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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
Sometimes a nice dose of chick-lit is just the job, and this was a good one. One of those where you have several generations in the same place and their stories are interwoven - a bit of an over-used trope, but in this case they are all tied to a garden, which adds a nice natural continuity. Plus there's a mystery locked garden room a la The Secret Garden, and the author obviously knows not just her plants but her garden history. So it pushed the right buttons for me. And the various women were interesting characters, not interchangeable as is so often the case, and the various relationships were also interesting and well handled (more than a tad hetero-normative unfortunately - I had hopes that either the land girl or the original gardener would turn out to be queer, but no...). Overall, it hit the spot.
By the end of the book I enjoyed it but the first 25% of the book I was totally confused. I had a hard time jumping between the time periods, especially since one of the time periods was from the perspective of 3 women and the others were from the perspective of 1 woman. All that being said it was an enjoyable enough historical fiction book without anything. I suppose there is a bit of a mystery aspect in figuring out how all the familial pieces fit together but it didn't feel high stakes, fast paced or highly intriguing. 3*
4.5 stars.
Loved the intrigue and mystery of figuring out what the original gardens were like and how to restore them back to their original glory, told alongside the story of the designing of the gardens initially. The audiobook really brought the different POVs to life, which was good because there are so many characters to keep track of!
Some of the characters felt extraneous and didn't really add to the story at all, but a few of the characters were very well developed and interesting.
Overall, a very lovely story.
Loved the intrigue and mystery of figuring out what the original gardens were like and how to restore them back to their original glory, told alongside the story of the designing of the gardens initially. The audiobook really brought the different POVs to life, which was good because there are so many characters to keep track of!
Some of the characters felt extraneous and didn't really add to the story at all, but a few of the characters were very well developed and interesting.
Overall, a very lovely story.
3.5 stars. I didn’t connect with some of this book, and I’m not sure why. Hence the rating. But on a whole, I did enjoy it. I’m trying to (badly) articulate my thoughts, but I think part of the reason is that multiple POVs/narratives are not my favorite
The plot was very predictable, but I don't care. It was a beautiful, moving story that is both heart-wrenching and full of hope. The fact that it is centered around one garden influencing multiple generations of people is such a creative premise. I love plants so this was a particularly cathartic read for me.
4 different timelines was a bit confusing. There are a lot of different characters but I loved getting to know them all. I loved the garden designer storyline, thought that was different. Pieces of this story are heartbreaking. Would recommend overall!
This lovely book uses three generations of fictional women—garden designer Venetia Smith in 1907, land girl Beth Pedley in 1944, and garden restorer Emma Lovell in 2021—to describe the life of the landscape at Highbury House. This is more than a garden story, however; it is also a narrative about women’s aspirations and purpose, the strictures of social mores and class, and how the events of the wider world impinge upon people’s otherwise quiet lives, especially in wartime. The book had a bit too much romance in it for my taste, as each woman is happily paired off in the end against all odds. But it was fascinating to watch the garden cone together in 1907, to watch it be repurposed for the war effort in 1944, and then restored and modernized in the present-day. There is something beautiful and restorative about a landscape that endures and provides respite and hope for people over time.