East Texas epic

The first major novel from Leila Jaynes Meacham (’63) of San Antonio — Roses (Grand Central Publishing) — was an instant bestseller on The New York Times list and has received rave reviews.
Publishers Weekly calls the book an “enthralling stunner” that “may herald the overdue return of those delicious doorstop epics from such writers as Barbara Taylor Bradford and Colleen McCullough.” Library Journal says “readers who like an old-fashioned saga will devour this sprawling novel of passion and revenge.” And People magazine compares the work to Gone With the Wind.
Set in 20th century East Texas, Roses tells the story of a cotton planter and a timber magnate and the role of love, fate, pride and sacrifice over three generations of their families. Meacham, who earned a degree in education at North Texas, wrote a few romance books in the 1980s while working as a high school English teacher.
“I returned to writing 10 years after retiring from teaching,” she says, “when I ran out of all the things I waited to do until retirement.”
She already is working on her next Texas saga.
 
 
 

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