Coming Up Roses

Coming Up Roses is a romantic comedy by Staci Hart. Based loosely on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the novel opens with charming, handsome Luke Bennet returning to his family home in Manhattan, New York. For 170 years, the Bennets have run Longbourne Flower Shop in Greenwich Village, but the business is failing, and the oldest son, Marcus, has called his siblings home to help him try to right the ship.Luke enters the shop and spies his old flame Ivy Parker with her back to him, deep in a cooler of flowers. He surprises her with a teasing intimate gesture but it is not Ivy in the cooler, it is Tess Monroe, Ivy’s best friend. Tess is furious at Luke for touching her and even more shocked to see him in the store—she didn’t know he was coming back and she is disconcerted to see the man she has had a crush on since they were 16. Apologizing good-naturedly, Luke can’t figure out why Tess is so hostile toward him. Having long relied on his charm and sunny disposition to capture people’s hearts, he determines that he will find a way to convince Tess to like him.

The novel alternates between Luke and Tess’s perspectives. Both admit feeling a spark the moment Luke arrived, but Tess is keeping a secret: when they were 16, Luke had kissed her and promised to be her boyfriend. The next day, hungover, he had forgotten everything and passed over Tess in favor of a romp with Ivy. Tess has harbored anger against Luke ever since, writing him off as a playboy who can’t stay in one place for five minutes before running off in pursuit of the next adventure. In contrast, Tess is a planner: buttoned-up, steady, reliable, and determined.

Tess lives with her father, who lost his legs in Afghanistan. He passes his time painting model soldiers, and while he is content with his life, he urges Tess to have more adventures, to be a little wild. Ivy, Tess’s best friend, who has given up her own wild ways, found her true love, and is pregnant, agrees with Mr. Monroe: she thinks Tess should have a little adventure. She also notices how Luke looks at Tess. When Ivy discovers Tess’s secret, she is horrified—Ivy had never realized Tess had a crush on Luke and regrets fooling around with him. Again, Ivy encourages Tess to give Luke a chance, to see what kind of man he has become ten years since that kiss.



Luke brings his whirlwind energy to the Bennet family and works with his siblings to bring the store back to life and into the modern era. The siblings have loving, teasing, close relationships and each takes a role in the planned renaissance. Tess and Ivy are treated like members of the family, and Tess is beloved by them all for having taken up the reins of floral design ever since Mrs. Bennet’s arthritis stopped her from working with flowers. Because Luke has bounced around in so many types of jobs, he has picked up a number of skills along the way, including carpentry, so he and Tess team up to renovate the interior of the shop, turning its dusty old windows into vibrant, compelling displays. As they do, they become increasingly close until finally, they cannot resist each other. They have an enthusiastic coupling in the flower shop, after hours, and from that moment on, their friendship is also full of benefits.

But Luke hasn’t come home just to help the family, he is also escaping the memory of his divorce from the beautiful but fragile and difficult Wendy Westham. Wendy follows Luke back to New York City and, even as Luke is falling deeper and deeper in love with Tess, Wendy is making plans to try to get Luke back.

As Tess spends more time with Luke, working long days and spending even longer nights in a storeroom they have turned into their love nest, she comes to see she was wrong about his character. Luke is playful, but no longer a playboy. He is handsome and charming but makes it clear to other women that he only has eyes for Tess. He brings his carpentry skills to her home, renovating the tired apartment that hadn’t been updated in years—but thoughtfully preserving some touches that remind Tess of her long-dead mother. In short, Luke is everything Tess had ever dreamed of finding in a man. Just as she is about the let go of all of her fears and give herself completely to him, Wendy announces she is pregnant.



Wendy’s news comes on the same day that Floral Magazine is scheduled to do a feature on Longbourne, a much-awaited event that the family hopes will be key to turning the business around. The shoot is ruined, the family in upheaval and Luke and Tess left stunned by this unexpected bump in their road. Luke is resolute in promising to do right by his child, and while Tess admires him, she is also so hurt she needs a few days to process what is happening. Luke’s mother, Mrs. Bennet, gives her son a kind but firm speech about how he cannot let Wendy continue to manipulate him and come between him and what he loves. Luke agrees to stand up for himself, though he fears what Wendy will do in retribution.

At Wendy’s next doctor’s appointment, Luke discovers she has lied to him and the baby cannot be his. He confronts Wendy, telling her he will not be responsible for her life anymore—they are divorced and he is in love with Tess. Wendy is distraught; Luke goes back to the shop intending to tell Tess everything. But Tess still needs more time, and Luke—reluctantly—gives it to her, though everyone around them can tell Tess is still in love with him. Wendy comes to the shop one morning and confesses everything to Tess, apologizing for trying to interfere with her life and for trying to hurt her and Luke. Moved by her apology, Tess recognizes that Luke is the best man she has ever known. With help from his family, Tess arranges a surprise floral display to celebrate their relationship and tells Luke she loves him.

All their family members are at the unveiling of the display, and in the final surprise, Floral Magazine has returned to do the feature piece after all. The couple celebrates their reunion and the future success of the store. Tess asks Luke if they can offer Wendy a job—she has forgiven Wendy for her bad behavior and wants to help her through her pregnancy. Luke is surprised but agrees and the novel ends with a true happily ever after—Luke moves into Tess’s apartment, where they will live with her father as they start and raise a family of their own, perhaps the next generation of Bennets who will run Longbourne Flower Shop one day.