Joanne R Roche

When the Roses Bloom Joanne R Roche

Grandpa always said, "When the roses bloom, it's time for a wedding." The question begs, whose wedding will it be? In September 1945, although sugar is still rationed and nylon stockings are a luxury as America recovers from their World War II victory, twenty-three-year-old tender-hearted Elizabeth Keene lives a modest life with her maternal grandfather in Boston, MA. When she's not writing a book with dreams of becoming a famous novelist or helping Grandpa care for the plethora of rose bushes he planted when he arrived from Ireland as a young man, she and Grandpa hitch a ride to the rocky shores of York, Maine. There they stay with Grandpa's sister, Aunt May, and Elizabeth also visits the Sullivan sisters who live next door - flirtatious Dolly, who never met a bachelor who wasn't worth giving a coquettish glance, and her prim and proper older sister, Mary Francis, who fervently hopes her boyfriend Robert will propose to her. When Elizabeth meets dashing, ambitious businessman Alan Bates at the investment firm where she works as a secretary, she falls hard for him, but there's soon competition for Alan's attention. Will Alan choose Elizabeth, who believes in love, or Priscilla, a worldly socialite whose family name stands for wealth and prestige in Boston? While he decides, will Stephen Wright, the handsome, charming, and upstanding lawyer steal Elizabeth right from under Alan's nose?