the mesa where she last saw her beloved mother alive.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
140 people are currently reading
2331 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Chiaverini
78 books5,238 followersJennifer Chiaverini is the New York Times bestselling author of thirty-three novels, including acclaimed historical fiction and the beloved Elm Creek Quilts series. She has also written seven quilt pattern books inspired by her novels. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago, she lives with her husband and two sons in Madison, Wisconsin. About her historical fiction, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes, "In addition to simply being fascinating stories, these novels go a long way in capturing the texture of life for women, rich and poor, black and white, in those perilous years."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 474 reviews
December 29, 2020
This book was a huge disappointment. First of all it isn't a book about quilts or quilt-loving people, like all the rest have been. Second, the heroine was a moronic idiot. She didn't have any character at all.
Rose has a childhood friend who she refuses to marry because he drinks too much. So, instead she ends up marrying a wife-beater. Her first and fifth child come from her childhood, drunk-but-still-a-good-man sweetheart. The other six children have celiac disease and it takes her forever to figure out how to save her dying children. She knows they don't get sick when they eat corn tortillas, but she feeds them white bread because the doctor said so, like a good little soldier.
Is it okay that she takes a lover, but stays with her abusive husband? What kind of loser is she?? Finally, she runs away from her husband and hides in the canyon during a rainstorm, taking her sick children with her. Really?????
She and her sweetheart, and the children, finally run away to wine country in the middle of prohibition. No one is making money, but these wobegones are hired anyway. They accept charity even though they are sitting on a suitcase of bootlegger cash, which they eventually buy a winery with. Hello--your sweetheart is an alcoholic! Then Rose, who is as weak as a character can be starts making deals with bootleggers.
It’s fine if a main character isn’t likable, but she has to be believable, and I just didn’t believe Rose and any of her circumstances.
Wow! Jennifer completely lost it with this book!
Rose has a childhood friend who she refuses to marry because he drinks too much. So, instead she ends up marrying a wife-beater. Her first and fifth child come from her childhood, drunk-but-still-a-good-man sweetheart. The other six children have celiac disease and it takes her forever to figure out how to save her dying children. She knows they don't get sick when they eat corn tortillas, but she feeds them white bread because the doctor said so, like a good little soldier.
Is it okay that she takes a lover, but stays with her abusive husband? What kind of loser is she?? Finally, she runs away from her husband and hides in the canyon during a rainstorm, taking her sick children with her. Really?????
She and her sweetheart, and the children, finally run away to wine country in the middle of prohibition. No one is making money, but these wobegones are hired anyway. They accept charity even though they are sitting on a suitcase of bootlegger cash, which they eventually buy a winery with. Hello--your sweetheart is an alcoholic! Then Rose, who is as weak as a character can be starts making deals with bootleggers.
It’s fine if a main character isn’t likable, but she has to be believable, and I just didn’t believe Rose and any of her circumstances.
Wow! Jennifer completely lost it with this book!
January 16, 2016
What a Beautiful Cover!
In previous editions we were reminded that some of Sylvia Berstrom’s relatives had migrated to California. Sonoma Rose starts with a little of that history, picking up where The Quilter’s Homecoming, that was published in 2007 left off.
We meet Elizabeth Bergstrom Nelson’s friend, Rosa Diaz as the country is coping with all the restrictions of Prohibition. Mother to eight children, Rosa mourns the loss of four who succumbed to the mysterious wasting disease currently afflicting young Ana and Miguel. Her abusive husband refuses to take them into the city so the children can see a doctor. His mind is clearly on other things, like his fancy car and keeping secrets about his business dealings from his wife. When an act of violence shatters Rosa’s resolve to maintain her increasingly dangerous existence, she flees with the children and her precious heirloom quilts to the mesa where she last saw her beloved mother alive.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
This is the Jennifer Chiaverini I love to read. I think she lost her way a little bit wrapping up the current characters in The Wedding Quilt.This story shines a brilliant light on her masterful storytelling talent.
This is Rosa’s story. She is yet another strong female heroine created by Chiaverini that has you engaged from the moment we step back into her life. You will feel a wide range of emotions during her story, anger, fear, hope and joy. The bonds of friendship are as strong as all the other books in this series. The power of love from a mother’s love for her children to the enduring love between a man and a woman are woven wondrously through these pages. This story was absolutely amazing. I couldn’t put it down.
Jennifer Chiaverini has created some very memorable fiction characters and has allowed us to go along with them on the journeys not only in current time but into the past and into the future. I am really wondering what is next in this series. I have loved all of these characters and will miss them if this is where the journey ends. I sincerely hope she has some more Elm Creek Quilts stories in that big sewing basket of hers.
In previous editions we were reminded that some of Sylvia Berstrom’s relatives had migrated to California. Sonoma Rose starts with a little of that history, picking up where The Quilter’s Homecoming, that was published in 2007 left off.
We meet Elizabeth Bergstrom Nelson’s friend, Rosa Diaz as the country is coping with all the restrictions of Prohibition. Mother to eight children, Rosa mourns the loss of four who succumbed to the mysterious wasting disease currently afflicting young Ana and Miguel. Her abusive husband refuses to take them into the city so the children can see a doctor. His mind is clearly on other things, like his fancy car and keeping secrets about his business dealings from his wife. When an act of violence shatters Rosa’s resolve to maintain her increasingly dangerous existence, she flees with the children and her precious heirloom quilts to the mesa where she last saw her beloved mother alive.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
This is the Jennifer Chiaverini I love to read. I think she lost her way a little bit wrapping up the current characters in The Wedding Quilt.This story shines a brilliant light on her masterful storytelling talent.
