The Final Quarter

As I previously mentioned in my prior blogs Gwen Davis has grown as a character. In this section of the book you can really see how much she has grown since the first page. She took chances that I was really hoping she would take.

In the third section, Gwen realized that she had feelings for a Canadian soldier, her friend, Raley. A chapter later, the Land Army girls were holding another dance for the soldiers. And Gwen spent the entire time with Raley. She felt a special tie to Raley so in order to show him how she felt she took him to her special place, the lost garden. She led him through the fog filled garden explaining that, "It's a garden of love" (194). They have a conversation about the blooms that are left in the garden, white roses. How he had dreamed of them the first night he was at the house. He confessed that he was terrified of war. Here is where Gwen took a leap of faith. She comforts him. Humphreys writes: " I touch his lips, gently, so gently, and then I kiss him. I kiss him and he lets me. Then he kisses me back. We push against each other and topple off the bench onto the grass... He kisses me and I feel as if I have never breathed before now" (195-196).

As if that wasn't a large enough step for Gwen she also said, "I love you"(196). This is where conflict comes into play. Raley is extremely close to Gwen for the amount of time that they have known each other, but not in the means of companionship. These two characters have shared so much of each other that Gwen is shocked to find out that Raley doesn't care for as she'd hope for as his lover had died three weeks before he was stationed in Devon at the house known as Mosel. The conflict in this case is that Raley's lover was male, so the way that they felt for each other was difficult to deal with. Just after her confidence boost, Gwen feels as if she has just ruined her only chance.

Even after this slightly awkward moment with Raley, Jane has learned many things about her self. One of those being that she had never felt more at home anywhere else than she did at the house called, Mosel. The foundation of this revelation is also the theme of this section, love. Love is the one thing that keeps everyone going. Raley works for the love he lost. Gwen works for the love she has discovered in her new environment. Gwen's friend Jane, she works for the love she misses.

After finishing the book I have taken a look at the writing style that Helen Humphreys uses. As this was a wonderful novel, you can tell that Helen Humphreys is also a poet. Her writing flows smoothly and freely together. The way she phrases her thoughts - the characters thoughts - it sounds like poetry. You can tell she is comfortable in this writing style. Humphreys writes: " The roses burn white in the darkness behind us. White as ashes" (198).

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was intrigued by the growing relationships between characters. As you can probably tell from the title as well as the blogs that I have written you can tell that it focuses on flowers, but I don't think you need to like or even know about flowers to enjoy this book. You'll learn as you go.

"Dead flowers hold their fragrance. That is one truth. Sometimes our passion is our ruin. That is another" (209).