The Stone Flower Garden

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters fleshed out and came to life. Well written story of mystery and love. I will defintely recommend.

Years ago I read Blue Willow. It has remained at the top of my list as one of my favorite books of all-time. With The Stone Flower Garden, Deborah Smith has added another favorite to my list.

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.

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.

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!