This is Rosa’s story. She is yet another strong female heroine created by Chiaverini that has you engaged from the moment we step back into her life. You will feel a wide range of emotions during her story, anger, fear, hope and joy. The bonds of friendship are as strong as all the other books in this series. The power of love from a mother’s love for her children to the enduring love between a man and a woman are woven wondrously through these pages. This story was absolutely amazing. I couldn’t put it down.
Jennifer Chiaverini has created some very memorable fiction characters and has allowed us to go along with them on the journeys not only in current time but into the past and into the future. I am really wondering what is next in this series. I have loved all of these characters and will miss them if this is where the journey ends. I sincerely hope she has some more Elm Creek Quilts stories in that big sewing basket of hers.
May 11, 2012
As usual, Jennifer Chiaverini wrote another wonderful story to add to the Elm Creek Quilts series. This book follows The Quilter's Homecoming where we were left with a cliffhanger about Rosa and her children who run away from an abusive husband/father in the midst of a violent rain storm. In Sonoma Rose we get the history of Rosa, John, and Lars relationship and how Rosa married John instead of Lars, and furthermore why she stays with John even though he beats her.
This book takes place during the years of Prohibition and Chiaverini educates us on how grape growers were treated while trying to survive.
Excellent book, I love this series.
This book takes place during the years of Prohibition and Chiaverini educates us on how grape growers were treated while trying to survive.
Excellent book, I love this series.
August 13, 2016
I probably shouldn't even rate this with stars since I have decided not to finish this book and send it on its way back to the library. I have been a fan of Mrs. Chiaverini's work since I read her first book. I've loved her characters, the setting, the association with quilting - another interest of mine - and the stories she weaves. Somehow with this one I believe Mrs. Chiaverini has gone far astray.
Life is full of choices and consequences. Our choices often determine the consequences, sometimes even our lack of choice determines a path. Rosa, the central and title character of this book seems to me to be without definition and will. I managed to plod to page 165 (out of 401) before I finally grew weary of Rosa and her "true love", Lars. I thumbed randomly through the rest of the book, stopping to read a bit here and there. And I didn't grow any fonder of characters, certainly not fond enough to want to wade through more of the pathos that permeated the pages.
Even the writing in this one seems less "authentic" - if that makes any sense. Frankly, none of the characters resonated with me. I found them all to be disappointing, unsympathetic, without much of a moral foundation, doing whatever felt right at the moment with no thought of their actions or their future. I found I had no desire to find out what happened to them (other than my natural desire to see a satisfying conclusion to a book), I cared so little for them.
I didn't even find any passages to remember, nothing stands out, no page numbers were noted to refer back to....this is just IMO a lackluster endeavor. Clearly a lot of effort went into the book - 401 pages is demonstrative of that fact. Just not worth any more of my time when there is so much out there to read that will engage, pique and stimulate my mind.
Life is full of choices and consequences. Our choices often determine the consequences, sometimes even our lack of choice determines a path. Rosa, the central and title character of this book seems to me to be without definition and will. I managed to plod to page 165 (out of 401) before I finally grew weary of Rosa and her "true love", Lars. I thumbed randomly through the rest of the book, stopping to read a bit here and there. And I didn't grow any fonder of characters, certainly not fond enough to want to wade through more of the pathos that permeated the pages.
Even the writing in this one seems less "authentic" - if that makes any sense. Frankly, none of the characters resonated with me. I found them all to be disappointing, unsympathetic, without much of a moral foundation, doing whatever felt right at the moment with no thought of their actions or their future. I found I had no desire to find out what happened to them (other than my natural desire to see a satisfying conclusion to a book), I cared so little for them.
I didn't even find any passages to remember, nothing stands out, no page numbers were noted to refer back to....this is just IMO a lackluster endeavor. Clearly a lot of effort went into the book - 401 pages is demonstrative of that fact. Just not worth any more of my time when there is so much out there to read that will engage, pique and stimulate my mind.
February 29, 2012
Calling this an Elm Creek Quilts novel is a bit of a stretch. The connection to previous Elm Creek Quilt novels is tenuous, at best, and any mention of actual quilting seems thrown in as an afterthought. The storyline is interesting, but I couldn't work up much empathy for the main character. Chiaverini's main characters are usually women, often with flaws, but redeemed by their strengths and resourcefulness. The main character in this book seemed to be shaped by her circumstances more than by taking control of her own destiny. I think this was written mainly to serve as background for a future novel about one of the actual Elm Creek Quilt characters (Elizabeth). Time will tell...
September 17, 2016
I've had this book on my shelf for quite some time. I had procrastinated a little, although I love this author, the story set in California previously wasn't my favorite. However, this story was an off-shoot of some of the characters in that earlier book (The Quilter's Homecoming) and I really liked it. I love the historical references and education on the plight of the vineyards during the Prohibition Era. Really enjoyable read.
August 20, 2012
This book involves quilting only tangentially, but is a continuation of some story threads (pun intended) from The Quilter's Homecoming. The book is not always easy to read, as it describes spouse abuse and the unhappy family life it creates, but those episodes are told in flashback and are tolerable even for a reader sensitive to the subject. Chiaverini presents a more complex moral context than in any of her other books, with bad decisions leading to more bad decisions, good decisions being thwarted by previous bad choices, and desperate times calling for morally questionable desperate measures--all exposed and explored in the story without it becoming a philosophical treatise. The book is a satisfying read, more thought-provoking than many others of its genre. One also gains insights into the early diagnosis (or lack thereof) and treatment of celiac disease, the unintended consequences of Prohibition, and the hardships it created for winemaking families in the Sonoma Valley of California. If you like the Elm Creek Quilts series, you'll probably like this book. If you are not familiar with the series, you may enjoy this novel and want to read the series. And if nothing else, you should schedule a holiday in the Wine Country and see what a lovely and interesting place it is now. But read before you read Sonoma Rose.
February 28, 2021
I liked this book the best of all of Jennifer's books. Great story during Prohibition.
