Thorn on the Rose

by Joy Dettman

Pan Macmillan Australia. Australian, Adult Other, Romance, Paperback rrp $32.99

It’s 1939. Jenny Morrison is fifteen years of age and already a runaway from an attempt to force her into marriage.

Pregnant after being raped by local twin brothers, the small town solution is for her to marry one of the boys. Jenny has other ideas. Leaving instructions with her maternal grandmother, Gertrude, to give the baby to the hospital Jenny disappears only to return months later pregnant again – except this time she has expensive clothes and money.

The judgemental Woody Creek residents make cruel assumptions and Jenny is labelled the town slut. Her own dysfunctional parents are not supportive and she finds refuge with Gertrude.

Pregnant for the third time, Jenny runs away again to Sydney. This time the father is Jim Cooper, the only son of Gertrude’s one-true love, Vern Cooper. All Jenny wants is to one day be a famous singer and be with Jim. But the war is hovering over them and soon Jenny is left with another baby and a father missing in action. Vern is not going to let her have the life she hoped and things grow even worse. She could lose everything, especially baby Jimmy.

Jenny’s life is a roller coaster ride of great heights and great lows. After many months she is forced to return once again to Woody Creek. What could possible force her to move back to the place where she is not wanted?

This is a story that will keep you on your toes. Jenny will bewitch some readers but and antagonise others but ultimately Thorn on the Rose is a historical and social commentary that through fiction addresses more than one woman’s story of the times.

Thorn on the Rose is the second instalment in Joy Dettman’s Woody Creek series. I had not read Pearl in a Cage and found that there was no catching up. Thorn on the Rose kept me reading it’s 500+ pages until the end and I just know there is going to be a third instalment. Jenny’s life isn’t finished with yet.

http://joydettman.com/