The Lost Garden by Katharine Swartz (Book Review!)

The Lost Garden (Book 2, Tales from Goswell)

By Katharine Swartz

(received in exchange for an honest review)

 

Genre- Fiction

Published by- Lion Fiction

Copyrighted- 2015

Number of pages- 350

Age Group- Adult

Description of book- paperback, listed price- $14.99, ISBN: 978-1-78264-137-7

A walled garden.  Three young women.  Two different time periods.

Marin is now the guardian of her half sister, Rebecca.  They decide to move Goswell, where they find a walled garden near their house.  It captures their interest and with the help of a local gardener they are able to get in and begin to discover its secrets.

Eleanor lives in 1919 and is the vicar's daughter in Goswell.  Her brother was killed in the war and the whole family is grieving.  She decides she would like to work on the walled garden, the old vicarage garden.  She becomes friends with the gardener and begins to heal.

About the Author-

Katharine Swartz currently lives in the Lake District with her husband and children.  She writes contemporary romance as Kate Hewitt.

My thoughts-

I enjoyed this book in the series as much as I did the first one, The Vicar's Wife.  I learned more about England, especially about what it was like after the end of World War I.  I had never learned a lot about what life was like for the servicemen after the war or about the great numbers of lives that were lost in some of the battles in my world history classes.  This book has peaked my interest about learning more about what happened in England after the war.

As with the first book, I enjoyed reading both story lines.  I was eager to read all the chapters about everyone.  It was fun reading about some of the characters who were in the first book.  It reminded me how much I enjoyed it.

It was interesting learning about about how it was such a big deal about the class difference between Eleanor and the gardener, Jack.  I did not know there was a such a difference by World War I.  I thought that gardeners and vicars would have been closer classes.  When the story was about Marin and Rebecca, the class difference was not a big deal.  Their story reminded me about The Secret Garden, with the special garden that healed several people.  God was able to heal Eleanor, Marin, and Rebecca through nature and the garden.  Many people find nature and gardening healing, I know I do.

All of the characters grew on me.  I enjoyed meeting them and learning more about them.  I am looking forward to the next book.

Disclosure of Material Connection- I received The Lost Garden, by Katharine Swartz, for free from the Kregel Publications’ Blog Tour.  All links were current when posted.  I was not required to write a positive review.  The opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.