My Mother Grows Wallflowers

First love versus family obligations amid the Green Mountains of Vermont

There isn't a heck of a lot that doesn't scream target about Mina Mason: her weight, her homemade dresses, even the hoarder's paradise loosely disguised as the Masons' home. Samuel Two Bears Miller reshapes Mina's understated existence with his arrival, his dark skin and long braid exotic next to the Puritan pallor of the local boys. All through high school, Mina conceals her odd home life behind the doors of her dilapidated house, even after discovering love with the outspoken boy. Mina must choose between the person who makes her feel alive and the family who relies on her.

My Mother Grows Wallflowers reveals the unwitting legacy parents pass onto their children…as precious as any heirloom and twice as fragile—self-esteem or lack of it.