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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
What a nice book, centred around a magnificent garden and the women responsible for it. Set in 1907, 1944 and 2021. Beautifully written.
Look at the cover. It's beautiful and makes you immediately want to open it up. I'd say, this is one of the best books of the year. It started slow for me but once I figured out the main characters, I devoured each chapter.
Venetia has the ambitious role of creating a huge garden in 1907 for the Highbury House in England. She works for Arthur and Helen Melcourt, many times to be very uncaring. Yet, she adores Helen's brother, Matthew Goddard, and loves executing the most fabulous gardens.
Diana Symonds takes over the ownership of the House and gardens in the mid 1940s when her husband doesn't return from the war. She - like many others - has to manage a huge amount of difficulties and grief. Her cook, Stella, despises her job and tries to keep it a secret. Then there's Beth who is one of the many "land girls" that is paid by the government to help with the farms in the area. Of course, it comes with romance and a charming Captain whom she met on a tractor. "If this war has taught me anything, it's that life is too short to wait when you know what you want."
Emma is the present day contractor who does her best to restore the gardens perfectly after they have suffered from the war. She asked the owner, Sydney why is it important to restore the gardens when she could easily start with a new plan. After all, a big chunk of money was spent designing her modern kitchen. But her response was: "Have you ever loved a place so much that it sunk into your bones?" The House was in her family over the years and she wanted to see it exactly as it was.
This was a love story with the characters mixed in with grief and drama. Yet, the garden was the star used in many roles: for art, a playground, a place to seek love, inspiration, entertainment and to teach kids how to weed amongst many other things. The idea of a novel based on the garden is not only interesting historically but also shows the importance of the outside grounds that are often ignored.
Overall, this isn't a book just about gardens. It's about love and how it creates who we are. In the Authors Notes, she ends by saying, "I believe that, much like books, gardens are organic, unpredictable things, revealing their beauty...It is up to us to remember to pause and enjoy that beauty everyday." Well said.
Venetia has the ambitious role of creating a huge garden in 1907 for the Highbury House in England. She works for Arthur and Helen Melcourt, many times to be very uncaring. Yet, she adores Helen's brother, Matthew Goddard, and loves executing the most fabulous gardens.
Diana Symonds takes over the ownership of the House and gardens in the mid 1940s when her husband doesn't return from the war. She - like many others - has to manage a huge amount of difficulties and grief. Her cook, Stella, despises her job and tries to keep it a secret. Then there's Beth who is one of the many "land girls" that is paid by the government to help with the farms in the area. Of course, it comes with romance and a charming Captain whom she met on a tractor. "If this war has taught me anything, it's that life is too short to wait when you know what you want."
Emma is the present day contractor who does her best to restore the gardens perfectly after they have suffered from the war. She asked the owner, Sydney why is it important to restore the gardens when she could easily start with a new plan. After all, a big chunk of money was spent designing her modern kitchen. But her response was: "Have you ever loved a place so much that it sunk into your bones?" The House was in her family over the years and she wanted to see it exactly as it was.
This was a love story with the characters mixed in with grief and drama. Yet, the garden was the star used in many roles: for art, a playground, a place to seek love, inspiration, entertainment and to teach kids how to weed amongst many other things. The idea of a novel based on the garden is not only interesting historically but also shows the importance of the outside grounds that are often ignored.
Overall, this isn't a book just about gardens. It's about love and how it creates who we are. In the Authors Notes, she ends by saying, "I believe that, much like books, gardens are organic, unpredictable things, revealing their beauty...It is up to us to remember to pause and enjoy that beauty everyday." Well said.
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Overall, a pretty chill, enjoyable read. Initially there are too many names and it took me a while to separate everybody out and start to care. Quite a bit of detail on the gardens themselves, which for me without any green thumb sounded like "flowers flowers flowers" a lot of the time. For historical fiction, it felt very odd to set the book in 2021 and completely overlook the massive global event happening at the time. The 1907 storyline was probably the most charming yet predictable, the 1944 storyline was the most meaty but downright odd in places and oh my god the amount of foreshadowing was just irritating (see below for details), and 2021... nothing really happened?
Spoilery details of my qualms with the 1944 storyline:
- The resolution of the conflict between Diana and her sister-in-law is awful. The book's tone implies we're meant to rejoice, but really this woman has just been kicked out of her home as a result of era-specific inheritance laws that prioritised male heirs, made worse by the fact that both the male heir and his line are now dead.
- Stella, you poor young woman will all your hopes and dreams dashed by this child you don't want, if only there was a very wealthy and loving woman with a huge home that could do something to help!
- Oh my, such dangerous deadly flowers! But they're so pretty, I couldn't possibly rip them out. But so deadly and dangerous! We must keep the children away from them! ... that ends exactly as you'd expect.
- The aftermath of Robin dying is just bizarre. We knew he was going to die, and we knew Diana was going to take Bobby, because OH MY GOD THE FORESHADOWING. But why is Stella never going to see him again? Why does he just sort of "become" Robin, and nobody knows about the original Robin anymore? Adult Bobby seemingly never told anyone, does that imply that he somehow forgot also? Did he then go by Robin's birth date? Did everyone who lived there conveniently forget the five year old child that had a very public death at a wedding?
Spoilery details of my qualms with the 1944 storyline:
- The resolution of the conflict between Diana and her sister-in-law is awful. The book's tone implies we're meant to rejoice, but really this woman has just been kicked out of her home as a result of era-specific inheritance laws that prioritised male heirs, made worse by the fact that both the male heir and his line are now dead.
- Stella, you poor young woman will all your hopes and dreams dashed by this child you don't want, if only there was a very wealthy and loving woman with a huge home that could do something to help!
- Oh my, such dangerous deadly flowers! But they're so pretty, I couldn't possibly rip them out. But so deadly and dangerous! We must keep the children away from them! ... that ends exactly as you'd expect.
- The aftermath of Robin dying is just bizarre. We knew he was going to die, and we knew Diana was going to take Bobby, because OH MY GOD THE FORESHADOWING. But why is Stella never going to see him again? Why does he just sort of "become" Robin, and nobody knows about the original Robin anymore? Adult Bobby seemingly never told anyone, does that imply that he somehow forgot also? Did he then go by Robin's birth date? Did everyone who lived there conveniently forget the five year old child that had a very public death at a wedding?
emotional
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book had a great ending but it was a bit slow at the beginning.
medium-paced
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
tense
medium-paced
4.5/5. This was such a charming book! Really liked the characters and the multiple storylines that were all connected. Glad to have read it.
So cute, so sweet, loved it. Loved the way the main characters' stories overlapped and entertwined and the way that Highbury House impacts each of them. Cute cute cute.
Really really good, hovering near a 5/5. It was an emotional book, but mostly positive. There are happy endings and there are sad endings. Heartwarming and gut wrenching. In a way, this book was about women learning how to stand up for themselves and to have their cake and eat it too.
**Trigger warnings for the book**
-child loss
-miscarriage
-spousal death
**Trigger warnings for the book**
-child loss
-miscarriage
-spousal death