Check Out Solomons Oak Formulated By Jo-Ann Mapson Disseminated As Digital Edition

Oak the words alone invoke strength and character, . . photographers come from miles away to capture the beauty of the lovely, huge White oak that sits on Solomon's farm in California, where White Oaks should never grow.
Glory Solomon, now a widow, owns the farm where once her and her beloved husband took in foster boys and taught them to be kind, responsible men.
Now alone with only her horses and dogs, Glory is faced with the dilemma of possibly losing the farm.
On top of all this worry and grief, she is ask to foster a teenage girl, angry, brokenyear old Juniper McGuire with her own passel of problems and Glory has trouble, even under the circumstances, saying no.
When a couple approaches her with a crazy idea of hosting a pirate wedding under the famous oak, Glory runs with it baking, preparing food, and decorating the small chapel her husband had built all with a pirate theme.
Unlucky for a her, a former policeman with a body and a mind full of pain, Joseph happens to arrive when the "pirates" are at their worst with guns and swords drawn! On the other hand, lucky for Glory, he also has his camera and is willing to take photos for Glory of the fun, wild wedding.
Will Solomon's Oak shelter and mend all three heartbroken souls

Real life characters with real, gritty life problems.
You will cry with Glory, Juniper, and Joseph, but laugh with Glory's zany friend, store owner Lorna,

You may wonder at the beginning to this novel, but loose threads will be tied in the end.
I finished reading Solomon's Oak this evening, and on the whole I did enjoy the story, The story is pretty slow to start, with a gentle introduction to each character, and although the pace never becomes particularly fast, the characters develop wonderfully.


Although recommended by Jodi Picoult, JoAnn Mapson's writing and style is really not similar to Picoult at all.
This didn't put me off, but some readers may be looking for a similar genre and be disappointed.


The three main characters Glory, Juniper and Joseph take turns to narrate the story, which is basically a smalltown tale about three people who are very different, but have sadness and loss in common.
Throw in some rescue dogs with gigantic characters of their own and a cast of supporting characters, a wedding chapel and some tasty sounding food and you are left with a heartwarming, well written story.
Solomon's Oak is the story of three people who have suffered losses that changed their lives forever.


Glory Solomon, a young widow, holds tight to her memories while she struggles to hold on to her Central California farm.
She makes ends meet by hosting weddings in the chapel her husband had built under their twohundredyearold white oak tree, known locally as Solomon's Oak.
Fourteenyearold Juniper McGuire is the lone survivor of a family decimated by her sister's disappearance, She arrives on Glory's doorstep, pierced, tattooed, angry, and homeless, When Glory's husband Dan was alive, they took in foster children, but Juniper may be more than she can handle alone.
Joseph Vigil is a former Albuquerque police officer and crime lab photographer who was shot during a meth lab bust that took the life of his best friend.
Now disabled and in constant pain, he arrives in California to fulfill his dream of photographing the state's giant trees, including Solomon's Oak.


In JoAnn Mapson's deeply felt, wise, and gritty novel, these three broken souls will find in each other an unexpected comfort, the bond of friendship, and a second chance to see the miracles of everyday life.
The characters were wonderfulalmost too good to be true, And the plot was compelling, though there were probably too many coincidences, such as the fact that the heroine becomes the foster mother to the sister of a missing person whose dog lives at Solomon's Oak.
And how did she become a foster mother without going through months of red tape, especially in California
I have enjoyed other books by this author, but somehow the writing wasn't quite good enough to ratestars.
It had a throwntogether quality, Nevertheless, it certainly qualifies as a good read, especially for "chick lit" fans, I liked it much better than Michael Cunningham's "By Nightfall," a highly acclaimed novel, which I read last week.
That book was beautifully written, but populated by selfabsorbed people about whom it was hard to care,
.Glory Solomon is trying to recover from her husband's death, She has inherited a farm with a magnificent oak tree that people come from miles away to see.
She rescues abused dogs and horses, and is even persuaded to take in a foster child, a girl named Juniper.
In order to make ends meet, she begins a business organizing weddings in the chapel her husband built.
Ultimately she is able to create a new life for herself with Juniper and Joseph, a retired policeman visiting the area.
I was most impressed with the realistic way that Glory's interaction with her animals was presented and with the descriptions of the natural world of the farm.
There is a naturalness to the way relationships developed among the characters, Each of them has strengths and weaknesses none of them is perfect, But they value each other and work toward understanding, Animals and people are portrayed in warm, realistic terms and the physical world is beautifully described, Original review found at: sitelink blogspot. com/

SPOILERS
I enjoyed reading this book, but I thought I would enjoy it more.
It is an easy, well written novel that follows the lives of three individuals whose lives intertwine in interesting ways.


Glory Solomon is

a widow coming up on the first anniversary of her late husbands death.
She is asked by a couple if they can have their wedding at the chapel that her husband finished building shortly before his death.
She accepts after she discovers the reason that the couple has been turned down by every other church is that they want a pirate themed ceremony.


Meanwhile, Glory is asked by social worker/friend Caroline whose motives become known later in the book if she can host a troubledyear old named Juniper for the night until she can find a “forever home” for the girl.
Glory hesitantly agrees.

During the aforementioned pirate nuptials, former forensic lab worker Joseph Vigil is taking pictures of the famed Solomons Oak when he sees a duel during the ceremony and his police instinct kicks in.
He crashes the wedding and draws his gun, demanding that the dueling swordsmen drop their weapons, Glory quickly cuts in and explains that it is all part of the ceremony and calms the situation.
Joseph, now embarrassed, holsters his gun and apologizes for his instinct overtaking him, Fortunately for Glory, whose camera isnt working, Joseph agrees to take pictures of the ceremony in exchange for a plate of leftovers to take home.


From there, Glory, Juniper, and Josephs lives are brought together in interesting ways, Glory struggles to form a relationship with Juniper, whom she truly believes in and wants to help, but can't seem to get a grasp on it.
Joseph becomes an unlikely hero, if you will, in the situation and helps bring Juniper and Glory together and closer than they would've imagined.


As I said, I thought this book would be better, Dont get me wrong, it is good, just not as good as I was expecting, The historical tidbits are accurate, the writing is great, and the ending is very fitting and a great conclusion, but my expectations were higher.

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