Flora

By Ameline Martelly and Gil Balbuena Jr.

Flora is the story of a young girl who lived in a faraway
land called Amadivia. Years after her father remarried,
Floras beauty caused her stepmother and stepsisters to
despise her. One day, she met a handsome prince who
fell in love with her. However, her jealous family devised
an evil scheme to be rid of Flora and steal her happy
ending. On discovering the truth, the prince set out in
search of his true love. In the end, what he found was a
lot more than a future bride.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 5, 2011
• ISBN: 9781499045611

Ameline Martelly

Ameline Martelly was born and raised on the island of St.Lucia. She first discovered her talent at the age of twelve and dreamt of making it a reality. She is now a resident of Canada, where her writing dreams were finally realized. She’s a very talented individual, a caring mother and a loving wife. She was formerly employed with the British American Insurance branch of St.Lucia. She is currently working as a full-time caregiver. This young writer is very promising, and a hard worker. Her work inspires everyone who reads it. Thank you readers, it gave me great pleasure to sail with you through the journey of my thoughts. I sincerely appreciate your precious time, which you have taken to read this book. Thank you again. I hope this book has been a source of inspiration to you. Your comments are welcome at [e-mail].

Book preview

Copyright © 2011 by Ameline Martelly. 92028-MART

ISBN:

Softcover 978-1-4653-4715-2

Hardcover 978-1-4653-4716-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission

in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev date: 04/29/2014

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

O nce u

pon a time, in the land of Amadivia, lived a very happy couple, Xenith and his wife, Nicole. Two weeks before their daughter’s birth, Xenith was drafted into the king’s army. Soon after, he received a letter informing him that his wife had died when the child was born. Xenith was very saddened by the news, but was not able to make it home in time for her funeral. It was a six-day journey from the army post to Amadivia.

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T wo weeks later, Xenith arrived home to an empty house. He stood at his bedroom window and looked into his late wife’s flower garden. He realized all the flowers had fallen. He went into the

Reviews for Flora

[kimkimkim-7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beautifully written.

[jules72653 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved this book!

[countrylife_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Eleven-year old Helen is left in the care of her deceased mother’s twenty-two year-old cousin for the summer while her father is away doing secret war work at Oak Ridge. Helen is too precocious for her own good, and Flora a bit too naïve. This is an eventful summer for them both. With a polio outbreak in town, they are confined to their house rather out of town up a mountainside. Their groceries are delivered on motorcycle by a vet on medical leave, who is befriended by both girls. During their mundane daily life, they each get to know the other. ”Embarrassingly ready to spill her shortcomings, she was the first older person I felt superior to. This had its gratifying moments but also its worrisome side. She was less restrained in her emotions than some children I knew. She was an instant crier. My grandmother Nonie, that mistress of layered language, had often remarked that Flora possessed “the gift of tears.” As far as I could tell, layers had been left out of Flora. All of her seemed to be on the same level, for anyone to see.”I enjoyed the way the author opened up both girls’ characters very realistically as the story progressed. The setting of their home, an old consumption hospital which had been built and run by Helen’s grandfather, added an interesting back story. The very first sentence carries the word “remorse” and that is wrapped up in every thread of the story. I found another new (to me) author to enjoy.

[lindaspangler · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

enjoyable, but not great book about a young woman who is watched by her cousin for a summer and the tragic ending. Quick read

[glennbell_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Boring dribble about a series of unfortunate events generated in a work of fiction. The story is placed in historical perspective around the events at the end of the second world war. Is there not enough misery in real life? What would one want to read this pathetic story for? The author is quite capable in her writing and evidently has a large vocabulary. It unclear if she likes using obscure vocabulary to impress the reader or whether she actually thinks it helps the story in some way. I suspect the writer is someone I would have no interest in meeting. I am primarily a scientist and find this type of story a waste of my time. Life is too short to waste reading this type of dribble. I see that others truly like this kind of writing. Good for them.

