Why this one: A friend on GoodReads reviewed it just recently and it called to me
Setting: Georgia just before WWII
Steam Level: Beautifully perfectly perfect warm
My Thoughts: There are classics in literature, Moby Dick, War and Peace, Oliver Twist and many, many more. I think the romances of yesteryear have their classics too, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and more. Modern day romance – not so sure if they have what would be considered classics yet or not, it may be too soon, but if they did, I’m sure they would have a book or two by Georgette Heyer, Kathleen Woodiwiss. And then we come to another author who has written some of what I consider modern day romance classics and that’s LaVryle Spencer. I’ve read most of her books except for perhaps her last couple before she retired and of all that I’ve read, I truly believe Morning Glory needs to be added to the classics of romance. I first read this book more years ago than I can remember and I’ve reread it every year or two since then. I can’t quite remember the last time but I have it on my Ipad and I know I’ve read it since I bought it but when I saw a friend recently post a review on GoodReads, it got the need to reread it again stirring. And heaven knows when a book starts calling, there is no relief until you answer it.
The book opens with Will Parker working at a lumber
mill. He’s only been there 3 days and he’s
literally starving. The book opens just
before the second World War and Will has just been released from prison for
murdering a prostitute. We find out
details later in the story. His bully
boss finds out this info and dismisses Will on the spot. Will has just been wandering around the
countryside trying to find work and now he’s out of yet another job. The men laughingly tell him that maybe crazy
Elly Dunsmore will take him in. She has
an add up advertising for a husband to help work her farm. She is known as the local crazy widow woman
and her story is just as sad as Will’s.
She was the bastard granddaughter of the town’s religious zealots and
was practically locked into the family home with the blinds drawn. Only after the truant officer found out about
her was she allowed out but only to go to school, then back to her prison. She somehow managed to escape long enough to
meet and marry. But her husband was died
in an accident and she has two young boys and is pregnant with her third child
and is in desperate circumstances. Her
only option was to look for a husband.
After some thought and due to his own desperate circumstances, Will does
go see Elly to check things out. It’s an
awkward meeting, neither one of them real comfortable in dealing with others,
Elly because of the isolated way she was raised and Will because of his prison
record. But they manage to come to an
agreement and thus starts the most poignant, tender, beautiful, tear inducing
books I’ve ever read. Seriously, I mean
it. If I only had one word – the story
is beautiful.
Will has never known love and he sees all he’s ever
wanted in the mother that Ellie is. He
falls in love with her partly because of that.
He was an orphan who never knew parents, doesn’t even know his own
birthday. His only friend betrayed him,
resulting in his prison sentence. I
think he’s the loneliest, saddest hero I’ve read at the beginning of the book.
Elly is also sad and lonely but not so much. She has her children and she had a good
husband. Despite or maybe because of her
lonely upbringing, Elly has quite a streak of whimsy to her. She’s actually rather upbeat all things
considered and this is just what someone in such a dark place as Will is needs.
Throughout the story, they heal each other. While she had loved her husband, Will is
different. He’s young, and strong and
determined and handsome and he has beautiful eyes. He loves her two sons and is a wonderful
father figure to them. He is loving and very appreciative of everything Elly
does both for him and her children. He
never takes anything for granted. Who
wouldn’t fall in love with someone like Will?
And for Will, Elly is everything he couldn’t even
have imagined he wanted and needed. She meets the
mothering role he has longed for all his life. There is a scene where she cuts his hair and
one is almost in tears reading just that scene alone.
Slowly, Will gains a sense of pride. When he first comes to Elly, he’s a broken
man. But with Elly’s help along with Ms.
Beasley gets self-respect. Ms Beasley is
the local librarian who helps him when he wants to learn more on different
things he fixes around the farm, plumbing, bees, a number of different
things. Ms Beasley is another wonderful
character. She’s starchy and she’s tough
and she’s opinionated and she has such a soft heart for Will. He’s like the son she’s never had and she is
a lion in defense of him and when she offers him a job as library custodian, he
gains a pride he’s never had before.
And of course there is conflict that comes along in
this book. It takes place in 1941 and
the threat of war hangs in the air. Will
knows he is a prime candidate to be called up and wants it to be on his
terms. But Elly is terrified and would
rather keep her head in the sand.
Finally the inevitable happens and Will must leave and he joins the
Marines. It turns out that he completely
becomes the person he was meant to be.
This part of the book, told through letters, is as
wonderful and poignant as the rest of the book and it marks a turning
point. Will comes back but not quite the
same person he left. But now there is
another block. He is being stalked by a
woman who refuses to accept the fact he’s not interested.
I really don’t have the words or confidence to
completely explain how truly wonderful this book is and how I think it needs to
be read at least once by every reader who loves this genre. Ms. Spencer makes us feel every emotion that Elly and Will in particular
experience. We feel the betrayal that Will feels when his best friend testifies
against him during the trial that sends him to jail. We feel
his despair and shame when he brings up the green apples he ate because that
was the only thing he could find. We feel his wonderment over his growing
relationship with Ellie’s two boys. We
feel his panic when Ellie insists he be the one to help her give birth and we feel his pride when Ellie gives her
new-born daughter his last name.
This is a book that shows, not tells the story and
because of that she makes us feel like we are right there with them during
their journey to healing and love. If
you check reviews for this book on GoodReads and or Amazon, many reviewers give
this higher than 5 stars even though that’s the highest grade allowed.
I might have done a review on Morning Glory before - I can't remember but having just recently read this book again, it’s
timeless, it’s a classic and it only gets better with each reading.
Grade: 5+++ out of 5
