Amazon Brenda Sutton Rose Dogwood Blues Kindle Editon
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Every character has their own arc, but the characters that I found to be the most interesting was Kevin Kilmer and Boone Marshall. Both show a man trying to come to terms with their own past.
Kilmer, a reno
Dogwood Blues is a novel with a ton of characters, plotlines, and themes packed into it. This is astounding because the novel itself is not that long. It's a relatively quick read, but only because you fall in love with the characters, even the ones you should hate. I dare you to put it down.Every character has their own arc, but the characters that I found to be the most interesting was Kevin Kilmer and Boone Marshall. Both show a man trying to come to terms with their own past.
Kilmer, a renowned author and local football legend, moves back to Dogwood to open up the scars of his past in the form of a memoir. His treatment of his former best friend and others in the town shows just how vulnerable the human soul can be, while also showing that a good person can create walls just to keep people out.
Boone Marshall, a blues musician who almost made it big time until he had to take over the family farm, has to cope with his own feelings of guilt towards his past, present, and future. The small town of Dogwood, while ever growing, has people in it that cling to the past, holding on to their prejudices, phobias, and traditions. Boone has to deal with all of those things when he moves back to Dogwood with a new wife, Jasmine, a multiracial nightclub singer.
Kevin Kilmer's lover, Trampus, is a definite highlight in the novel and my personal favorite character. Trampus is a tattooed bad boy from New York City, but that just as with all the characters, he is a very deep character. His passion is renovating historic homes, he has a deep love for music, and he just so happens to play a mean game of bridge.
Speaking of bridge, the local bridge club has some great character and every bridge scene is a classic. Nell is a character that you should greatly dislike, but even then you can't help but fall in love with her character! It astounds me that Rose is able to make so many different, deep, and unique characters.
Overall, the book is an amazing read that you will be coming back to over and over again. The characters have enormous depth, the plot has many twists and turns, and Brenda Sutton Rose's voice is just perfect, intertwining the characters hopes, dreams, and fears with the beauty of the Alapaha River, the magic of music, and the torment and relief of facing one's past. This is not one to be missed.
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Words to describe how much I loved this book are hard to come by, it's the kind of novel I could read everyday.
Small town problems. Gossiping women. High school days. Abuse. All kinds of marriages. Music. Cooking.
There are humorous moments, distressful moments mixed with music, the river and the land they love.
The characters of the Honeysuckle Bridge Club are so real with their gossiping news of what is going on fr Brenda Sutton Rose's first novel Dogwood Blues, won through Goodreads Firstreads.
Words to describe how much I loved this book are hard to come by, it's the kind of novel I could read everyday.
Small town problems. Gossiping women. High school days. Abuse. All kinds of marriages. Music. Cooking.
There are humorous moments, distressful moments mixed with music, the river and the land they love.
The characters of the Honeysuckle Bridge Club are so real with their gossiping news of what is going on from the political to the people that make up the small town.
Poor Nell with secrets about her dead husband, keeping it bottled in unleash meanness towards others. Of all the troubled and unhappy issues of the people we meet, her's has to be the saddest.
Returning football star and writer, Kevin Kilmer returns home to write his memoir with his same sex married partner. He has to face Damon, the man he thought was his best friend until he was betrayed. Kevin with his partner Trampus are restoring their historical house and help a abused boy, Jake.
Then there is Boone, he works the land but his dream is going back to New Orleans and playing the blues on the piano. His personal demons are holding him back from true happiness with his second wife Jasmine.
It takes place in the South and has a touch of pray and the wishing for miracles. It makes you laugh with the upcoming vote and the lawn signs. Another oh so human story about Nell and Boone's dogs.
A favorite line is "Sometimes finding home is a long time coming."
I want to read more about these beautiful people. I want to know the old historical homes being refurbished. I want to smell the flowers and the river.
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It was an easy and enjoyable read with an intriguing plot...about the people in a small Southern town and how they adapt to changes in their town and ultimately learn that change takes place within themselves.
It is a story of humanness--about how we are often blind to the truth--because things are not as they always seem.
Rose was able to develop the characters with dialogue and reflections from the characters betw
I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads. I won a GR giveaway!It was an easy and enjoyable read with an intriguing plot...about the people in a small Southern town and how they adapt to changes in their town and ultimately learn that change takes place within themselves.