[sleahey_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The summer Helen is 11, her father leaves her in the care of a cousin of her late mother's. Flora is only ten years older than Helen, "simple-hearted" and therefore scorned by Helen. The war in Europe is over, but the fighting still continues against the Japanese, and Helen's father is working construction for the Manhattan Project. Meanwhile, Finn is a soldier who has been discharged for medical reasons, and befriends Helen and Flora, leading to complicated emotions on Helen's part. A "grievous" ending is forecast in the telling of the summer spent together, and a few times the author advances the story to a much later time in Helen's life. The novel would have been stronger if there were more of these sections or none at all until the very end.

[csayban · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Where do I begin with Flora? A coming-of-age story where the protagonist (Helen, not Flora) never comes of age. A spoiled, arrogant, snobbish bore of a girl who spends her entire 1945 summer believing everyone is beneath her - especially her 20s cousin who has the misfortune of having to take care of Helen. Not only does Helen never evolve in the story, she is a boring kind of unpleasant. Even when her arrogance is pointed out, she thinks it is a good thing. The rest of the characters just wander around the page for Helen's amusement and criticism. Godwin makes no effort to flesh out any of the other characters. The writing is mediocre at best and the story abruptly ends with no resolution to anything - not that there was much to resolve. If I were going to graph the story arc, it would be a flat line. Diary of a Self-Absorbed Girl would have been a more fitting title. Frankly, it was a lazy kind of storytelling. I wish I had those hours back.

[jenn_stringer_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

“Remorse went out of fashion around the same time that “Stop feeling guilty,” and “You’re too hard on yourself,” and “You need to love yourself more” came into fashion.” This is the older Helen clearly reflecting back on the summer in 1945 spent with her cousin Flora. It is one of the best quotes in the book and it certainly struck a chord with me. We spend most of our time with Helen as the ten year old she is with her petulance and anger, but as the book progresses we see glimpses of the older Helen's reflections on the summer as we build toward the inevitable tragedy.Gail Goodwin provides Helen with a realistic voice and the plot moves languidly like the summer interspersed with radio dramas retold through Helen's voice and lots of dinners cooked by Flora. Helen's Aunt Flora is a young girl of 22 who has an open heart and can't help but see the best in everyone - even Helen. Flora comes to take care of Helen while her father does "important war work" over the the summer. The book is a good summer read. The story is not too painful or shocking, but with just enough lessons to remind us to look beyond ourselves more often.

[honkcronk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Flora is a story told from the point of a young girl. As most young girls, she is self centered and adults are puzzles or caricatures to figure out. She has not yet learned to give back to adults or her friends. She has a secret life that she keeps to herself.The author does a great job describing the inner life of Helen, ten years old. But who is Flora? A self absorbed ten year old is unlikely to tell you all you want to know about Flora,I just reread the "To Kill a Mockingbird" with my July bookclub, so reading Flora seems to be comparisons with this famous and popularly read book. I don't think it is a fair comparison and Flora should be read all on it own. It is a simple story and well told. Gail Godwin is a skilled writer. I will likely reread this book and pay more attention to details and less to plot. It is that kind of book.If I have something to pick on about the book -- the books cover and reviews reveal too much. I should not have read the cover blurbs! Why do publishers do this?

[joellegc-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Comfortable, absorbing, quick read. Good for the beach.

[shazjhb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thought the voice of the 10 year old was much "older". Otherwise a good book.

[zzarm-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This novel is striking in it's ability to immerse you squarely in the world as it was during WW II. The very precocious main character is very good at observing adult behavior but not as acute at interpreting it.

[edlynskey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This nicely told coming of age novel is about a almost twelve-year-old girl living in North Carolina who is put under the guardianship of her older cousin for part of one summer (1945). I've read Ms. Godwin's fiction and heard her give a reading and talk. Her Southern characters and settings appeal to me since I'm also from the region. There is a historic subplot of the Manhattan Project and Oak Ridge, TN. The narrator is the snarky type of young girl who still has a lot of things to learn about life. Her lessons begin that summer. It's an easy read and worked just fine for me on this cold wintry day.

