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Title: When the Bluebonnets Come
Author: John J. Dwyer
Narrator: Lara Wells
Format: Unabridged
Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
Language: English
Release date: 03-24-16
Publisher: Bluebonnet Press
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
Publisher's Summary:
"When I get to heaven, one of the first things I'm gonna ask God is why he only let me figure out so many things later when I could've used 'em earlier," says Katie Shanahan as she remembers growing up in the heart of bluebonnet country near Cotton Patch, Texas. It was a childhood filled with playful animals, sweeping vistas of fragrant wildflowers, salt-of-the-earth people of the land, and a loving daddy who was a preacher and had been a football hero.
What her father, Ethan, found when he trailed a rabid dog, however, was the beginning of the end of life as young Katie knew it. Soon, a parade of unwelcome visitors descended upon Cotton Patch, churches were burned, and division came to the Shanahans' own church and even their home. Decades later, Katie remembers watching her father stand up against forces far more powerful than himself and how she learned that courage, loyalty, and honor are more than words - and they sometimes come with a high price.
Author John J. Dwyer's Civil War-era historical novels Stonewall and Robert E. Lee have sold tens of thousands of copies. They have built for him a large following of people appreciative of his poignant, gritty, often inspiring style. In When the Bluebonnets Come, Dwyer - a college history professor - turns his focus to a folksy, bittersweet tale of the modern Texas of his birth.
Members Reviews:
A fascinating read
Traditional Americans in general and Southerners in particular will enjoy John J. Dwyer's most recent book, "When the Bluebonnets Come." The story is told by Katie, the young daughter of Old School Presbyterian preacher Ethan Shanahan, looking back on her childhood. However, the plot really centers around Katie's father, Ethan, so she didn't actually "see" everything that happened during her father's struggle with those that want gambling in Cotton Patch, Texas, but she readily explains that she is a part of many dangerous groups--Irish, Scots-Irish, French, and more Irish; Southerners of the "unreconstructed sort"; Presbyterians of the "Old School variety"; and Texans--and no one will be able to convince her what she writes about never happened. "Remember," she says stubbornly, "what groups I'm part of." Katie is very historically conscious due to her daddy's teaching, which doesn't surprise those of us who have read Dwyer's other novels, and that consciousness adds a depth of richness that grounds the story. The addition of dialect is also something I enjoyed. Many authors simply don't think about the way real people talk; a native-born Southerner, in their writings, sounds the same as someone from NYC. However, Dwyer does not overdo the Texas drawl, either.
Themes that appeared in "Stonewall" and "Robert E. Lee"--corruption, death, and the struggle of man against himself--come through clearly, which will please readers who enjoy challenging material. Yet, as in Dwyer's previous two novels, God's grace is also shown, though not necessarily in the way we'd like.
Ethan dies shortly before the book's ending in a tractor accident. His last words to Katie are "See you in the mornin', darlin'," and they point to another prominent theme in "When the Bluebonnets Come": resurrection.
