Rating: 
Summary: Lengthy but interesting.
Review: Although the contrived plot was a bit implausible and the awaited climax drawn out to the point that the reader is cognizant of what it will be long before its arrival, still the portrayal of characters and the story line were interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: SUCH A GOOD BOOK!!
Review: Darl Union and Eli Wade meet when they are children and immediately become soul mates and the best of friends.....Eli's father is hired as a stonecutter by Swan Hardigree, Darl's very controlling grandmother, to work in the Hardigree marble company.....Darl's great aunt Clara is murdered and at this time, Eli's family leave town.......Darl and Eli never forget each other and when they are reunited 25 years later, Darl knows that the terrible secret which she has buried in her heart must be shared with Eli. He is the only person she can trust and she hopes that he can help her.....This is a heart-tugging story and it shows the love of families, but also takes us into the dark side mystique of families.....The author pulls us into the middle of this wonderful family saga......Loved this book.
Rating: 
Summary: ANOTHER CHARMING STORY
Review: I enjoy reading Deborah Smith. Her books always seem to pull the heartstrings in a unique and touching way. As an eclectic reader who enjoys many different genres, whenever I see that this author has a new book, I know it will afford me a pleasant change of pace. Her characters are well drawn and always fascinating. If you want a good escape "read"--step into one of Deborah Smith's well written charming stories set in her southern world. Yankees may never be able to truly relate to the world of traditions and family codes that she creates, but it's fun to take an occasional peek.
Rating:
Summary: Deborah only writes 5 Star books!
Review: I have read every book written by Deborah Smith and she has yet to deliver anything less than a 5 star book!! She is one of the authors that I have no problem purchasing the books in hardback - they are worth collecting and sharing with your best of friends!
Rating:
Summary: Deborah only writes 5 Star books!
Review: I have read every book written by Deborah Smith and she has yet to deliver anything less than a 5 star book!! She is one of the authors that I have no problem purchasing the books in hardback - they are worth collecting and sharing with your best of friends!
Rating:
Summary: four-tissue box tearjerker
Review: In 1972, ten years old Eli Wade and his family enter Burnt Stand, North Carolina by pushing their broken down car into town. Though three years younger than Eli, Darleen Union, heir to the Hardigree Marble Company that owns the town, knows they belong together. They become friends until someone murders Darleen's Aunt Clara. Though the case is not solved, everyone blames Eli's dad forcing the Wades to leave town.
Twenty-five years later Darl, a defense attorney for the downtrodden, and Eli, a very successful reformed gambler, meet again in her hometown. Though still in love, but adult style, Clara's murder keeps Darl and Eli from a permanent relationship. In front of him, she digs up her aunt's grave that she helped dug twenty-five years ago so that Eli can learn the truth.
STONE FLOWER GARDEN is filled with twists and turns so that each time the audience feels they grasp the tale, a new angle appears. This gives the story line extra oomph so that the reader has more than just a steamy southern romance. Though the era seems wrong to contain the southern dynasties that ruled one-company towns, the charm and angst of the lead characters manage to overcome that counter-anachronism. Deborah Smith provides her audience with a four-tissue box tearjerker that never eases off the high emotional tension of the plot until the climax. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: four-tissue box tearjerker
Review: In 1972, ten years old Eli Wade and his family enter Burnt Stand, North Carolina by pushing their broken down car into town. Though three years younger than Eli, Darleen Union, heir to the Hardigree Marble Company that owns the town, knows they belong together. They become friends until someone murders Darleen's Aunt Clara. Though the case is not solved, everyone blames Eli's dad forcing the Wades to leave town.
Twenty-five years later Darl, a defense attorney for the downtrodden, and Eli, a very successful reformed gambler, meet again in her hometown. Though still in love, but adult style, Clara's murder keeps Darl and Eli from a permanent relationship. In front of him, she digs up her aunt's grave that she helped dug twenty-five years ago so that Eli can learn the truth.
STONE FLOWER GARDEN is filled with twists and turns so that each time the audience feels they grasp the tale, a new angle appears. This gives the story line extra oomph so that the reader has more than just a steamy southern romance. Though the era seems wrong to contain the southern dynasties that ruled one-company towns, the charm and angst of the lead characters manage to overcome that counter-anachronism. Deborah Smith provides her audience with a four-tissue box tearjerker that never eases off the high emotional tension of the plot until the climax. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Is it a mystery or a love story?
