leighannsherwin 's review for:

The Victory Garden by Rhys Bowen

5.0

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The Victory Garden takes place starting in the spring of 1918 and follows twenty one year old Emily Bryce. Emily is stuck at home living a sheltered safe life in her wealthy family. Her older brother was killed at the front as was her sweetheart and her parents are determined to protect her at all costs. But Emily is even more determined to do her bit for the war effort. A chance encounter with a dashing pilot at the convalescent home next door will change her life. Soon after she turns 21 she leaves home wanting to be a nurse. Finding that there is no place for her at any hospital, she instead winds up in the Land Army, something I hadn't realized existed in WWI. But of course it would since that war killed more than WWII. She continues to see her beloved Austrailian pilot despite her parents' rigorous objections and cut off from her family they plan to marry and move to Australia when the war is over. But fate has other plans and Emily finds herself alone and expecting. An assignment with the Land Army brings them in contact with a small village where they befriend the townspeople including the elderly lady of the Manor Lady Charlton. As the war starts to come to it's end Emily and several of her fellow land girls return to the village and begin to make a life there. Emily, now assuming the role of war widow, begins to read the journals of the old school mistress, Miss Olgivy who lived in the cottage she now inhabits and begins to take an interest in the herb garden growing outside her door becoming quite famous for her varied concotions. She is alarmed when she notices the almost parallel paths she and Miss Oglivy's lives seem to take especially when the journal entries take a dark turn. I was quite entertained by this story. It was well paced and interesting and frankly left me hoping there would be a sequel. I need to know what happens to them next!