The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns | Margaret Dilloway

This pick was definitely one of seeing a nice title on the shelf at the library. The central character is a 36-year old woman named Gal (for Galilee) who is a science teacher at a Catholic high school in a small town in central California. Her real passion, though, is breeding roses. Gal is a loner and, I'll just say it, older than her years, largely because she also suffers from advance kidney disease that restricts large swaths of her life and regiments what's left.

Things start to change when her niece Riley shows up on her doorstep. These are two wounded characters figuring out how to live their lives, and in Riley's case, grow up without the typical trappings of life--family members that show up for you, health, romance, you name it.

Is it a masterpiece? Not really, but it was a pleasant read and I cared about the outcome which isn't always the case in these stories. In this story, people were flawed but good in their hearts so the redemption story line really works. Dilloway has written some YA books and I think they're probably pretty good. Her renderings of the teenagers in this novel rang true.