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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
This was an easy historical fiction/romance told in three different years (1907, 1944 & 2021). Centering on a grand country house (Highbury) in England and the expansive garden at the home. The 1907 year is for Venezia, who has been hired to create the gardens at Highbury. 1944 focuses on three women, Diane (Highbury's owner), Stella (HIghbury's cook) & Beth (a local land girl) during the war where the house has been turned into a convalescent home, most of the lawn has been taken for crops and the gardens are slowly decaying. 2021 finds Emma being hired by the current owners of the home (Diane's great-granddaugher?) to return the gardens to Venezia's original vision, which is difficult due to the age and lack of documents.
Thankfully, the three different time periods were defined well enough that I had no issues discerning which era I was in, even when there were multiple storylines (1944) twisting together. The lives of these women are wholly separate but tied together by the gardens of the house and you see how being at Highbury has affected their lives, for good (mostly) and bad, however every character has a happy ending even if there was tragedy along the way. I definitely recommend this book if you like gardens, the English countryside & historical romance.
I received a free ebook from NetGalley & Gallery Books.
Thankfully, the three different time periods were defined well enough that I had no issues discerning which era I was in, even when there were multiple storylines (1944) twisting together. The lives of these women are wholly separate but tied together by the gardens of the house and you see how being at Highbury has affected their lives, for good (mostly) and bad, however every character has a happy ending even if there was tragedy along the way. I definitely recommend this book if you like gardens, the English countryside & historical romance.
I received a free ebook from NetGalley & Gallery Books.
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Longwood Gardens Community Reads title - better than some - at least there was a lot of garden references.
From the blurb on the back cover, I was really looking forward to reading this, and waited 5 months to get it on loan from my library! Perhaps such a long wait made my expectations creep higher than was necessary...
It’s a good book, well written and combines my love of gardening and historic homes and novels about multiple generations of the same family. There’s a lot of good things to enjoy.
However.... there were so many characters that we didn’t really get to know them well enough, and some of the romances were a little clichéd for my liking. It took a while to get going, and the first few chapters of a multi-viewpoint novel are always hard, as you figure out who’s who. It’s easy to connect with the main female characters, Venetia, Diana and Emma, but I wanted more from them.
Overall, a solid 3 stars
It’s a good book, well written and combines my love of gardening and historic homes and novels about multiple generations of the same family. There’s a lot of good things to enjoy.
However.... there were so many characters that we didn’t really get to know them well enough, and some of the romances were a little clichéd for my liking. It took a while to get going, and the first few chapters of a multi-viewpoint novel are always hard, as you figure out who’s who. It’s easy to connect with the main female characters, Venetia, Diana and Emma, but I wanted more from them.
Overall, a solid 3 stars
British, gardens, romance, multiple time periods. So charming. Really liked it.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
This was a slow book that was hard for me to get into. I struggled to care for the five narrators and think that the story would have benefitted from less characters. It was difficult to care for so many when we spent such little time with each.
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Started off interesting but had a predictable and tidy ending. I’m a bit over the trend in fiction of multiple time periods and too many characters.
Jumped around a bit for me in the beginning. Sometimes chapters were too short to develop the character. Better after the first half of the book. Interesting parallels
Solid 3.5. There was a lot of characters with interconnected storylines (1907, 1940s and 2021). The different eras of this great Downton Abby esque manner house was really fun to read about. The first female garden designer to the period when the house is taken over for war efforts to the present day when another female landscaper is hired to restore the gardens to their former glory. Lots of heartbreaking tales of loss paired with love found. Women trying to establish their independence in a changing world. Class clashes abound across the generations as well. Overall an entertaining novel but I think I would have enjoyed more focus on fewer characters a bit more.