When The Wildflowers Bloom Again by Donna Jo Stone is an award winner! Honored with a Carol Award (ACFW) for outstanding Contemporary Fiction, this novel explores trauma and the resulting grace and mercy of a loving God. I highly recommend it, but have lots of tissues available!
Babies are a gift of God, a fact Marigold Parker knows full well.
Fourteen-year-old Marigold (Mary) Parker spends the summer of ’78 with her cousin and best friend, Sharon, biking the roads of their rural neighborhood in Pleasant Waters, North Louisiana. The girls while away the days at the local pond, listening to the BeeGees and talking about boys. Caring for her emotionally fragile mother is Mary’s only worry, until Sharon’s older half-brother finds Mary alone at the pond one day.
She can’t speak of what happened in the woods. The truth will destroy her family and cost her the relationships she holds most precious.
But secrets have a way of making themselves known, and when Mary finds herself pregnant, she’s forced to grapple with hard decisions. Babies are a gift from God. Mary knows this full well, but she doesn’t know how to deal with a pregnancy, or who to turn to for help.
Trials seem to multiply as Mary struggles to keep faith in the God her parents have taught her to trust.
Richly detailed and evocative, When the Wildflowers Bloom Again captures the emotions and the heart, vividly detailing the struggle of facing impossible choices, the true test of family ties, and of the hope found in new beginnings. Infused with both sorrow and faith, Marigold Parker’s tale is a story you won’t soon forget.
Donna Jo Stone is an award-winning author of historical, contemporary, and young adult fiction.
Life is messy and beautiful. In everyone’s story, there is truth and hope. Donna Jo’s novels are about common struggles and finding the faith to carry on through those battles.
When she’s not writing, she loves to read and talk about books, poke around in old bookshops and museums, and spend time with her family.
My Impressions:
It’s been a while since a book has moved me to tears. And that is saying something because I am not a reader of exclusively fun or happy books. I like real life stories filled with real emotions and experiences. But Donna Jo Stone did just that in her coming-of-age novel When The Wildflowers Bloom Again. The book, set in a small Louisiana community in the 1970s, is told in the first person voice of Mary Parker. At fourteen years old, Mary is filled with excitement for the future, with a bit of curious rebellion built in. Her family would say she’s a handful, but really she is a a typical young teenager. That is until her life is shattered by an unspeakable trauma and a life-altering grief. The era portrayed is spot-on. I know, because I grew up during the same time period. And the circumstances Mary faces are also true to life. Mary is left desolate and alone — fearful to reveal her trauma to her grieving and fragile mother. But God’s grace shows through in her Aunt Sister, her mother, and others who choose to stand with Mary. Church and family are portrayed realistically as well. Some are judgmental, while others exhibit the love of Christ. I think that’s pretty accurate. No community or congregation is perfect, only Jesus is. While the book is pretty hard to read — I put it down numerous times to settle my emotions — it is at the end hope-filled.
When The Wildflowers Bloom Again won the 2025 Carol Award (ACFW) for outstanding contemporary fiction. It is well-deserved. Grab some friends to read this one together. You are going to want to talk about it.
Highly recommended.
Audience: older teens and adults.
Great for book clubs.
(I borrowed this book from Kindle Unlimited. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
i loved this book too!
It sure made me cry!