Review: Reviewed by Kristie Leigh Maguire ... The pale pink marble buildings glistened in the sunlight shining through the shadows of the North Carolina mountains like some fairy tale city ' or perhaps it was a little slice of heaven that had descended to earth upon the wings of fairies. The Wade family, pushed almost beyond endurance, gazed down upon the vision with awe. They had never seen anything like it in all the poor existence of their lives. The two little girls, who could have passed for sisters except that one was a little pink white girl and the other was a little pink honey girl, stood in front of the Hardigree Marble Showcase watching the little raggedy family walk into town pushing the old beat up truck packed with their belongings. The truck, with pots and pans and household belongings hanging from every nook and cranny, stopped in front of the Hardigree Marble Showcase ' and the two little girls. The little pink white girl had never seen anything like it in all her protected pink existence. The dirty little boy standing by the beat up old truck glared at her, daring her to laugh at him. The town of Burnt Creek, North Carolina was built from the beautiful pale pink marble dug from beneath the ground surrounding the town. But the pale pink marble had a dusky dark rose streak running through it. Some things are best left uncovered - or are they? Deborah Smith has created a world that draws you in and won't let you go. It is a world that is full of twists and turns and the haunted past of not only the little pink white girl but of her ancestors as well. Stone Flower Garden is a mystery yet it is a fine love story as well. Will love be able to overcome the shadows of the past? Kristie Leigh Maguire, author of Emails from the Edge: The Life of an Expatriate Wife, The Marcie Trilogy (Desert Triangle, Cabin Fever, Ring of Fire), co-author with Mark Haeuser of No Lady and Her Tramp, contributor to Calliope's Mousepad: Women Writers Online
Rating:
Summary: The Stone Flower Garden
Review: The Stone Flower Garden holds a secret that burns a hole through the innocent love of childhood. A secret of innocence and death, of betrayal and loyalty. A secret that, after a quarter of a century, one family is determined to unearth and another yearns to forget. Burnt Stand, North Carolina holds many such secrets within its walls of marble. The Hardigree family and their quarry is the center of it all, run now by Swan Samples Hardigree, a lady to the core of her cold heart. Darl Union is Swan's granddaughter and the keeper of her shameful legacy...one that, if made public, would shatter the grand image Swan's own mother first carved out for them. Drawn into the tangled web of deceit was Eli Wade. His family arrived in Burnt Stand when he was just a boy and he immediately lost his heart to the lonely little girl that Darl was at that time. They shared years of happiness in their own private escape...a lovely stone flower garden situated part-way between their two homes on Hardigree land. That happiness was to be shattered, however, by a secret that would itself be buried within the garden....one that would force Eli and what was left of his family out of town. Twenty-five years later, all the key players would be drawn back and, one way or another, the truth would come out. But would it be welcomed or destroy just as many lives the second time around? ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Deborah Smith is an amazing author that enables her characters to live in such a way that makes it hard to accept their one-dimensionality. She irrevocably draws the reader in with this dramatic tale of a loyalty so fierce and demanding it destroys everyone it touches. This book will consume the reader and, at times, leave him or her breathless....with shock, with anticipation or with sympathy. After the last page has been turned, the characters will be missed and Burnt Stand will have burned another hole....into the memory of those who won't want to leave it behind with the closing of the cover.
Rating:
Summary: The Stone Flower Garden
Review: The Stone Flower Garden holds a secret that burns a hole through the innocent love of childhood. A secret of innocence and death, of betrayal and loyalty. A secret that, after a quarter of a century, one family is determined to unearth and another yearns to forget. Burnt Stand, North Carolina holds many such secrets within its walls of marble. The Hardigree family and their quarry is the center of it all, run now by Swan Samples Hardigree, a lady to the core of her cold heart. Darl Union is Swan's granddaughter and the keeper of her shameful legacy...one that, if made public, would shatter the grand image Swan's own mother first carved out for them. Drawn into the tangled web of deceit was Eli Wade. His family arrived in Burnt Stand when he was just a boy and he immediately lost his heart to the lonely little girl that Darl was at that time. They shared years of happiness in their own private escape...a lovely stone flower garden situated part-way between their two homes on Hardigree land. That happiness was to be shattered, however, by a secret that would itself be buried within the garden....one that would force Eli and what was left of his family out of town. Twenty-five years later, all the key players would be drawn back and, one way or another, the truth would come out. But would it be welcomed or destroy just as many lives the second time around? ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Deborah Smith is an amazing author that enables her characters to live in such a way that makes it hard to accept their one-dimensionality. She irrevocably draws the reader in with this dramatic tale of a loyalty so fierce and demanding it destroys everyone it touches. This book will consume the reader and, at times, leave him or her breathless....with shock, with anticipation or with sympathy. After the last page has been turned, the characters will be missed and Burnt Stand will have burned another hole....into the memory of those who won't want to leave it behind with the closing of the cover.
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