Salting Roses by Lorelle Marinello

"She was letting go of a dream she’d had since she was a child- her very own mama- and she didn’t have anything to replace it with."

Salting Roses by Lorelle Marinello has a rags to riches premise- Gracie Calloway discovers on her 25th birthday that she is actually the heiress to a 650 million dollar fortune. Gracie was kidnapped as a an infant and left on a porch in a coal bucket in Alabama where she grew up. Gracie's biological father never gave up searching for her, and when dies she is left his massive fortune. Unfortunately after having been treated badly by rich people growing up and having been looked down on since her unwed mother abandoned her, Gracie is not at all interested in accepting the money. She quickly learns that nothing, including money, is as simple as she thinks. 

Although the Southern aspect of Salting Roses was charming at times, the book never captured my heart. What I didn't enjoy is exactly what many readers will love about this book- a budding romance between two hard headed individuals, Gracie and Sam (the man sent to deliver news of her fortune) took up a significant portion of the book. I honestly thought I was picking up a book about family, not about love, and romance novels are not something I tend to read. In addition, I didn't particularly like Gracie and although I could pretend to fall for the fairy-tale idea that she randomly inherited all this money- I never quite believed that she would refuse to accept it. There was a lot of talk about her resentment of rich people, but when it comes down to it, I'm not sure any author could really convince me that a person would be not only be willing, but desire to give up that much money although Marinello did make obvious examples of how the money was a problem. I definitely found truth in the fact that money changes the way people look at you, and that when it comes down to it's only dirty paper, but it certainly makes life a whole lot easier.

I did love the Southern charm the novel had, the way people spoke to each other, and especially the relationships between Gracie and the two men and one woman who raised her. Although the woman, Alice, was really pushy and not particularly somebody I'd like to know, as she continually pressed the importance of Gracie getting married, the men were lovely in spite of their faults, especially since the reader can sense that they were really just trying to do what they thought was best for Gracie. In particular, Artie, her fake uncle and father-figure was really wonderful to read about. Ultimately, I think Salting Roses was the wrong book for me and would better suit somebody looking for a Southern love story who doesn't mind suspending belief in order to allow for a little magic. **

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Number of Pages: 384 pages
Published: November 2010
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This review was a part of TLC Book Tours. Click here to read what other tour hosts thought. For the purpose of this review I was provided with a copy of the book which did not require a positive review. The opinions expressed in this post are completely my own.