Sophia Warren’s Prize-Winning Roses: Friendship and Rivalry in Bloom in this work of Popular Fiction

One enchanted blue rose, one broken friendship, one bottle of poisonous fertilizer, and one voracious garden pest come together in this rollicking story that will take readers along for a competition they’ll never forget. 

Sophia Warren is the reigning Queen of Roses, the highest title bestowed upon competitive rose exhibitors by the NRA (the National Rosegrowers Association, of course). Across town, Phyllis Hobhouse is a retired kindergarten teacher, a recovering competitive Monopoly player, and a lifelong casual houseplant killer. Now in their 70s, the pair used to be best friends, until one day, they weren’t. Each has spent the last five decades waiting for the other to apologize, but after all this time apart, neither can remember exactly what went wrong all those years ago. 

When Phyllis loses the love of her life, her concerned doctor prescribes her “A New Hobby.” This puts her on the path to competing in the Mother’s Day Weekend Rose Show, where she will encounter none other than her ex-BFF.

Meanwhile, Sophia has been recruited by a plant conglomerate to breed a blue rose through gene modification. She plans to cement her legacy by naming the new rose after herself, but creating a rose color that doesn’t occur in nature is proving to be the stuff of science fiction…or is it fairytales? With the unexpected help of a meddling (and possibly magical) garden pest, Sophia and Phyllis must confront the black thumbs of their past realize that the other may be exactly what they need to see a new a future bloom—together.

Will these two aging ex-besties be reunited through competitive rose gardening, or will old rivalries be rekindled? Remarkably Bright Creatures meets Little Shop of Horrors in SOPHIA WARREN’S PRIZE-WINNING ROSES, a captivating work of women’s fiction with a twist of speculative magical realism.