April 28, 2022
I was disappointed with this book also. I have enjoyed several others by this author. There was not a lot about quilts and the characters lied and manipulated their lives through the plot. The story did explain about wine making in California and the impact of prohibition on the growers but I would not recommend it as a great read.
November 26, 2025
A cute book if you are looking for a read where you know what is going to happen well before it does. A one that always has a happen ending. Set during Prohibition in California’s wine country, the book follows the life of Rosa Diaz through a lost love, abusive marriage, and illness.
March 10, 2020
Read 2012
December 3, 2021
Prohibition era tough woman and mother. How 18th ammendment affected wine growers.
October 2, 2025
This chapter in the Elm Creek saga takes place during Prohibition and is the followup to “The Homecoming”(#10)in the series. The main character is Rosa who has married her second choice for a husband.
April 9, 2012
Jennifer Chiaverini has written another wonderful Elm Creek Quilts novel.
Rosa Diaz Barclay lives on a rye farm in Southern California with her very abusive husband, John. John is also the postmaster and is responsible for getting the mail to all the nearby families. He is, as it looks, into some shady business elsewhere other than his farm. Rosa and John have been parents to 8 children, 4 of whom succumbed to a mysterious disease. Rosa is forever asking John to let her take the sick children remaining to a specialist to find out what can be done for the children so they can grow up and live long lives. Only 2 of Rosa's children, Lupita and Marta seem to be healthy. Rosa suspects this is due to the fact that these 2 children are the offspring of Lars Jorgensen, a past love that went awry many years ago due to Lars drinking.
Rosa came to her last straw after a very abusive moment with John when he beat her and a neighbor, Elizabeth who had come for her mail. Enough was enough. She packed up her children and a small amount of clothes and food and left the farm. It has begun to rain very hard and she seeks shelter with her children in a cave in the canyon. A flash flood has trapped them there. Lars Jorgensen, however, finds her and the children and takes them to safety. They all escape to San Francisco and find a doctor who is able to define what ails the sickly children-celiac disease. He puts them on a special diet and needs to see them weekly for a while. They take refuge in an apartment in a boarding house in town. Soon as the children start their new diet, they seem to improve rapidly. The doctor tells Lars and Rosa about a family farm that is in need of help and Lars and Rosa accept positions with the family. The fresh air and all help the children even more.
The place where Lars and Rosa take employment is a winery. It is prohibition time also. They find out that the family are bootleggers and the patriarch of the family is arrested and sentenced to jail for 2 years. His wines are destroyed by the feds. Only the prohibition agents are corrupt as well. All the publicity worries Rosa and they need to move on. They discover that a neighboring farmer wants to sell his property after having a heart attack. Rosa and Lars buy the place with the money Rosa had taken from John when she left him; bootleg money. The farm was secluded and they thought they would be safe there. Unbeknownst to them but the previous owners had a still and were into bootlegging also. But, they soon found out that the mob was in control of the bootlegging and just renting the building from the owners. It was a pretty run down building. What are Rosa and Lars going to do now? With the prohibition agents always lurking about, how long would it be before they found this still too? How can Rosa and Lars fix things so that they can live a life without always running from one place to another? Will Rosa's husband, John, find them when he is released? Does Rosa continue to make wine on her farm?
Rosa Diaz Barclay lives on a rye farm in Southern California with her very abusive husband, John. John is also the postmaster and is responsible for getting the mail to all the nearby families. He is, as it looks, into some shady business elsewhere other than his farm. Rosa and John have been parents to 8 children, 4 of whom succumbed to a mysterious disease. Rosa is forever asking John to let her take the sick children remaining to a specialist to find out what can be done for the children so they can grow up and live long lives. Only 2 of Rosa's children, Lupita and Marta seem to be healthy. Rosa suspects this is due to the fact that these 2 children are the offspring of Lars Jorgensen, a past love that went awry many years ago due to Lars drinking.
Rosa came to her last straw after a very abusive moment with John when he beat her and a neighbor, Elizabeth who had come for her mail. Enough was enough. She packed up her children and a small amount of clothes and food and left the farm. It has begun to rain very hard and she seeks shelter with her children in a cave in the canyon. A flash flood has trapped them there. Lars Jorgensen, however, finds her and the children and takes them to safety. They all escape to San Francisco and find a doctor who is able to define what ails the sickly children-celiac disease. He puts them on a special diet and needs to see them weekly for a while. They take refuge in an apartment in a boarding house in town. Soon as the children start their new diet, they seem to improve rapidly. The doctor tells Lars and Rosa about a family farm that is in need of help and Lars and Rosa accept positions with the family. The fresh air and all help the children even more.
The place where Lars and Rosa take employment is a winery. It is prohibition time also. They find out that the family are bootleggers and the patriarch of the family is arrested and sentenced to jail for 2 years. His wines are destroyed by the feds. Only the prohibition agents are corrupt as well. All the publicity worries Rosa and they need to move on. They discover that a neighboring farmer wants to sell his property after having a heart attack. Rosa and Lars buy the place with the money Rosa had taken from John when she left him; bootleg money. The farm was secluded and they thought they would be safe there. Unbeknownst to them but the previous owners had a still and were into bootlegging also. But, they soon found out that the mob was in control of the bootlegging and just renting the building from the owners. It was a pretty run down building. What are Rosa and Lars going to do now? With the prohibition agents always lurking about, how long would it be before they found this still too? How can Rosa and Lars fix things so that they can live a life without always running from one place to another? Will Rosa's husband, John, find them when he is released? Does Rosa continue to make wine on her farm?
September 9, 2012
I've read all the Elm Creek Quilt books, in order. That being said, it isn't necessary to do that when reading this book. I'm not actually sure why this one is tagged as an Elm Creek Quilts novel at all. Except for a slight relation to one of the other characters, which wasn't even presented as important, this book was so far from an Elm Creek Quilts novel to be considered one at all.
