A River of Roses by Rex Shelley

Meet Philippa Rosario. She’s 56 and feisty, a junior college teacher who dabbles in the Chinese zodiac, confident that she has all human nature taped. Enter once again, Vicky Viera, mellowed by a tragic past. Together, they weave the threads of a spell-binding odyssey spanning four generations of the Rosario family—from the raging Alfonso and clairvoyant Antonio, to Ignatius, a spirited hormone-driven teenager. In this novel, Rex Shelley introduces a host of memorable multi-hued characters: the cheroot-smoking, wine-swigging padre, the contractor unlucky in love yet ending up with all the aces, the clarinet player whose religion and passions are at odds with each other. The Eurasians of his other novels are also present—every one of them firmly bound by the fate that history and the Chinese zodiac have reserved for them.