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Review: The Garden Of Forgotten Wishes by Trisha Ashley

The Garden Of Forgotten Wishes by Trisha Ashley
Published by Bantam Press
3 stars ⭐⭐⭐


Gardener Marnie wants to put down roots having escaped to France from a controlling marriage, she decides she needs a fresh start and gets a job in a rural west Lancashire village which her dying mother made her promise to stay away from.

The job comes with a flat above a café run by two sisters, and she tends their garden, and also assists next door neighbour Ned Mars with his.

Marnie remembers Ned from her college days but he’s far from the untroubled man she once knew. A recent relationship has left him with a heart as bruised as her own.

This is a lovely cosy read especially if you love gardening, and even if you don’t, it’s a nice, heart-warming story.

 

I particularly loved the fact that I recognised characters from a previous book “The Christmas Invitation”, and I thought the tie in was a lovely touch, although saying that, this is a stand alone story, and you won’t feel like you’ve missed anything if you haven’t read the previous book, it’s just like an Easter Egg on a DVD!

The characters were believable, and well written, I particularly loved Marnie, and wanted to put a friendly arm around her shoulder and protect her, although I don’t think she needed it, as her confidence grew alongside the forgotten roses in the garden!

There is an involved back story including many feuds and fights from previous generations which I found quite difficult to get my head round, but bear with it, as it’s all explained at the end!

This is a slow burner of a story, which was quite nice as it didn’t feel like everything was thrown into the pot all at once, and saying that the story did gather speed at the end.

 

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