Rose (aka Rosa) has always been in love with Lars. But because of his drinking and other issues that arise with their relationship, she ended up married to John instead. John is an abuser, and father to six of her eight children (and not all those children alive) and so he lashes out in his anger at her betrayal as well. When he becomes too dangerous, Rosa and her remaining four children run away with Lars. This is partly to save her, but also to try to help her children that have a mysterious sickness get better. They end up in wine country, and learn just how Prohibition is destroying the grape farmers there and become a part of more than they would have bargained for.
I just didn't really like Rosa. She was a victim of abuse, and I feel for her on that aspect, as noone should ever be abused, but I also didn't like the way that she treated people. She was unfair to her husband even before he became an abuser and while he was a horrible man for being an abuser, one wrong does not deserve another. Lars was also kind of lackluster for me, he didn't seem to care about too much and rather let his whims carry him for most of his life. The kids were all kind of secondary, you never really got a big feel for their personalities other than a few of them were sick and Rosa worried about them dying. There just wasn't anyone to connect to in this novel.
I thought the Prohibition theme was interesting but the way Chiaverini wrote it was long and drawn out. It actually took up the biggest part of the book aside from Rosa's love triangle. And there was barely any mention of quilts at all, which since this is an Elm Creek Quilts novel, is inexcusable. It's fine to write a book like this, but don't market it under that brand if that's not what it's about. I also found Rosa and Lars escape very unrealistic. Everything was just kind of handed to them and it was so easy for them to get what they wanted. Not to mention everything gets tied up neatly with a little bow at the end; things rarely work out that way in real life. She was so gritty and realistic in her descriptions of abuse and rape, that it really surprised me she would fall out of reality for everything else.
A disappointment for me. I wish it had been a stand alone book rather than marketed as an Elm Creek Quilt novel so I could have stayed away from it. I couldn't have even given it good marks then though due to the choppy fast pace and unrealistic happenings of the main characters.
Sonoma Rose
Copyright 2012
401 pages
Review by M. Reynard 2012
More of my reviews can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com
Rose (aka Rosa) has always been in love with Lars. But because of his drinking and other issues that arise with their relationship, she ended up married to John instead. John is an abuser, and father to six of her eight children (and not all those children alive) and so he lashes out in his anger at her betrayal as well. When he becomes too dangerous, Rosa and her remaining four children run away with Lars. This is partly to save her, but also to try to help her children that have a mysterious sickness get better. They end up in wine country, and learn just how Prohibition is destroying the grape farmers there and become a part of more than they would have bargained for.
I just didn't really like Rosa. She was a victim of abuse, and I feel for her on that aspect, as noone should ever be abused, but I also didn't like the way that she treated people. She was unfair to her husband even before he became an abuser and while he was a horrible man for being an abuser, one wrong does not deserve another. Lars was also kind of lackluster for me, he didn't seem to care about too much and rather let his whims carry him for most of his life. The kids were all kind of secondary, you never really got a big feel for their personalities other than a few of them were sick and Rosa worried about them dying. There just wasn't anyone to connect to in this novel.
I thought the Prohibition theme was interesting but the way Chiaverini wrote it was long and drawn out. It actually took up the biggest part of the book aside from Rosa's love triangle. And there was barely any mention of quilts at all, which since this is an Elm Creek Quilts novel, is inexcusable. It's fine to write a book like this, but don't market it under that brand if that's not what it's about. I also found Rosa and Lars escape very unrealistic. Everything was just kind of handed to them and it was so easy for them to get what they wanted. Not to mention everything gets tied up neatly with a little bow at the end; things rarely work out that way in real life. She was so gritty and realistic in her descriptions of abuse and rape, that it really surprised me she would fall out of reality for everything else.
A disappointment for me. I wish it had been a stand alone book rather than marketed as an Elm Creek Quilt novel so I could have stayed away from it. I couldn't have even given it good marks then though due to the choppy fast pace and unrealistic happenings of the main characters.
Sonoma Rose
Copyright 2012
401 pages
Review by M. Reynard 2012
More of my reviews can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com
March 14, 2012
Rosa Barclay has faced heartache after heartache. She loses her childhood love because a family feud that she wants no part of and is forced into a loveless marriage. The marriage soon falls apart when her husband results to violence and later discovers her betrayal. Rosa is forced to flee the only home she knows to save herself and her four remaining children. Not only does she continue to look over her shoulder for the abusive husband who is sure to come after here, but she must hurry to find a cure for the disease that has taken the life of four of her children and left two children very ill. She eventually ends up in wine valley where winemakers are struggling to hold on to their livelihood and land during the Prohibition era. Here she hopes to make a home in peace.
I enjoyed reading about the prohibition era, a topic I've read little about. I had previously given little thought to the difficulties for wine makers during this period and it was quite interesting. Unfortunately, this book was just meh for me because I didn't connect with any of the characters especially Rosa. I felt she never took responsibility for her decisions and I felt I was reading about a character who rationalized her actions instead of taking control of her life. I felt it was silly for her to keep her love from her family for so long instead of making a decision and dealing with the consequences. I also thought it seemed imprudent to blame her teenage love, Lars, for end of their relationship. I found her actions contributed just as much as his. While she always stood up to him, she never found the gumption to stand up to her family or her husband. My heart went out to her because of the domestic violence that she had to endure, but it wasn't enough to garner enough empathy for me. I'm not quite sure where the Elm Creek Quilts part came in. This might be the background for another novel or something like that.
Overall, it wasn't for me, but I think many other readers had better experiences with this read. I'd recommend checking out a few other reviews.
