A Time to Bloom (Leah's Garden #2) Lauraine Snelling. 2022. 352 pages. [Source: Review copy]
First sentence: Has it been an entire year? Delphinium Nielsen thought in surprise. She and her three sisters were gathered around the table in their sod house.
A Time to Bloom is the sequel to The Seeds of Change. Snelling does a good job in catching readers back up to speed in just a few pages. The sisters--Delphinium, Larkspur, Forsythia, and Lilac--are settling into their new prairie home. The choice to move may have been very sudden, but, they are making the absolute best of what has happened. Delphinium is the town's teacher, for better or worse. And the sisters--in addition to homesteading--are looking to open up a boarding house... But life has its challenges...always. And rejoicing in the Lord always isn't always easy...especially for our heroine Delphinium.
RJ Easton is a civil war veteran who is struggling to adjust to live after the war. Namely he lives in near-constant pain since he lost an eye. Opium offers limited relief, but, it is a beast as well. The thought of needing it every day for the rest of his life disturbs him--and rightly so. The pain makes him act (and feel) like a monster. He hates how the pain is warping or tainting his personality, his character. He hates who he has become since the war. He has newly come to town and his skills (prior to the war) make him a great candidate for leading building projects in town--including the boarding house for the Nielsen sisters.
The story focuses on all the sisters--even Forsythia who married in the first book. So much more than just a romance. I for one thought the book had a lot to say about attitude. What I enjoyed most was the school teacher aspect of it.
I enjoyed this one. It did not have a lot of melodrama--which I appreciated.
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