Flower of the Rockies by Angela Breidenbach Review and Giveaway

About the Book

Book: Flower of the Rockies

Author: Angela Breidenbach

Genre: Historical Romance

Release date: December 1, 2021

Helena MT, 1892-95 ~ Can you leave your past behind?
Flower of the Rockies, the 4th book in the Queen of the Rockies series set in picturesque Helena MT at the end of the Gilded Age. No one knows the real Emmalee Warren, or the sacrifices she’s made for love. An infamous soiled dove of no consequence turned miner’s widow. Men are coming out of the woodwork to stake their claim on her and the mine she inherited. They wanted her body before. Now they want her money, and they’ll do anything to take it. But love and acceptance seem out of the question for Emmalee.

Society wants nothing to do with her regardless of her changed ways. Who can she turn to when her inheritance and chance at a future is at risk? Will she be forced back into the brothel to survive? Hiring a lawyer, Richard Lewis, to save her from financial ruin might let her start over somewhere else — if he can save a little of her finances from her husband’s partner. She’ll go anyplace else where no one knows Miss Ellie’s name. Anywhere to leave the scorn behind. Becoming an unknown is the only way to freedom…or is it? Can she leave her past and build a new future?

Click here to get your copy!

My Impressions

Angela Breidenbach comes back strong with another tale of Montana, in the infancy of its statehood (1894). This engaging novel follows the soiled dove Emmalee Warren, who is struggling to overcome her past. Given an unexpected chance to escape that past, she discovers many of the towns people are all too happy to remember her for who she was, not who she is. Fortunately, a few people truly live out God’s unconditional love to her. “They do know what we been. But who we are is not what we done…”

Richard Lewis is the new lawyer Emmalee hires to help her stop her late husband’s conniving, cheating partner. I love the way that Lewis sees Emmalee as valuable and worth his help. “If God thinks enough to count your individual tears and record them in his book, then he finds you invaluable, Emmalee…” Lewis doesn’t minimize the opposition Emmalee faces, but he is willing to pave the way for her. “The best way through a wall is to walk through a door. I would like to be that doorway for you.”

We also get to see friends from earlier books. It is thrilling to see them with their new families, rising to new challenges.

I was glad to see a certain unkind character. Not because I liked her, but because real life is like that. Given a large group of people, it seems there has to be one that doesn’t even attempt to live up to what they profess. Who will win over the public sentiment?

Concluding with “Conversation starter ideas for book clubs” (a great title and some thought provoking questions that tie in with the book), Breidenbach includes more tourist ideas as well.

I received a copy of the book from the author via Celebrate Lit. No positive review was required, and all opinions are my own.

Notable Quotables:

“Someday happens because you plan for it.”

“True religion wasn’t running from the past. True religion is letting God use her broken past to help someone else.”

About the Author

Angela Breidenbach is a professional genealogist, media personality, conference speaker, bestselling author of eighteen books, and screenwriter. Angela lives in Montana with her hubby and Muse, a trained fe-lion, who shakes hands, rolls over, and jumps through a hoop. Surprisingly, Angela can also. Catch her show and podcast, Genealogy Publishing Coach!

More from Angela

Flower of the Rockies is one of my favorite stories. I didn’t realize when I started writing about the Montana state flower that I’d be digging into a deeper part of myself. A part I didn’t want to remember.

Stumbling on the women’s club that worked so hard to create symbolism for the state of Montana sparked a story idea. Then that idea needed a character help me tell the story. Then she told me she didn’t know how to read. Okay, I can run with that… But I’m a really good reader. So how do I connect to this widow who needs to learn to read to stop her husband’s partner from cooking her books and stealing everything she has left?

It hit me. She and I had a lot in common. As a kid, I was awkward. I didn’t connect well because I couldn’t read people. Ironically, I read books to learn about people. But it took getting out and being with people to begin really connecting and communicating.

Emmalee doesn’t want to be around people because she’s been rejected for her past and ridiculed publicly. Who wants to be friends with a soiled dove? But, she’s lonely. I suddenly connected on an even deeper level with her. I understood her need for love and acceptance. Her desire to become someone respectable.

On a bigger scale, that’s what the women of Montana were trying to prove, too. That their state fit in with the other states, had something special, something symbolic that showed she was accepted and respected. She had a flag, a state flower, and people who mattered.

Come join me in the Flower of the Rockies. I think you’ll like Emmalee and her journey toward acceptance. There are a lot of layers to the story’s symbolism. I wrote it and have been amazed at how God keeps revealing those layers to me in one short book. Let me know what is revealed to you.

Blog Stops

Texas Book-aholic, April 18

Inklings and notions, April 19

Spoken from the Heart, April 19

Betti Mace, April 20

Slyvan Musings, April 21

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, April 21

deb’s Book Review, April 22

Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, April 23

Pause for Tales, April 23

Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, April 24

Simple Harvest Reads, April 25

For Him and My Family, April 26

Blossoms and Blessings, April 26

Tell Tale Book Reviews, April 27

Locks, Hooks and Books, April 27

Connie’s History Classroom, April 28

Mary Hake, April 28

Blogging With Carol, April 29

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, April 30

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, May 1

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Angela is giving away the grand prize of a pair of iolite and sterling silver earrings!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/1cc83/flower-of-the-rockies-celebration-tour-giveaway