The Orange Blossom Special
Subtitle: a novel
By: Betsy Carter
Publisher: Delta Trade Paperbacks, Bantam Dell
Published: 2006
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 296
ISBN-13: 9780385339766
Copyright date: 2005
Subjects: Mothers and daughters; Fiction; Loss (Psychology); Railroad stations; Single mothers; Widows; Psychological fiction
Description: Carbondale, Illinois. 1958. For widowed Tessie Lockhart, booking two seats on a passenger train to Florida symbolizes a fresh start, far from her memories of love and loss. For Tessies teenage daughter Dinah, who misses her father terribly, the move to Gainesville means a new school and the painful ordeal of making new friends. Rich, popular Crystal Landy is one of the first girls Dinah meetsand it will be Crystal, along with her exquisite mother, Victoria, who will transform the Lockharts lives in ways they never could have imagined. For as war and change come to this small southern town, the bonds between mothers and daughters will be tested, friendships sealed, secrets revealed, and relationships forever altered by the turbulence of the coming decades.

Wise, moving, and warmly funny, The Orange Blossom Special, spans twenty years in the lives of an unforgettable cast of characters. Betsy Carter has crafted a powerful, richly rewarding novel about growing up, moving on, and turning strangers into friends.