It is a story of humanness--about how we are often blind to the truth--because things are not as they always seem.
Rose was able to develop the characters with dialogue and reflections from the characters between the past and present...I liked the way each of the characters narrated events of their lives. The author was able to neatly reveal how the relationships (between the characters) were connected. She used the different devices of humor, sadness, self-realization, pain...all very well.
TAKEAWAY FROM THIS BOOK: You will see how we are often unreliable narrators in our own lives. Read the book and you will understand exactly what I mean by that last sentence.
The only thing I did not like about this book was the font it was printed in.
I do recommend this book and will be interested in reading other books by Brenda Sutton Rose.
...more I love finding an author who writes about a region of Georgia that I identify with. Brenda Sutton Rose 's characterization of the people who lived in the small town of Dogwood is exactly the way I remember. Gossip, entitled people, and town drunks. While I enjoyed the author's use of words to create a picture in the reader's mind, this wasn't a book filled with fluff. She covered topics such as spousal and child abuse, alcoholism, homosexuality, and harmful effects of gossip
Well written book!!!I love finding an author who writes about a region of Georgia that I identify with. Brenda Sutton Rose 's characterization of the people who lived in the small town of Dogwood is exactly the way I remember. Gossip, entitled people, and town drunks. While I enjoyed the author's use of words to create a picture in the reader's mind, this wasn't a book filled with fluff. She covered topics such as spousal and child abuse, alcoholism, homosexuality, and harmful effects of gossip. This was a wonderfully written book, and I will be looking for more books by this author!
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I absolutely loved this book. Every emotion you can have comes spilling out. The characters all have flaws like all of us do. Showing us that the past is exactly what it is, past. I could read Brenda's book's everyday & reread then again & again!
I did not like the first 10 pages.Then I was hooked and could not put it down
Brenda Rose has captured the small town in the south.I will look forward to
Her next book.
Heart felt pain and hope
Past and present running to the future
100 % recommended read for all people who need hope
Nice story, easy read, but nothing special. I'd like to say better about it but just didn't find it so.
Ahhh...nice story?Nice story, easy read, but nothing special. I'd like to say better about it but just didn't find it so.
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It was good, I liked it.Enjoyed the southern setting. Makes a person think about how perspectives are different for each person at the same time.
The story followed several main characters, some quirky and others a bit less believable, but their differences made up the backbone of a typical small town in the south.
Although I didn't fee
When I began reading, I immediately thought of Steel Magnolias as the character Nell could have passed for Weezer's long lost cousin. One of the first scenes happened in Lottie's beauty parlor, also reminiscent to Truvey's salon in the same movie. I was pleasantly surprised when the similarities ended there.The story followed several main characters, some quirky and others a bit less believable, but their differences made up the backbone of a typical small town in the south.
Although I didn't feel there was much of a plot consisting of goals, obstacles and conflicts, there was an enjoyable story told between present day and flashbacks. There were a few epiphanies, a few lessons learned and a humbling experience or two, enough diversity to keep me reading. I thought the letters to the editor were a nice touch lending to the small town feel.
The one relationship I thought struggled a bit was the one between Boone and Jasmine. It wasn't the relationship as much as their dialogue. I understand they are newlyweds, but even at that, often it was too sugary to be realistic.
Another dialogue issue I found was unnatural speech. I didn't find it through the entire read, only in a few areas (Example: Page 131, Damon tells Kevin detail for detail what happened at their sophomore football game when in real life, there would be no need to go through that kind of detailed account with someone who was also there at the time.)
Another one can be found on page 99… One of the construction workers is telling Trampus that Dogwood isn't like New York, or Chicago, or Boston… and how they don't have smog or subways or homeless folks or fast-talking folks. Generally speaking, men are less verbal than women. That paragraph sounded more 'speechlike' than normal, believable dialogue. It wasn't a huge problem with the read, just random scatterings here and there.
Setting and descriptions were good, enough, but not too much. There were several phrases that were original and gave the writing poetic flow (Example: …as clients arrived and departed like carrier pigeons delivering gossip.) Rose ties up the loose ends before the last page leaving the reader satisfied.