I enjoyed reading about the prohibition era, a topic I've read little about. I had previously given little thought to the difficulties for wine makers during this period and it was quite interesting. Unfortunately, this book was just meh for me because I didn't connect with any of the characters especially Rosa. I felt she never took responsibility for her decisions and I felt I was reading about a character who rationalized her actions instead of taking control of her life. I felt it was silly for her to keep her love from her family for so long instead of making a decision and dealing with the consequences. I also thought it seemed imprudent to blame her teenage love, Lars, for end of their relationship. I found her actions contributed just as much as his. While she always stood up to him, she never found the gumption to stand up to her family or her husband. My heart went out to her because of the domestic violence that she had to endure, but it wasn't enough to garner enough empathy for me. I'm not quite sure where the Elm Creek Quilts part came in. This might be the background for another novel or something like that.
Overall, it wasn't for me, but I think many other readers had better experiences with this read. I'd recommend checking out a few other reviews.
March 10, 2012
I was thrilled when I received a copy of this book I did a happy dance. Jennifer's novels are easily the best series I've had the pleasure of reading. They are so filled with amazing women, great historical details and the type of story that you just can't put down.
For Rosa, life isn't pleasant. She is tied to an abusive husband, and only stays because she feels she has no where else to turn. When events suddenly change and she has to run to protect herself and her children. With the help of long time friend and first love Lars.
We initially meet Rosa, John and the children in another of the Elm Creek Quilt novels - "The Quilter's Homecoming" the story of Elizabeth and Henry Nelson (relatives of Sylvia a main character of the series) who venture to California to see their fortune. We also meet Lars and his family, who help Nelson's get on their feet.
I love how Jennifer weaves the characters from past books into Sonoma Rose, and how we get to see what happens to Rosa and the children - who are mentioned in "The Quilter's Homecoming" but we never really hear what happened.
So much happens to Rosa, Lars and the children in this story. They take on new identities to protect themselves and hope that their pasts don't catch up with them. They also take the chance that someone out there will have a cure for the disease that is killing Rosa's two children and took four from her already.
For those who are fans of Jennifer's books this is a great addition to the series. Anyone who loves a combination of contemporary women's fiction, historical fiction and quilting will adore this series!
For Rosa, life isn't pleasant. She is tied to an abusive husband, and only stays because she feels she has no where else to turn. When events suddenly change and she has to run to protect herself and her children. With the help of long time friend and first love Lars.
We initially meet Rosa, John and the children in another of the Elm Creek Quilt novels - "The Quilter's Homecoming" the story of Elizabeth and Henry Nelson (relatives of Sylvia a main character of the series) who venture to California to see their fortune. We also meet Lars and his family, who help Nelson's get on their feet.
I love how Jennifer weaves the characters from past books into Sonoma Rose, and how we get to see what happens to Rosa and the children - who are mentioned in "The Quilter's Homecoming" but we never really hear what happened.
So much happens to Rosa, Lars and the children in this story. They take on new identities to protect themselves and hope that their pasts don't catch up with them. They also take the chance that someone out there will have a cure for the disease that is killing Rosa's two children and took four from her already.
For those who are fans of Jennifer's books this is a great addition to the series. Anyone who loves a combination of contemporary women's fiction, historical fiction and quilting will adore this series!
February 22, 2015
In the book Sonoma Rose, Jennifer Chiaverini has switched from the Elm Creek quilters but there is still a link to them because one of the characters in this novel is related to the founder of the Elm Creek Quilts. This novel takes the reader to California where Elizabeth Nelson had moved to after leaving Pennsylvania and unfolds the story of Rosa Diaz Barclay. Rosa's story begins as a tragic one of marrying a man she doesn't love who ends up being terribly abusive to her and passes on a gene to their children for a disease that results in the death of 4 of them. Through Rosa's friendship with Elizabeth, she finally leaves her husband and is reunited with the man she had always loved. They flee northward with her 4 remaining children to keep hidden from Rosa's husband who has been imprisoned. At the beginning of their journey, Rosa is fortunate to find a doctor who is able to give her help to save the 2 of her children who are already failing due to the disease. Their escape journey eventually leads them to the wine country of Sonoma, California where they end up working for a vineyard owner. However, this is during the Prohibition Era and selling liquor is prohibited. The challenges they face in their life---always the fear of Rosa's husband coming after them and then getting caught up in the illegal activities of bootlegging by others around them make compelling reading. The author gives a fascinating account of Prohibition from the viewpoint of the vineyard owners who have been growing grapes and producing wines for generations. This book follows the high standards set by Jennifer Chiaverini in her Elm Creek Quilters novels.
March 6, 2012
This is a fantastic book, the kind that it is hard to put down once you start. It is about family, prohibition, love and quilts.
From the get go, Jennifer's writing pulls you in. There's so much drama with Rosa's family, sick children, an abusive husband, who just happens to be part of a bootlegging operation, and the lover she should have married but didn't.
You want good things to happen to Rosa, because she deserves them, but no life is complete without struggles. It is just so hard to believe all the horrible stuff that happens to her. Her husband, John, is the absolute worst and as the story goes on, you find there is nothing redeeming about him.
Then there are her children. She has lost several to celiac disease, and has two more that are suffering from it.
How much more can one woman take?
But the story is so much more than just Rosa's relationship with John and Lars. The setting is the Sonoma Valley, deep in the heart of wine country, in California. Jennifer paints a wonderful picture of how the wineries survived at at time when their livelihood was illegal.
Everything about this story is beautiful, including the stunning front cover. This is definitely a must read book!
From the get go, Jennifer's writing pulls you in. There's so much drama with Rosa's family, sick children, an abusive husband, who just happens to be part of a bootlegging operation, and the lover she should have married but didn't.
You want good things to happen to Rosa, because she deserves them, but no life is complete without struggles. It is just so hard to believe all the horrible stuff that happens to her. Her husband, John, is the absolute worst and as the story goes on, you find there is nothing redeeming about him.