[gingersnap000 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Flora is a novel which you will invest time in comtemplating the characters. The lead characters of the story are polar opposites but cousins. Helen is the child who believes she is more adult than her 22 years old cousin who has been offered the job of "looking after" Helen for the summer.Helen's father, a high school principal, had agreed to do work in Tennesse as a carpenter during his summer school break. The year bfore Helen stayed home with her Grandmother who owned the house we they reside. Unfortunately Helen's Grandmother died at Easter time. Flora was very close to Helen's mother growing-up in Alabama and was the ideal candidate to nanny for the summer.I loved the character of Flora because of her sweetness but Helen thought of her as simpleminded. Helen was too old for her age of 10 and thought she was above Flora intellectly. Helen was what one call a spoiled brat and very unlikable. Alice, a friend of Helen, told her that she should take a good look at herself in the mirror because she was difficult. The time period of this book is at the tail end of WWII and the place in Tennesse where Helen's father is working is Oak Ridge. All students of history will know what secret project that was created in Oak Ridge.I do enjoy a book which has strong character development. This is a sorry of remorse but never once will say that Helen's remorse was not earned.

[memasmb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Gail Godwin's new novel, "Flora," deals with Helen as an adult looking back at a summer set in the 1940’s in southern city in North Carolina when she was a ten-years old. During that summer, certain events lead her to be remorseful.After Helen’s mother dies, she is raised by beloved grandmother, Nonnie but she too dies as the story begins. Her father takes a mysterious position with the war office in Oak Ridge and he leaves her in the care of her twenty-two year old cousin, Flora. Helen regards Flora as a simple minded person who runs between irritating her and needing her protection. Because of a polio outbreak, Helen and Flora are quarantined by her father to the remote family home with a horrendous driveway that keeps people from visiting. Enter Finn, a young veteran who brings them their food supplies and strikes up a friendship with Helen and Flora.Because of her upbringing by her grandmother, Helen does have some sophistication for a girl her age but is still full of childish self-absorption and can sometimes be unfeeling when writing to her friend with polio complaining about her summer. But she turns around and assists Flora with play acting to practice for her teaching job in the fall.The consequences of the characters' actions were unjustly harsh and exaggerated; the book does advance intriguing questions about forgiveness, family ties and remorse.This is a novel that delves with the errors we make in our youth that can follow us and change one in some many ways. This understated tale, with colorful characters draws you in and takes back to the life of one ten-year-old girl over one summer.I recommend this book and have chosen it for our local book club for a discussion in 2014.

[daniellnic · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It’s hard to say which element of Gail Godwin’s Flora is the most intriguing—the tension that arises in Helen’s isolation with her high-strung governess, the curious nature of this precocious young narrator, or the salacious details of family history that are hinted at through story and letter—but it’s the delightful mix of haunting goodness that readers will consider long after they have turned the last page

[jaylia3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Gail Godwin has long been one of my favorite authors and Flora is a fine example of why. All the main characters seem so real it's hard to imagine they're actually fictional, but instead of making them prosaic their fullness, including their flaws, makes them both fascinating and sympathetic, and it's a tense pleasure inhabiting their world. The story's time and place--an isolated mountain home during the final months of WWII--are also well realized and the book held me enthralled.The story is told by Helen, an older woman looking back on a summer from her childhood when she was in the care of her twenty-two year old cousin Flora, an open-hearted, unreserved woman who embodies everything Helen has been taught to look down her nose at by her dignified grandmother and her cynical father. Both Helen's mother and grandmother are dead, so when her father leaves their once grand, now dilapidated, house to do secret war work Flora volunteers to help. Flora's emotional outbursts embarrass and irritate Helen, but a polio outbreak means their only company is the family's longtime maid, the young man who delivers groceries, and the local priest. With her grandmother dead and her father away, times are changing, but there is a lot of history in the house and Helen is desperate to hold onto the way of life she has always known. The book hints at tragedy from its early pages, but that's a distant storm not yet on the horizon and most of the story deals with the captivating day to day schemes and struggles of Helen as she tries to make the best of her situation.

