Cover of Lily of the Valley

Lily of the Valley

Lily Wilk always knew she was destined to be an artist — ever since she pulled a drawing kit from a grab bag on her tenth birthday. Now Lily's work is always in demand around her small Massachusetts town, where she makes her living painting fire hydrants, lettering diplomas, and applying "Gulls" and "Buoys" to restaurant bathroom doors. But when supermarket heiress Mary Ziemba commissions her to paint a family portrait, Lily senses her lifelong dream of creating a memorable masterpiece is finally within her grasp. What she discovers, however, is that dreams often take their own unexpected twists...and with each small and gentle brush stroke she applies to Mary Ziemba's painting, Lily learns more than she ever imagined about the meaning of friendship, family, and love.

Read more

With a gift for creating fiction that is "rich with an unusual sweetness" (USA Today)and filled with wry humor, bestselling author Suzanne Strempek Shea delivers a poignant and unforgettable work of art in Lily of the Valley.

Setting
1990s
Audience
adult
Length
medium · 288 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Lily of the Valley? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Lily of the Valley. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Women Who Love Books Too Much: Bibliophiles, Bluestockings & Prolific Pens from the Algonquin Hotel to the YA-YA Sisterhood
  2. A Simple Life Shares chick lit, fiction, general fiction
  3. Dear Catastrophe Waitress Shares fiction, chick lit
  4. take a chance Shares chick lit, fiction, family drama

“People who read Lily of the Valley tend to reach for these next.”

  1. The Funeral Planner
  2. Remembering Blue
  3. Souls Raised from the Dead
  4. Uncertain Voyage

“If you want more of the same (women’s fiction), start with these.”

  1. The Dilemma
  2. Pleasant Vices
  3. Vengeance
  4. The Ladies Farm

“If it was the chick lit that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. A Sister's Gift
  2. I Couldn't Love You More
  3. The Daughter Game
  4. The Single Wife

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Oil Painting For Dummies
  2. The Pearl Earring
  3. The Chrysalis
  4. Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life