Then there are her children. She has lost several to celiac disease, and has two more that are suffering from it.
How much more can one woman take?
But the story is so much more than just Rosa's relationship with John and Lars. The setting is the Sonoma Valley, deep in the heart of wine country, in California. Jennifer paints a wonderful picture of how the wineries survived at at time when their livelihood was illegal.
Everything about this story is beautiful, including the stunning front cover. This is definitely a must read book!
March 17, 2012
This book was so good I am so happy that I have a new beloved author on my list.the story presents following your heart to the fullest. It was so inspiring and fun.It just brings to the forefront how as women we can be so self sacrificing thinking we are doing the right thing but, guess what we are not always right. Sometimes it is not good to stay in a relationship to Quote "for the kids". how are we teaching them to have loving trusting relationships if they see use hurting and miserable or if we are the cause of that . If you like period books this your book. It is a bit of romance (no detailed sex)set in the time of prohibition.It tells the story of Rosa Diaz Barclay and how she lost her true love and went throw some hard trials to discover that herself ,her children and her true love Lars Jorgenson was what was right all along. As the saying goes sometimes we do have to find out somethings the hard way. She found her way and when she did she opened up the doors for her children to have a better chance in life. It was horrible that some of he people whom she loved very dearly had to suffer for her actions but she eventually did what was best for all of them.
June 23, 2012
This is an average book written by Jennifer Chiaverini. I have been a fan of all her Elm Creek books - but this book was not as authentic and believable as Jennifer's previous book. Mark my words - the writing was good - but the storyline, the plot was weak and very childish.
Bare outline - Rosa was in love with her high school sweetheart and got pregnant. Due to their respecive family feuds, she settled into marrying another man. Her husband discovers after the birth of their daughter that he was cheated to. As years pass, their relation deteriortes with the demise of his children due to maltrution. The husband stops caring and indulges in wife-beating, always suspecting his wife. Rosa, too is no saint. While being married to her husband, she gives birth to another daughter from her former college sweethaert..
Then events take place that bring Rosa and her HS sweetheardt together. The ending was very tame....
Bare outline - Rosa was in love with her high school sweetheart and got pregnant. Due to their respecive family feuds, she settled into marrying another man. Her husband discovers after the birth of their daughter that he was cheated to. As years pass, their relation deteriortes with the demise of his children due to maltrution. The husband stops caring and indulges in wife-beating, always suspecting his wife. Rosa, too is no saint. While being married to her husband, she gives birth to another daughter from her former college sweethaert..
Then events take place that bring Rosa and her HS sweetheardt together. The ending was very tame....
March 25, 2013
Another powerful book by Jennifer Chiaverini. Here we learn the "rest of the story" as it were of Rosa Diaz Barclay and Lars Jorgenson who had disappeared without trace in another book. This takes place during Prohibition--I knew a little about it but it was interesting to hear the point of view of the wine growers and how this affected so many lives of the people of the Sonoma Valley, near Santa Rosa. I have visited this beautiful area several times and it was fun to "revisit" Glen Ellen, Santa Rosa, Jack London's place and others surrounding town. I always feel enriched after having listened to Jennifer's books. Although there are some tragedies, the human spirit always triumphs and survives somehow, albeit battered and scarred.
March 3, 2012
Chiaverini has shifted the geographical focus of "Elm Street Quilts" to the West Coast of the US. I really enjoyed learning about how California wine growers were impacted by Prohibition. I also was excited to learn what had happened to the long-lost cousins, Henry and Elizabeth. At first the geographic shift and focus on new characters was a bit disconcerting but after a few chapters, I had "moved on" and had accepted the new ones.
Great book for those who enjoy historical fiction and Chiaverini books. However, I do believe that those who are very interested in quilting might be a bit disenchanted.
Great book for those who enjoy historical fiction and Chiaverini books. However, I do believe that those who are very interested in quilting might be a bit disenchanted.
June 28, 2012
Jennifer Chiaverini is one of my all-time favorite authors. This book is as great as the other fiction by this author I have read, which I think is all of them. I love her storylines, the ties to her fictional family, and the way she works quilts into her stories. This book explores some morally difficult situations and choices, and, although I cannot condone everything that was done, I felt the author portrayed the situations sensitively and in a manner that inspired empathy. I definitely recommend this book. It stands alone very well, but I enjoyed the tie-ins as this story brought back memories of past books written by this author.
September 19, 2012
This is the nineteenth book in the quilting series written by Chiaverini and answers some of the mysteries left in the book "The Quilter's Homecoming". There is also an interesting take on prohibition which was too one-sided, unfortunately. It did show that trying to legislate "clean living" without changing hearts is quite often a losing proposition.
May 23, 2012
This was a lovely book to read. Set away from Elm Creek but with a small quilting theme it was a different path to go diwn which I loved. Thanks Jennifer. Cant wait for another good book from you.
July 29, 2012
I started reading Chiaverini's quilt novels, but the best of these are always the historical novels. Great story.
October 3, 2014
Maybe 2.5 stars. Too much repetitive angst and too many threads. I did enjoy reading about prohibition and its affect on winemakers in California.
September 2, 2015
I liked it well enough that three stars seems cruel. I always learn some history from Jennifer's books.
February 20, 2015
Received from Netgalley for review, thank you. I put in a request for the book based on the synopsis; this was a little outside of my usual well-worn paths, in a few ways. I've read little in this setting, time or place or cultural, and little enough in this broad genre, and I was attracted to the idea of a Prohibition-era vineyard. It's an aspect of that time in history I'd never considered – the incredible tight spot family vineyards were placed in by that national mistake. I know I tend to be perhaps overly critical of romances, and it isn't fair to the writer or publisher for me to take on a book that comes to me with that handicap (though holding them to the same standard as other books shouldn't be unfair) … still, it sounded like a story I wanted to know. There were mixed, not altogether negative, results.