[casualfriday_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Gail Godwin creates complex, realistic women characters and makes a special study of women’s relationships with each other. Her latest is very similar in tone to her earlier Finishing School and Unfinished Desires. In 1940s Georgia, ten-year-old Helen, is mourning the loss of her beloved grandmother, her mother having died when she was three. Her father abandons her for the summer to work for the war effort , and leaves her in the care of Flora, her slightly oddball, earnest, emotional cousin. Helen is contemptuous of Flora, and often comes across as mean and selfish, reminding me a little of Briony in Ian McEwan’s Atonement. We know from page one that things won’t end well.The tone is claustrophobic and very little "happens" until the very end of the book, yet it was impossible to put down, because the characters are so perfectly drawn, with the caveat that Helen’s voice seemed older than a 10-year-old’s. Is there a fiction genre called “slow-moving, psychologically acute page turner?” There is now.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a novel about regret. a woman looking back at a summer, when she was ten, that had a horrible end. Helen's mother had died when she was three, so she was raised by her father and his mother, Nonnie. They live in a small town in North Carolina in a house the had once been a home for people with physical or mental injuries that were not quite ready to face the world. They called them the recoverers and Helen had grown up with these stories and others. When her beloved Nonnie dies, and her father decides to take a job at Oak Ridge, twenty -two yr. old Flora, a distant cousin, comes to take care of Helen in the house.Helen, who has lost almost everything she loved shows a decided lack of compassion for others, at one point I thought she might be a sociopath, but she was just a ten yr. old girl who has suffered losses and had existed mostly in an adult world. I loved how Godwin uses an internal monologue to let the reader know what Helen is thinking. She also does a wonderful job of evoking the time and place, radio dramas, the racism and snobbery, the making of the bomb and the end of the war. This is a novel about the mistakes we make in our youth that can follow us and change one in ways we cannot know. A quiet novel, with vivid characters and the life of a girl over one summer.

[schatje_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a coming of age novel set in North Carolina in the summer of 1945. The narrator, Helen Anstruther, from the vantage point of old age, tells the story of that formative summer when she was approaching her eleventh birthday on August 6. Helen’s mother died seven years earlier and she was left in the care of her father and paternal grandmother (Nonie); however, Nonie’s recent death and the departure of her father for war work in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, result in Helen’s being left in the care of Flora, her 22-year-old second cousin. Except for Finn, a young man who delivers groceries, Helen and Flora are isolated in their mountain-top home because of a polio outbreak in the community. This novel is very much a character study. Helen is a very precocious and imaginative pre-teen. Flora is preparing for her first teaching position in the fall, and she and Helen play a game of school for which Helen creates and acts out the roles of ten students in a fifth-grade class. She is not, however, always a likeable person. She tends to be moody and has an attitude of superiority; a friend tells her, “’your trouble is you think you’re better than other people.’” Typical of her age group, Helen is very self-centred; again, her friend tells her, “Other people don’t exist when you’re not with them. We’re like toys or something. You play with them and examine them and then you put them on a shelf and go away.’” Indeed, Helen’s behaviour attests to the accuracy of these observations: she doesn’t even write notes to friends unless she is guilted in doing so, and her interest in her grandmother’s old letters is largely restricted to looking for references to herself. Helen also demonstrates the youthful tendency to view the world in terms of black and white; she doesn’t see Flora’s positive traits or her grandmother’s negative traits. Helen’s judgmental attitude comes to the fore in her actions towards Flora. At various times, she describes Flora as simple-minded and a backward country bumpkin. She derides her willingness to engage others in conversation and her tendency to display emotion which Helen mocks as her “gift of tears.” In her naivety, Helen describes Flora as “prosaic, [and] unimaginative” and focuses on her “eagerness and disregard for what should be left unsaid” and does not see that Flora has “no deceit or malice.” What is wonderful about the book is that the reader will both dislike Helen and sympathize with her. She is motherless and her father chooses to leave her despite the very recent death of her beloved grandmother. One friend is diagnosed with polio and another is moving away with her family, so she is obviously lonely. She speaks of “times when I felt I had to fight to keep from losing the little I had been left with, including my sense of myself.” It is heartbreaking to read about Helen’s attempts to keep her grandmother’s spirit close to her; she moves into her bedroom and models herself after Nonie, even slavishly repeating her harsh judgments of others: “I seemed to merge with Nonie and came out thinking and speaking more like her.” The only stability in Helen’s life is provided by Mrs. Jones, the woman who for many years has been coming to clean the house once a week, and the large rambling house in which she grew up but which is slowly falling apart around her. Most readers will not have difficulty empathizing because they will have experienced loss and will see something of their youthful selves in her.I loved the hints throughout that there is much more going on than Helen perceives or misunderstands because of her naivety and inexperience. Helen misses her father and wants him to return; she doesn’t fully understand his comment that his true calling “had been thwarted by the social expectations of others” and doesn’t see the unhappiness evidenced in his behaviour. Tragedies in Flora’s life are hinted at in Nonie’s letters, but Helen is blind to them. Likewise, she interprets Finn’s visits to the house as proof of his feelings for her. Reading between the lines and realizing what Helen does not is one of the pleasures of this book. Furthermore, anyone with knowledge of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and August 6, 1945, will also understand some historical significance to events outside Helen’s immediate world.There is suspense in the book of course. The reader knows that something will happen; the opening clearly indicates something tragic will occur: “There are things we can’t undo, but perhaps there is a kind of constructive remorse that could transform regrettable acts into something of service in life.” What does happen causes Helen to lose her innocence. In this regard, the novel reminded me of "Atonement" by Ian McEwan. There are certainly similarities between Helen and Briony; they share a talent for writing and their childish reactions trigger events that can’t be undone, actions for which they feel remorse and a need to atone.The plot of this novel is not action-packed, but there is much to ponder in its examination of human experience. It is a wonderful example of interpretive literature.Note: I received an advance reading copy of the book from the publisher via NetGalley.

