I love that feeling when you didn’t think you could love an author anymore, and then you do. Welcome to my feelings regarding Miranda Asbedo and A Constellation of Roses.
Summary
Ever since her mother walked out, Trix McCabe has been determined to make it on her own. And with her near-magical gift for pulling valuables off unsuspecting strangers, Trix is confident she has what it takes to survive. Until she’s caught and given a choice: jail time, or go live with her long-lost family in the tiny town of Rocksaw, Kansas.
Trix doesn’t plan to stick around Rocksaw long, but there’s something special about her McCabe relatives that she is drawn to. Her aunt, Mia, bakes pies that seem to cure all ills. Her cousin, Ember, can tell a person’s deepest secret with the touch of a hand. And Trix’s great-aunt takes one look at Trix’s palm and tells her that if she doesn’t put down roots somewhere, she won’t have a future anywhere.
Before long, Trix feels like she might finally belong with this special group of women in this tiny town in Kansas. But when her past comes back to haunt her, she’ll have to decide whether to take a chance on this new life . . . or keep running from the one she’s always known.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from Edelweiss. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
TW: Suicide, abuse
A Constellation of Roses is a story about being guarded. Being vulnerable and afraid of getting hurt. It’s a story of running away, making the choice to stay, and to hold our family close. Trix is the definition of guarded and she’s used to stealing to get by. Everyone Trix has ever counted on has left her. Theft is her way of life and so things freely given, especially kindness, don’t make sense to her. But when her life takes a drastic turn and she finds herself with a family she never knew, Trix is going to have to decide if she wants to make the choice to stay.
What would it be finally like to have a home? Can we really ever change our behaviors? When the world has taught us to never rely on tomorrow, support, or love, can we open up our heart to new possibilities? We have whole relationships as question marks, blank pages, or scrapbooks of pieced together memories. On one hand her relationship with her mother is complex. Full of bright moments, but also marred with responsibility and abandonment. Whereas her father is a blank page, someone she can only begin to know through the fragments of torn memories.
A Constellation of Roses is full of lingering moments, tender silence, and soft boys. It’s a story that challenges us to break our expectations, to believe we can be someone else. To take control of our own life and decisions. It’s easy to fall back into our own habits and routines because it’s absolutely terrifying to try something new. There’s the fear of failure, but also the idea that you could love it – that it could become another piece of you that’s torn away.
The people we surround ourselves with are crucial to our lives. To our future. Sometimes people make mistakes and we can never forgive them. Sometimes we can. And even in the moments when we cannot, we can still love them. A Constellation of Roses is a moving book about friendship, love, and vulnerability.
Find A Constellation of Roses on Goodreads, Amazon, Indiebound & The Book Depository.