As the book opens, Rosa lives with her husband and four surviving children on a rye farm in southern California, and nothing is simple. Her husband, John, is not the man she loves, and he knows it, and makes her pay. The four children are only half the number Rosa has borne, the other four having died horribly young of an unexplainable wasting disease (which I diagnosed, wrongly – I was close though). She watches in despair as two of the survivors seem to be going the same way. The other two have a reason for not being ill which did not sit well with the way I expected this book to go (and I never was entirely comfortable with it). For some reason I went into this expecting a Christian romance of some degree. And while the text was refreshingly free of Romance Novel Sexese™ (not a throbbing body part in sight), and while Rosa at least is nominally Christian, the characters are not chaste, nor do they behave in a particularly Christian manner. At all. Ever, really.
Rosa's husband is … well, I'm certainly not about to say she earned any of the treatment he gave her, but if she had entered into the marriage honestly and actually put her past behind her and applied herself (as teachers like to say), John might have had the foundation he needed to be a better man. Maybe not; his temper was formidable and maybe someday when she burned dinner he would have started hitting her. Regardless, as the book starts, she is terrified of him, and has good reason to be – and so I was surprised at the flashbacks that showed him controlling his anger and actually making the effort to be as good a husband as he could. Not, I want to be careful to state, that there is ever any valid excuse for a man to ever hit his wife – but it has to be said that Rosa treated him like a not-entirely-welcome houseguest because she was still in love with Lars, the man who fathered the child she gave birth to seven months after she married John … She lied to him, married him only to cover her pregnancy, and betrayed him, and he figured it all out; it doesn't take a psychologist to figure out why John was a bit put out. In other words, neither of them was innocent
I guess I'm not terribly fond of Rosa. Or Lars. Definitely not John, though I don't blame him for his anger – he's a horrible person when we meet him, and no amount of excuses will take that away.
A few of the minor characters were quite likeable and interesting – I would like the rest of the story of Elizabeth and the Triumph Ranch, for example, and in the Sonoma Valley there are some friends and neighbors I quite liked … Actually, I hate to say it, but I just realized that the histories of a great many of the minor characters here would make for a much more interesting reads than Rosa's story, at least once catastrophe strikes and Rosa takes the children and flees to, eventually, Sonoma. All resolution to the first half of the book happened off-stage – from the halfway point it was a whole new tale with almost no connection to the rest.
It may be odd to say it, but the problem I have with Sonoma Rose is that it's too much like a chunk out of reality: no one is blameless (except the children, and one of them is a brat while another is a little saint, both of which can be annoying extremes); events happen sometimes because of previous actions and sometimes just because they happen; people you want to like do things you can't like or in ways you can't like; and along the way a lot of loose ends are left flapping in the breeze.
I will credit this book for making me look deeper into Prohibition, because I had to do some digging in light of the predicament of the vineyards Rosa and Lars become involved with. Again, life-like, there are no answers; the story takes place pretty much smack in the middle of Prohibition (which was 1920-33, if you're wondering), and leaves off with absolutely no indication of whether the wineries manage to survive. It made a difference in my experience of the book to know – once I figured it out – that there were years yet to endure of Prohibition rather than, as I'd hoped, the end being in sight. (It also took far too much work just to figure out the really pretty important detail of exactly what year it was (1926 or 27, I believe, was the figure I wound up with): "Let's see, if that child was four when Prohibition began, and he's – hm, how old? Two years younger than this one who is seven, and if it all started in 1920, then …" (<- probably inaccurate recreation from memory)).
I disliked the choices made by Rosa as the second half developed (for one thing, as Lars himself points out, an alcoholic living at a winery can't be a good idea), and I disliked the manner in which some of the choices were followed through; there was a level of carelessness about the main characters' safety and minor characters' feelings that didn't fit with how I thought I was supposed to see Rosa and Lars. I just didn't like them. It is life-like – but that does not make it a well-told or enjoyable story.
Sonoma Rose is listed as part of the Elm Creek Quilts series. I'm not entirely sure what this means, apart from an assumption that the heroines of all the books will be quilters; from what I see on Jennifer Chiaverini's site there seem to be several present-day novels set around a shop with the same name as the series. How this book ties in, I have no idea. This concentration on a craft worried me a little, actually, because this sort of theme is so often so badly done – but the quilting, while not the star of the book, was an organic part of it, a tie between Rosa and her mother and then between Rosa and her children. The quilts are the natural symbols of home and warmth and comfort, but the concept is not beaten into the ground, happily … though puzzlingly, considering the series title. The book didn't exactly make me want to rush out and buy fat quarters and batting, and I learned nothing about quilting in the course of the read (and there were no patterns, which is almost unusual nowadays) … but I definitely don't need another hobby, and a lack of instruction is a very small price to pay for the lack of Cute. I don't think there's a syllable of Cute in here, even in the children's scenes.
The writing was a little stiff, but not terribly so; I wasn't enamored of the style, but it wasn't actively off-putting. There was a distance kept between what was happening on the page and me, the reader, so that I never was moved by the sufferings of the family, nor gladdened by their successes. Rosa's history is told in strategically placed flashbacks, but unfortunately there is no mechanism to alert the reader that what follows is or is not a flashback, so there were a few times when I'd come to a screeching halt as I tried to reconcile the appearance of a character I knew to be, in the book's present, dead. Characterization felt a little shallow, and a lot inconsistent – some of those decisions I mentioned earlier seemed completely out of the blue, or somehow off. But, still and all, while I obviously found a lot to criticize, I didn't hate it; there are stories in there somewhere, and I'd be willing to give another of Jennifer Chiaverini's books another shot to see if it's more successful. Several seem to take place during the Civil War, which helps.
