The Daughter's Garden (The Goswell Quartet #2) by Kate Hewitt
Genre: Historical fiction, Contemporary fiction, Dual timeline, Post-WW1
Read: 13th November 2022
Published: 17th November 2022
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
“I had to free it,” Eleanor said, and stretched her hand out to the blue butterfly that seemed almost to hover in the air. “I had to let something find what happiness it could, since we cannot.”
England, 1918: As war ends, across the world, people are trying to heal and recover. But Eleanor still feels broken. The loss of her beloved brother, killed just days before the Armistice was signed, feels impossibly unjust. Spending her time in the neglected garden behind their house, she fears her heart will never recover.
Then her father hires a man to help restore the garden to its former glory. Gruff, handsome Yorkshireman Jack comes from a totally different world to Eleanor, but he understands the nature of her grief more than anyone else seems to. And as they spend time together, even though she knows her family will never accept someone of Jack’s class, Eleanor starts to wonder if – like the butterflies around them – there is any way for her to learn to soar again...
Now: Nearly one hundred years later, Marin is not prepared for finding herself the guardian of her fifteen-year-old half-sister Rebecca, after her father and his second wife are killed in a tragic accident. The sisters are practically strangers, and Rebecca’s grief makes her seem even more distant. Marin too is in need of a fresh start, so when Rebecca begs her to let them move to the picturesque village of Goswell on the Cumbrian coast, Marin impulsively agrees.
But it is only when they find a locked door to a secret garden, and a photograph of a girl with a butterfly landing on her hand, that the sisters start to realise they have a mystery to solve, one about war, about secrets, and about a love that could never be. A mystery that might just bring them together…
The Daughter’s Garden is a totally unputdownable novel about tragic secrets, the chance for forgiveness, and the healing that can come from a new start. Perfect for fans of Fiona Valpy, Rhys Bowen and Lucinda Riley.
This novel can be enjoyed as a standalone.
Previously published as The Lost Garden by Katharine Swartz.
MY THOUGHTS:
I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Kate Hewitt's delightful dual timeline tale THE DAUGHTER'S GARDEN.
“She wondered who would open this gate one day in the future. Another girl, another gardener? Would they fill it with flowers, even butterflies? She almost smiled to think of the garden being redeemed and loved again”.
West Cumberland, 1918: The Great War may be over but it has left many scars and many a family broken in its wake. It was meant to be over by Christmas in 1914 they said, but four long years later and nearly 900,000 lives lost, peace finally came to the world once again. But not for Eleanor Sanderson, the vicar's daughter and their family. Their son Walter, whom they were expecting home at any moment, became one of those casualties falling just days before the Armistice was signed. It hardly seemed fair.
But as soon as the telegram boy delivered the envelope with a look of sorrow on his face, Eleanor's mother had taken to her bed and she was left to break the news to her Grandmama in the adjoining Bower House, her father who was visiting parishioners and her sister Katherine who had spent the day in Carlisle sorting donations. Eleanor just wanted to fall in a crumpled heap but her grandmama said she needed to be strong for her family...because she was the strongest of them all.
The loss of her brother left Eleanor feeling bereft and without purpose...that is, until she found a new purpose. To create a garden memorial in Walter's memory. And with the help of gardener Jack Taylor, Eleanor did just that, utilising the walled garden that had once served as a herb garden. And in the midst of it...a beautiful butterfly house.
But it seems, tragedy is never far away as the Spanish flu sweeps the world in the wake of the war, and Eleanor suddenly falls ill at a garden fete. Will she be strong enough to overcome the influenza and find peace again?
Goswell, present day: After her father and his wife are killed in a car accident, Marin returns from Boston to undertake the care of her 15 year old half sister Rebecca. As a break from their the mundaneness of their normal routine, the sisters take a trip north and find themselves in sleepy Goswell and falling in love with the unusual but charming Bower House. In a flash of impulsivity, they make a decision to uproot their lives in Hampshire and move to the sleepy little village.
It is chance for a fresh start for the both of them as they set to making Bower House their own. Leaving most of their modern furnishings in their Hampshire house which they have rented out, Marin and Rebecca set to purchasing old fashioned furnishings for their new home. They meet their neighbours in the Vicarage, the Hattons, who had moved from America 18 months before and Rebecca and their daughter Natalie soon become friends.
But it is the exploration of the gardens one day that saw the sisters come across a fastened gate with a rusted latch to a walled garden, that gave them new purpose. Rebecca was eager to discover what lay beyond the gate...a secret garden of sorts...while Marin was less enthused. And it wasn't until she saw the hurt on Rebecca's face at her dismissal of it just being a garden full of brambles, that Marin realised what this idea really meant to her sister.
And soon Marin finds herself delving into the lost garden beyond the walls and rusted latch, and with the help of landscape gardener Joss, finds new meaning and purpose whilst searching its history and the woman in a photo who had once sought meaning and purpose within the very same walls.
THE DAUGHTER'S GARDEN is the second in the Goswell Quartet series and is a pure delight to read. I think I enjoyed it more than the first one as I think the characters were more likeable too. I loved the fact that those who featured in the previous book are also mentioned in part in this one too, which goes some way to linking the stories despite them being separate from each other. Such as the neighbours in the Vicarage who were front and centre in the first book and the Sandersons who are the focus this time around were merely mentioned in the first also. I love how Hewitt ties them all together and I hope she continues to do so through the remaining two books.
A gentle story with a steady pace, THE DAUGHTER'S GARDEN is about grief and loss and the overcoming of it. In both timelines, the main characters - Eleanor as well as Marin and Rebecca - have lost someone and while they feel very differently about their losses, they both need to find a purpose to give their lives meaning once again. I love how both women's stories, a hundred years apart, intersect with one another despite not being in the slightest way related. What does bind them is the lost garden of Bower House.
I love dual timelines and Kate Hewitt blends the present with the past beautifully. Both stories play out beautifully with an unexpected ending. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Goswell and I fear I will miss it once I have finished the final book.
Overall, a pure delight to read. Perfect for fans of dual timelines.
I would like to thank #KateHewitt, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheDaughtersGarden in exchange for an honest review.
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