Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners

Violet Baumgartner is the definitive matriarch of her family. She has expensive tastes, is actively involved in her church, knows manners and etiquette, and knows how to get what she wants. When her husband, Ed, retires, she plans him a large and elegant retirement party. Things don’t go as planned when a guest unwittingly spills the beans on a big secret about Violet and Ed’s daughter, Cerise. Chaos ensues as the Baumgartner’s and their friends struggle to find their place in the world when the rules change.

This book is excellently written. Violet’s character, comes across as a domineering matriarch, but throughout the course of the book, secrets and details come to light, giving the reader a new perspective on her. Characters and situations are not what they seem on the surface. The author molds the course of the story masterfully. The ending feels like a momentous occasion to savor. All of the characters are dynamic, growing, stumbling, and changing throughout the course of the book, including secondary characters. Told from multiple points of view, each thread is as compelling as the last. The book was much more than I expected and I thoroughly enjoyed it.