Her Name is Rose is a charming, easy read. Perhaps it is meant for a young adult reader as the only challenge is to figure out why such beautiful, talented, charming women, Iris and Rose, are so impulsive. Of course in the end they come out well. They seem to drift along from decision to indecision with Conor and Hector pulling them along and creating the happily ever-after. The garden references are nice but they really didn't add much to to story and could have been shells, books, coins etc. This is certainly not a book about strong women in difficult circumstances. The author has to do a lot of work to make it all come out in the end.

In general I think this a good read. Nina Sovich certainly has a different take on the world than most young women from middle class Conn. families. I found her perspective unusual: from life in Paris with a man who loves her being dreary and deadening to the spiritual benefits of poverty deprivation and filth. A sand up view of a part of Africa not often found in recent works. Change the cover, it's too generically "African" and the biographical sketch gives the plot away.