My thoughts
This is book two of the Hamilton Place story. The ending to a deep and emotional story.
In this book you get to know more about Jimmy and Becca's son James. About Becca's life after the loss of Jimmy. About Mack Lee, Jimmy's older brother. About Maggie, the boy's mother. What a piece of work she was.
This story pretty much picks up where A Song To That Never Ends stopped. Becca is dealing with the loss of Jimmy. The love of her life. Learning how to be a mother for the first time. To a newborn at that. She's living with Jimmy's mother and older brother because her parents kicked her out after she married Jimmy. A military guy.
Becca was talked into marrying Mack Lee after Jimmy was killed in Vietnam. Her life takes a drastic turn for the worse. Her son, James, is brought up to believe that Mack Lee is his dad. He knows nothing about Jimmy or that his mother was married to him. Mack Lee was very abusive to Becca and to Jimmy also. He did not have a kind bone in his body.
James was very much like his biological father. Very smart. At the genius level of smart. If he read it he never forgot it. That would help him in his life going forward and also hurt him. He had no problems in school as far as learning. He was a quiet boy who had very few friends. He graduated top of his class and went on to college. He met a girl who he feel hard for. Together they could do anything. It was not meant to be though. Other things happened that tore them apart..
James ended up joining the military after 9/11 because he felt it was his duty. He signed up for a six year tour and did what he felt he had to do. He was a medic and was good at what he did. Just like his father before him being a doctor was what he wanted. James was more than just a doctor though. He was a very gifted surgeon.
This story takes you through so much. A lot of losses and one big find. When James finds out who his father really is he's angry at first. He doesn't understand why Becca would keep it from him. He learns though and his journey takes him from a small farm in South Carolina to many new places and new adventures. He meets the President of the United States and learns how is father saved the Presidents life in Vietnam.
This is a very emotional story. It will bring tears to your eyes for sure. The only thing I didn't like was, to me it seemed a bit too long. Some of the descriptions could have been cut shorter. Some of the details. It was pretty obvious to me that this author had been in the military and knew his way about weapons and medicine. He knew a lot about both. While I did enjoy this book as much as the first, I did find it to be just to wordy in places.
Four stars and I highly recommend you read it. It's very good. Very emotional. It does have a couple of chuckles in there too.
Book Details:
Book Title: Roses in December (Hamilton Place Book 2) by Mark A. Gibson
Category: Adult Fiction 18 yrs +, 358 pages
Genre: Family Saga Fiction, Thriller, Historical Fiction
Publisher: Hamilton Press (Self)
Release date: April, 2024
Content Rating: A soft R for the following: Language, although appropriate for situation, does have a smattering (perhaps 5 uses over 350 pages) of the F-word. Sexual situations are more so implied than graphic, although there is one soft description of fellatio. There is no use of derogatory descriptions for persons, sexes or races. No graphic violence is described.
Book Title: Roses in December (Hamilton Place Book 2) by Mark A. Gibson
Category: Adult Fiction 18 yrs +, 358 pages
Genre: Family Saga Fiction, Thriller, Historical Fiction
Publisher: Hamilton Press (Self)
Release date: April, 2024
Content Rating: A soft R for the following: Language, although appropriate for situation, does have a smattering (perhaps 5 uses over 350 pages) of the F-word. Sexual situations are more so implied than graphic, although there is one soft description of fellatio. There is no use of derogatory descriptions for persons, sexes or races. No graphic violence is described.
Book Description:
Jimmy Hamilton overcame childhood tragedy to become a hero in Vietnam, only to die there in 1967. All but forgotten, Jimmy leaves behind a young wife, an infant son, and a man wracked by guilt.
Circumstances allow Becca, his young widow, to be manipulated into an abusive, loveless union with Jimmy’s brother and into raising her son ignorant of his father’s true identity—a wrong she knows must be set right…but how? When?
Like Jimmy before him, James, Jr. is an intellectually gifted, albeit troubled man. Hamstrung by the false narrative of his life and then tormented by an unspeakable loss, his days are spent treading the knife’s edge between present day reality and a past he’s incapable of forgetting.
