When the Morning Glory Blooms by Cynthia Ruchti Review!

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing When The Morning Glory Blooms Abingdon Press (April 1, 2013) by Cynthia Ruchti

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Cynthia writes stories of hope that glows in the dark, merging her love for storytelling with inextinguishable hope for inexpressible hurts.

Cynthia spends her days diving into words, worship, and wonder and celebrating 40 years of marriage, three grown children, and five outrageously adorable grandchildren. One of her greatest joys is helping other writers grow in their craft. To that end, she served as the assistant director and a faculty member of the Quad Cities Christian Writers Conference, has served as worship and devotions staff for the Write-to-Publish conference, and teaches at other conferences as opportunities arise. She speaks to women’s groups, at mother-daughter banquets, and for women’s refresher days and retreats. It is her delight to serve on her church’s worship team. Rather than “busy,” she likes the term “active.”

For 33 years, Cynthia wrote and produced the radio broadcast The Heartbeat of the Home. The scripted radio drama/devotional broadcast aired on as many as 50 radio stations and two cable/digital television stations over the years. Cynthia was the editor of the ministry’s Backyard Friends magazine, a twenty-page, twice annual publication that reached 5,000 homes, churches, and parachurch outreaches.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Becky rocks a baby that rocked her world. Sixty years earlier, with her fiancé Drew in the middle of the Korean Conflict, Ivy throws herself into her work at a nursing home to keep her sanity and provide for the child Drew doesn't know is coming. Ivy cares for Anna, an elderly patient who taxes Ivy's listening ear until the day she suspects Anna's tall tales are not the ramblings of dementia. They're fragments of Anna's disjointed memories of a remarkable life. Finding a faint thread of hope she can't resist tugging, Ivy records Anna's memoir, scribbling furiously after hours to keep up with the woman's emotion-packed, grace-hemmed stories. Is Ivy's answer buried in Anna's past? Becky, Ivy, Anna--three women fight a tangled vine of deception in search of the blossoming simplicity of truth.

If you would like to read the first chapter of When The Morning Glory Blooms, go HERE.

My Review:
I liked to read about Anna and all the babies. Times were so different then, and it was weird to read about everything without modern technology. Anna was such a strong woman, it is no wonder she lived long enough to have Ivy as her nurse in her golden years. Ivy thinks that Anna makes up her stories, however a lot can be learned from Anna. Anna ha gone through so much, I truly enjoyed all her stories. Some made me laugh, and others made me sad. A good book can make you feel so many different emotions that you don't even realize you are crying until tears fall o the pages. That was this kind of book. Fast forward over 100 years later and you get Becky.
Becky is helping her daughter raise her grandchild. She is unsure of her choices, but knows that her daughter needs her help. I definitely felt like Becky got the least amount of attention in the book, and I thought that there should have been a more about her. I also didn't like the summary on the back of the book "And how will one child bring together the intertwining stories of women across generations?". I do not think that the baby brought the stories together, but rather where they decided to live. I was waiting for Becky's grandchild to grow up, of for them to be relatives with Anna, and none of that happened. It was not how I would have liked the book to end.
I have morning glories growing in my front yard, and I will always think of this book when I  see them. I am giving this book a 3/5. I felt strongly enough about the ending and lack of info on Becky that they each cost the book a star. However, the rest of the book was so strongly written that I will definitely keep an eye out for this author. I was given a copy to review, however all opinions are my own.