Audible Book Review: When the Morning Glory Blooms by Cynthia Ruchti

I enjoyed the three character lines of this touching story.

When the Morning Glory Blooms
By: Cynthia Ruchti
Narrated by: Melinda Sward

Length: 9h 27m
Release date: 08-05-15
Publisher: Audible Studios
Gender: Christian Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance
My Rating: 4.0 of 5.0 Overall; Story 4.0; Narration 4.0.

Publisher's Summary
Becky rocks a baby that rocked her world. Sixty years earlier, with her fiancé, Drew, in the middle of the Korean Conflict, Ivy throws herself into her work at a nursing home to keep her sanity and provide for the child Drew doesn't know is coming. Ivy cares for Anna, an elderly patient who taxes Ivy's listening ear until the day she suspects Anna's tall tales are not the ramblings of dementia. They're fragments of Anna's disjointed memories of a remarkable life. Finding a faint thread of hope she can't resist tugging, Ivy records Anna's memoir, scribbling furiously after hours to keep up with the woman's emotion-packed, grace-hemmed stories. Is Ivy's answer buried in Anna's past? Becky, Ivy, Anna - three women fight a tangled vine of deception in search of the blossoming simplicity of truth.
©2013 Cynthia Ruchti (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Review:
This story follows the lives of three women who have connections through babies born to teens out of wedlock. The reader first meets Becky who is a current day grandmother raising her grandson while her teen daughter finishes high school. Becky loves her grandson but wasn’t expecting to be homebound at this time of her life. The little life they are nurturing impacts the whole family as they struggle with finances, time schedules, and prejudices of even close friends.

Ivy is a young woman in the 1950s whose boyfriend has gone off to war in South Korea. She is afraid to tell him the truth in a letter and can only dream and hope that he will come back and want to marry her. Ivy moves away from her former home to move in with her less than embracing father. She gets a job as a caregiver in a nursing home where she meets Anna.

Anna, a woman in her 80s is the first person to suspect that Ivy is pregnant and alone. Anna has a history that gives her insight into these matters, and she asks Ivy to write down her wonderful story of God’s fulfilling the dream of her youth and how her dram touched so many young mothers – her morning glories.

This was on my list for "Time of Day" goal and I saw that the free audio was expiring. I am glad to have read this sooner than later. The story seemed a little slow, dramatic, and depressing at first, but once I got to the second character, it pulled me in. I wanted to know what happened to each life and how they were connected in the end. I especially loved Anna’s story and how she encouraged Ivy. This is a story of God’s love, personal relationships, redemption, and second chances. I recommend this to readers who enjoy good Christian based, family stories.

Audio Notes: I was comfortable with the narration by Melinda Sward. The voices were distinct and the emotions well conveyed. I note some other reviewers mentioned mispronounced words, but I did not notice this problem. I appreciated having this audio, especially as a free title.

Source: 10/9/2021 Audible Plus Catalog title. This qualifies for 2023TBR, 2023Audiobook, and 2023Time of Day reading goals.