As the book opens, Rosa lives with her husband and four surviving children on a rye farm in southern California, and nothing is simple. Her husband, John, is not the man she loves, and he knows it, and makes her pay. The four children are only half the number Rosa has borne, the other four having died horribly young of an unexplainable wasting disease (which I diagnosed, wrongly – I was close though). She watches in despair as two of the survivors seem to be going the same way. The other two have a reason for not being ill which did not sit well with the way I expected this book to go (and I never was entirely comfortable with it). For some reason I went into this expecting a Christian romance of some degree. And while the text was refreshingly free of Romance Novel Sexese™ (not a throbbing body part in sight), and while Rosa at least is nominally Christian, the characters are not chaste, nor do they behave in a particularly Christian manner. At all. Ever, really.
Rosa's husband is … well, I'm certainly not about to say she earned any of the treatment he gave her, but if she had entered into the marriage honestly and actually put her past behind her and applied herself (as teachers like to say), John might have had the foundation he needed to be a better man. Maybe not; his temper was formidable and maybe someday when she burned dinner he would have started hitting her. Regardless, as the book starts, she is terrified of him, and has good reason to be – and so I was surprised at the flashbacks that showed him controlling his anger and actually making the effort to be as good a husband as he could. Not, I want to be careful to state, that there is ever any valid excuse for a man to ever hit his wife – but it has to be said that Rosa treated him like a not-entirely-welcome houseguest because she was still in love with Lars, the man who fathered the child she gave birth to seven months after she married John … She lied to him, married him only to cover her pregnancy, and betrayed him, and he figured it all out; it doesn't take a psychologist to figure out why John was a bit put out. In other words, neither of them was innocent
I guess I'm not terribly fond of Rosa. Or Lars. Definitely not John, though I don't blame him for his anger – he's a horrible person when we meet him, and no amount of excuses will take that away.
A few of the minor characters were quite likeable and interesting – I would like the rest of the story of Elizabeth and the Triumph Ranch, for example, and in the Sonoma Valley there are some friends and neighbors I quite liked … Actually, I hate to say it, but I just realized that the histories of a great many of the minor characters here would make for a much more interesting reads than Rosa's story, at least once catastrophe strikes and Rosa takes the children and flees to, eventually, Sonoma. All resolution to the first half of the book happened off-stage – from the halfway point it was a whole new tale with almost no connection to the rest.
It may be odd to say it, but the problem I have with Sonoma Rose is that it's too much like a chunk out of reality: no one is blameless (except the children, and one of them is a brat while another is a little saint, both of which can be annoying extremes); events happen sometimes because of previous actions and sometimes just because they happen; people you want to like do things you can't like or in ways you can't like; and along the way a lot of loose ends are left flapping in the breeze.
I will credit this book for making me look deeper into Prohibition, because I had to do some digging in light of the predicament of the vineyards Rosa and Lars become involved with. Again, life-like, there are no answers; the story takes place pretty much smack in the middle of Prohibition (which was 1920-33, if you're wondering), and leaves off with absolutely no indication of whether the wineries manage to survive. It made a difference in my experience of the book to know – once I figured it out – that there were years yet to endure of Prohibition rather than, as I'd hoped, the end being in sight. (It also took far too much work just to figure out the really pretty important detail of exactly what year it was (1926 or 27, I believe, was the figure I wound up with): "Let's see, if that child was four when Prohibition began, and he's – hm, how old? Two years younger than this one who is seven, and if it all started in 1920, then …" (<- probably inaccurate recreation from memory)).
I disliked the choices made by Rosa as the second half developed (for one thing, as Lars himself points out, an alcoholic living at a winery can't be a good idea), and I disliked the manner in which some of the choices were followed through; there was a level of carelessness about the main characters' safety and minor characters' feelings that didn't fit with how I thought I was supposed to see Rosa and Lars. I just didn't like them. It is life-like – but that does not make it a well-told or enjoyable story.
Sonoma Rose is listed as part of the Elm Creek Quilts series. I'm not entirely sure what this means, apart from an assumption that the heroines of all the books will be quilters; from what I see on Jennifer Chiaverini's site there seem to be several present-day novels set around a shop with the same name as the series. How this book ties in, I have no idea. This concentration on a craft worried me a little, actually, because this sort of theme is so often so badly done – but the quilting, while not the star of the book, was an organic part of it, a tie between Rosa and her mother and then between Rosa and her children. The quilts are the natural symbols of home and warmth and comfort, but the concept is not beaten into the ground, happily … though puzzlingly, considering the series title. The book didn't exactly make me want to rush out and buy fat quarters and batting, and I learned nothing about quilting in the course of the read (and there were no patterns, which is almost unusual nowadays) … but I definitely don't need another hobby, and a lack of instruction is a very small price to pay for the lack of Cute. I don't think there's a syllable of Cute in here, even in the children's scenes.
The writing was a little stiff, but not terribly so; I wasn't enamored of the style, but it wasn't actively off-putting. There was a distance kept between what was happening on the page and me, the reader, so that I never was moved by the sufferings of the family, nor gladdened by their successes. Rosa's history is told in strategically placed flashbacks, but unfortunately there is no mechanism to alert the reader that what follows is or is not a flashback, so there were a few times when I'd come to a screeching halt as I tried to reconcile the appearance of a character I knew to be, in the book's present, dead. Characterization felt a little shallow, and a lot inconsistent – some of those decisions I mentioned earlier seemed completely out of the blue, or somehow off. But, still and all, while I obviously found a lot to criticize, I didn't hate it; there are stories in there somewhere, and I'd be willing to give another of Jennifer Chiaverini's books another shot to see if it's more successful. Several seem to take place during the Civil War, which helps.
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