5-STAR REVIEW: ROSES IN DECEMBER by Mark A. Gibson

Hamilton Place Series: Book 2
Publication Date: April 2, 2024

Jimmy Hamilton overcame childhood tragedy to become a hero in Vietnam, only to die there in 1967. All but forgotten, Jimmy leaves behind a young wife, an infant son, and a man wracked by guilt.

Circumstances allow Becca, his young widow, to be manipulated into an abusive, loveless union with Jimmy’s brother and into raising her son ignorant of his father’s true identity—a wrong she knows must be set right…but how? When?

Like Jimmy before him, James, Jr. is an intellectually gifted, albeit troubled man. Hamstrung by the false narrative of his life and then tormented by an unspeakable loss, his days are spent treading the knife’s edge between present day reality and a past he’s incapable of forgetting.

With his final act of bravery, Jimmy unknowingly saved the scion of a powerful Washington family. In so doing, he set in place circumstances that just might draw his son back from the abyss…but only if he can somehow make it home from Vietnam.cRoses in December concludes the Hamilton Place Series, an epic family saga extending from the Great Depression to present day. Through war and peace, love and loss, triumph and tragedy, follow the Hamilton family on their journey from a run-down farm in South Carolina, through the jungles of Vietnam, to the top of the world in New York City, and through the gardens of stone at Arlington.

Some novels have a seemingly ethereal quality, leading to an immediate connection with the reader.

Author Mark A. Gibson, whose fiction debut is marked by the two volumes making up the Hamilton Place Series, successfully makes that connection. Readers are introduced to the Hamilton family in A Song that Never Ends, showcasing Walter and Maggie during the 30-year span of 1937-1967.

The conclusion, Roses in December, picks up the story with the next generation, from 1967-2022. Life brings tragedy and hardship to the Hamiltons, but the author manages to bring the story full circle.

Becca’s character stands out as someone who embraced love, proving that she would do anything for her son, even if it meant sacrificing her own happiness.

Alternately eliciting laughter and tears, along with a sense of satisfaction when wrongs are made right, this is a sweeping family saga of imperfect people.

Roses in December connects a broken young man with his roots, enabling him to pursue a future he never expected.

Mark A. Gibson is a physician who practices Cardiology in the mountains of rural North Georgia. He was raised on a small farm in upstate South Carolina—the last postage-stamp sized sliver of a much larger parcel granted to the family by land grant from King Charles II in 1665—and may or may not have once gotten in trouble for digging up his mom’s calla lily bed in search of the family’s long-lost charter.

Dr. Gibson graduated from the Citadel in Charleston, SC with a BS in Biology. Afterwards, he received his medical degree from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia, SC. He received his Internal Medicine training through the University of Tennessee Medical System and Cardiology training through the Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center. He served for eight years on active duty with the US Air Force, before leaving the military for private practice.

Although a cardiologist by profession, Dr. Gibson is a dreamer by nature. He is a self-styled oenophile who enjoys travel and fine food. In his spare time, he builds sandcastles and dreams of distant shores.

Roses in December represents Dr. Gibson’s second offering to the world of literature, and the conclusion of his Hamilton Place Series. All previous publications have been of the professional, peer-reviewed, medical variety, and make for lovely sleep aids.