With his final act of bravery, Jimmy unknowingly saved the scion of a powerful Washington family. In so doing, he set in place circumstances that just might draw his son back from the abyss…but only if he can somehow make it home from Vietnam.
Roses in December concludes the Hamilton Place series, an epic family saga extending from the Great Depression to present day. Through war and peace, love and loss, triumph and tragedy, follow the Hamilton family on their journey from a run-down farm in South Carolina, through the jungles of Vietnam, to the top of the world in New York City, and through the gardens of stone at Arlington.
Jimmy Hamilton overcame childhood tragedy to become a hero in Vietnam, only to die there in 1967. All but forgotten, Jimmy leaves behind a young wife, an infant son, and a man wracked by guilt.
Circumstances allow Becca, his young widow, to be manipulated into an abusive, loveless union with Jimmy’s brother and into raising her son ignorant of his father’s true identity—a wrong she knows must be set right…but how? When?
Like Jimmy before him, James, Jr. is an intellectually gifted, albeit troubled man. Hamstrung by the false narrative of his life and then tormented by an unspeakable loss, his days are spent treading the knife’s edge between present day reality and a past he’s incapable of forgetting.
With his final act of bravery, Jimmy unknowingly saved the scion of a powerful Washington family. In so doing, he set in place circumstances that just might draw his son back from the abyss…but only if he can somehow make it home from Vietnam.
Roses in December concludes the Hamilton Place series, an epic family saga extending from the Great Depression to present day. Through war and peace, love and loss, triumph and tragedy, follow the Hamilton family on their journey from a run-down farm in South Carolina, through the jungles of Vietnam, to the top of the world in New York City, and through the gardens of stone at Arlington.
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Meet the Author:
Mark A. Gibson is a physician who practices Cardiology in the mountains of rural North Georgia. He was raised on a small farm in upstate South Carolina—the last postage-stamp sized sliver of a much larger parcel granted to the family by land grant from King Charles II in 1665—and may or may not have once gotten in trouble for digging up his mom’s calla lily bed in search of the family’s long-lost charter.
Dr. Gibson graduated from the Citadel in Charleston, SC with a BS in Biology. Afterwards, he received his medical degree from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia, SC. He received his Internal Medicine training through the University of Tennessee Medical System and Cardiology training through the Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center. He served for eight years on active duty with the US Air Force, before leaving the military for private practice.
Although a cardiologist by profession, Dr. Gibson is a dreamer by nature. He is a self-styled oenophile who enjoys travel and fine food. In his spare time, he builds sandcastles and dreams of distant shores.
Roses in December represents Dr. Gibson’s second offering to the world of literature, and the conclusion of his Hamilton Place Series. All previous publications have been of the professional, peer-reviewed, medical variety, and make for lovely sleep aids.
Connect with the author: amazon ~ X/Twitter
Mark A. Gibson is a physician who practices Cardiology in the mountains of rural North Georgia. He was raised on a small farm in upstate South Carolina—the last postage-stamp sized sliver of a much larger parcel granted to the family by land grant from King Charles II in 1665—and may or may not have once gotten in trouble for digging up his mom’s calla lily bed in search of the family’s long-lost charter.
Dr. Gibson graduated from the Citadel in Charleston, SC with a BS in Biology. Afterwards, he received his medical degree from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia, SC. He received his Internal Medicine training through the University of Tennessee Medical System and Cardiology training through the Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center. He served for eight years on active duty with the US Air Force, before leaving the military for private practice.
Although a cardiologist by profession, Dr. Gibson is a dreamer by nature. He is a self-styled oenophile who enjoys travel and fine food. In his spare time, he builds sandcastles and dreams of distant shores.
Roses in December represents Dr. Gibson’s second offering to the world of literature, and the conclusion of his Hamilton Place Series. All previous publications have been of the professional, peer-reviewed, medical variety, and make for lovely sleep aids.
Connect with the author: amazon ~ X/Twitter
Thus looks like a fantastic novel. Thanks for hosting this tour.
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