There were a few minor mistakes; one that stood out was—in modern fiction, when one speaker continues speaking from one paragraph into the next without pause, quotation marks are not used at the end of the first paragraph or the beginning of the next. This allows the reader to instinctively know that the speaker hasn't changed even though the paragraph has. I came across a couple of instances where the quotation marks were used, even though the same person was speaking, causing me to break flow to double-check my bearings (One example, page 105, between paragraphs 6 and 7) Minor, but something to keep in mind when writing her next book and I do hope there will be a next book.
I gave the book 4-stars because I did enjoy it and I felt the author succeeded in breathing life into a fictional small town and gave most of her characters a real feel even if they weren't exactly in 'all is lost' situations. Not for the reader looking for complex plots or thought-provoking issues, but if it's a light contemporary read you're looking for, it won't disappoint.
...more Rose weaves the tale of Dogwood Blues with a seductive narrative, told with bravado flourishes, faint foreshadowing, sharp humor, and poignant expressions. She uses pure poetry in her descriptions of the Alapaha River and the southern earth, crops, an
Dogwood Blues by Brenda Sutton Rose. I'll begin by saying this: Brenda Sutton Rose can tell one hell of a story. Her first novel is as seductive as her poetry. And if you haven't searched for her poetry and short stories on the internet, you should.Rose weaves the tale of Dogwood Blues with a seductive narrative, told with bravado flourishes, faint foreshadowing, sharp humor, and poignant expressions. She uses pure poetry in her descriptions of the Alapaha River and the southern earth, crops, and acreage.
Before I continue with what I liked—loved about the story, I will tell you where I think Rose fell short: I needed to hear more about some of the minor characters. She wrote just enough about them for me to yearn to know these people better. It would have taken no more than another twenty pages or so to have given me more of Lily, Lily's husband, and Lily's father-in-law. But this weakness in the story didn't keep me from reading into the night. It didn't slow me down. I compare it to wanting a few more pecans in my pecan pie.
Dogwood Blues is a big story, but not a long story. It has 270-something pages; yet it reads so fast it tends to shock. The end arrives too soon, even as you try to slow it down. And like Barbara Kingsolver in The Poisonwood Bible, Rose knows how to effectively write through the eyes and ears of different narrators, many narrators. Dogwood Blues is the story of a homosexual author who comes home to write his memoir. He brings his tattooed lover with calloused hands and a love for historic homes with him. The two men find in Dogwood a small town fighting the sweeping change of a modern South. And there's the farmer who surrendered a life in New Orleans-- the intoxicating life of a blues musician to rescue the family farm after his father's death. After a failed marriage, after a wife's suicide, and after years of loneliness and heartbreak, the farmer brings home a wife. Another scandal. One of Honeysuckle Bridge Club's members takes a tiny bit of truth, mixes it with damaging lies, and spreads it all over town. A lot of bridge is played in this book. A liquor referendum adds to the tension stretched throughout Dogwood.
As I said, the story is big. It deals with several themes: prejudice, homosexuality, family loyalty, domestic violence. It's deep. It makes you think. It leaves you thinking. And yet the story is so funny you will cackle out loud. The story is FUNNY! And SERIOUS!
I want to say this is literary fiction. I also want to say this is southern women's lit, but it could also be southern male literature if there were such a thing. I could say it is contemporary fiction. But I'll go with southern literature.
I was seduced by Rose's poetic prose, her passion for the southern countryside and her skill with narrative. I was seduced by the blues. I was seduced by the river. I was seduced by the romance. I was seduced by the cooking. I was seduced by the idea that the South is magical and mean and beautiful and forgiving. I was seduced by this author's first novel: Dogwood Blues.
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I'd heard the book described as a Steel Magnolias type of story. However, beyond the fact that both narratives are generally Southern and follow the destinies of a close-knit community, I do not agree. Dogwood Blues is its own story, and I felt a closeness to each of the characters.
My only note of discord with the book was tied to personal preferences. There was a little too much emphasis on the Christian allusions, metaphors, similes, and references, which soured my enjoyment of the otherwise stellar plot. However, I grew up with that, and to a large extent, it's an accepted part of the subculture. Overall, I'd give it five stars, in any event. This was a fantastic first offering from Rose, and I look forward to seeing what else she has in store.
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Grabbed my attention from page one. The development of the characters was smooth and intriguing. Small town life and it's humor was spot on. I didn't want it to end.
CaptivatingGrabbed my attention from page one. The development of the characters was smooth and intriguing. Small town life and it's humor was spot on. I didn't want it to end.
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