Breakout Season
Now that the fall season is over, publishers are competing to get attention for lesser-known or first novelists, hoping to build them into tomorrow’s household names.
Today’s big winner is Grand Central, who first began touting Roses by Leila Meacham at BEA back in May. USA Today takes the bait, featuring it today under the headline “Roses heralded as the new Gone with the Wind,” and describing it as,
…the tale of three generations of powerful plantation owners in East Texas. There are struggles between timber magnates and cotton tycoons and more than a few secrets, of course, including an illegitimate child. The book is screaming to be made into a TV miniseries.
As USA Today notes, prepub reviews have mirrored the publisher’s enthusiasm. The Dallas Morning News concurs today, saying the book delivers “larger-than-life protagonists and a fast-paced, engaging plot.”
On the other hand, the Cleveland Plain Dealer‘s reviewer says, “There is no way I can recommend this book…” because the writing is “formal and stilted” and “a barely disguised thread of racism runs through the book.”
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