Restoration Garden

I had thoroughly enjoyed the book The Last Secret of Lily Adams by Sara Blaydes, that I went searching for other books she might have written. I came across Restoration Garden and also enjoyed this book. Sara Blaydes has a writing style that fully emersed me into the storyline of the novel. In this book there is again a secret that has been hidden for years, and the book leads you in a path to the discovery of the secret. The book combines mystery, romance and intrigue both in the present day and in the war-torn Europe of the 1940s.

Book Summary

The book begins when Julia Esdaile, a landscape architect, is hired to restore a historic garden at Havenworth Manor in England. She is hired to restore the gardens for Margaret Clarke, the feisty 92-year-old lady of the manor. Andrew does not know the reason for the restoration, he just knows that it is very important to his godmother, Margaret. Over the last 80+ the garden has fallen into disrepair. It is now a jumble of weeds and snarls of bramble.

The book goes back between the present day with Julia and the restoration and the 1940's when Margaret and her older half-sister Irene lived at the manor. There is a portion of the story that deals with children that are sent from London to the countryside to avoid the bombings and then there is the story of Irene. Irene is an aspiring artist from America who is brought to England when her father marries Margaret's mother. She dreams of being in the world outside of Havenworth, but wartime has made that impossible for the 17-year-old. She also dreams of the handsome RAF office James. When she turns 18, she escapes Havenworth and follows her dreams, but she is then forced to make some hard choices, and she vanishes from Margarets world forever.

The book opens up the gardens as Julia restores them and helps to uncover the secrets that have been hidden all of these years.

I really enjoy reading the book and found it fascinating.