[ken1952 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I seem to be finding myself reading Southern novels these days. Could it be in answer to the dreary cold weather we've been having here in the Midwest? Gail Godwin's latest novel is beautifully written. Her attention to detail is amazing. I loved the fact that this story is narrated by an older woman looking back on a very eventful summer when she was eleven in North Carolina toward the end of World War II. Yes, some might call young Helen a spoiled brat. And her treatment of Flora her dead mother's cousin and live in babysitter is at times atrocious. Add to this the appearance of a handsome wounded war veteran who befriends both of these haunted people. In fact, all of the characters in the novel are haunted in some way. Gail Godwin makes this story absolutely compelling. This will make a great reading group selection.

[slavenrm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In a not totally unfamiliar preamble, I received this book through the courtesy of the publisher, Bloomsbury, by simply responding to an advert in the Shelf Awareness newsletter. Despite this kind consideration, my candid thoughts appear below.To summarize, it's 1944 and Helen, our protagonist, has recently lost her grandmother and so her cousin Flora has come for the summer to watch over her while her father goes off to do secret work for the government. In those two short months much is learned on both sides as two very different people figure out how to get along.Flora isn't a narrative so much as it is a character sketch. Events in the book creep past but until the end there's not really any pivotal moment or any plot to speak of. The author simply paints a picture of these two personalities trapped in a fishbowl, isolated from the rest of their small-town universe. Flora, who comes from a somewhat disregarded and backward side of the family, is looked down upon by the much younger Helen. Yet Helen fails to realize just how naive and inexperienced she is despite her judgmental attitude toward her cousin.Readers looking for a dramatic storyline are sure to be disappointed, but I don't really think that's the point of Flora at all. Godwin portrays her characters from the viewpoint of her naive narrator in a uniquely realistic way. Reading closely one can almost remember making some of the same misjudgments about people as our young Helen. Our author writes with such clarity that one thinks she must be simply copying from her own diary from her youth. While Helen is so clearly fleshed out within, Flora remains mysteriously simple and one cannot help but wonder what complexities lie beneath the facade.As I said though, Flora is no narrative wonder. It can take a while to connect with and readers must accept it for what it is. Flora does, however, provide an insightful look at the pre-teen psyche of the 40s and a bit of history with its mentions of polio and listening to evening mysteries on the wireless. Additionally, the story is narrated simultaneously by young Helen and old Helen as she looks back on these events with broader perspective. It can sometimes be hard to tell when these transitions of viewpoint occur so readers should be alert for them.In summary, Flora is an interesting though not outstanding novel. Godwin's writing is superb and she paints a colorful view on her main characters but in sum total the book seems to be lacking a bit. Readers who manage to finish will be well rewarded but I anticipate some foot-tapping from those expecting more of a narrative thread along the way.