The Last Garden in England

Rating: really liked it

3.5 stars

Scotland, 2021. Emma is commissioned to restore a historic garden at Highbury House. She strives for historical accuracy in re-creating a garden. And that’s the part I enjoyed the most in this story. The process of finding any kind of trace, a drawing or a picture, that would lead her in the right direction. The story is also consumed by her relationship with her parents. And her mom’s regret that Emma didn’t go to college. Instead, she took a course in garden design and opened her own company, which her mother doesn’t applaud as she doesn’t see it as having a stable life.

1907. Venetia Smith is commissioned to design a garden at Highbury House. She finds the owners - her employers challenging. Brother of the owners breeds roses. Her designing a garden and him breeding some roses lead to a romantic relationship.

The concept of designing a garden, then its restoration is a very original premise. And I was looking forward to those two stories. But I didn’t feel that the designing and restoration process came through in those two stories. They were more absorbed by something else. At the end, the story I expected the least from turned out to be the most interesting.

1944. During the war, the Highbury House is being used as a convalescent hospital.

Beth, after finishing her training at the agricultural college, the city girl travels to the country to become a land girl. While delivering produce to the Highbury House hospital, she takes a look at the garden rooms and “their surprising little nooks and crannies.” She gets an itch to sketch them.

Stella is a cook at the Highbury House hospital. But she has bigger dreams.

Diana Symonds is the owner of the Highbury House. Once she was “determined to be an excellent caretaker of the grounds,” but the war has changed everything.

I enjoyed the camaraderie of women trying to save the gardens during the war, when the government issues “the agricultural requisition of all unused land at Highbury House.”

It was interesting to read about the requisition of properties and land during the war. And about the so called land girls.

The characters I warmed up to the most are the three women living during the war. Diana grieves her husband who was a doctor. So she knows that it would make her husband happy to know that their house is being used for the wounded soldiers. Even though, it doesn’t make her happy. Beth, after losing her parents at young age, grew up with her aunt, who provided a roof over her head, but never expressed love. Now, on the farm, through her hard work she receives the kindest of words from the farmer she works for and her happiness makes your heart swell. Stella takes care of her sister’s son at the time. She is stuck at the Highbury House for the time being. But she does have her dreams. She wants to explore the world that is out there beyond what she is acquainted with.

Overall, the prose is enjoyable. The pace is good. If you enjoy romance stories, there is plenty of it in this book.

Source: ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: it was amazing

I am in awe of this book. First the cover...in all honesty I saw historical fiction and the cover and fell in love. Second, I cannot find the words to successfully articulate the impact the book had on me. I loved the three timelines and the different points of view from three very strong women. I really cared about all the characters that Julia Kelly created and that is truly a sign of a brilliant read.

The vivid descriptions in this book had my imagination on overdrive as I thought of the garden itself and the time and place the book was set in. I imagined the house and the clothes as well as the foliage it was very atmospheric throughout.

This is one of the best Historical Fiction books I have read...it's brilliantly, beautifully written and so well researched...This is a book that will remain in my heart for many years to come for so many reasons that it deserves all the stars.

Disclousure:
Thank you NetGalley, Julia Kelly and Gallery Books for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an impartial review; all opinions are my own.

#NetGalley

Rating: it was amazing

The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly is an excellent historical fiction novel that is a triple timeline story that weaves together to create a beautiful and amazing book that kept me riveted from beginning to end.

I have been a huge fan of Ms. Kelly for quite a while now. I loved her previous two books: The Light Over London and The Whispers of War. When I saw that she had a new book coming out, I knew I had to read it. And it most certainly did not disappoint.

There were so many things I loved about this book:

1. The ability to take three separate stories from three different time periods, create excellent plots, and weave them all together seamlessly into a breathtaking end. All three time periods: early 1900s, 1940s, and 2021 were all excellent in their own rights. That in itself is hard to find. I enjoyed the development, the complexity, the mystery, the romance, the twists/turns/suspense, and the endings all equally.

2. I loved the full character cast. Ms. Kelly has outdone herself with a full array of fascinating characters. I loved Venetia, Emma, Diana, and even Stella (as hard as it was at some points to do so). There were so many more characters within each story to even mention, however each one was vital, complex, realistic, and fit perfectly. I loved how each woman was different in personality and place, yet all had similarities that the reader discovered throughout the book. Excellent.

3. I loved the central theme of the Highbury House Gardens. I was completely blown away and wonderfully immersed into a botanical dream. Learning about all of the plants, flowers, descriptions, history, colors, care, and design was a dream. It is clear that the author has done her research, and it showed in how she was able to create a literary masterpiece that made me feel as if I was actually walking among the paths feeling the dew on my legs as they brushed against the leaves, the silky petals against my skin as I touched the blossoms, and the smell of earth, leaves, ponds, and dampness as I wandered throughout the areas during each season. It was truly remarkable.

4. The ending. I LOVED it. It was perfect in every way and nothing else would have fit. Just perfect.

I also enjoyed the Author’s note at the end to give a bit more context as to what was fact vs fiction vs inspiration. I enjoyed that as well.

This was easily one of my favorite books this year, with Ms. Kelly being one of my favorite authors. She has most certainly done it again. Bravo.

5/5 stars enthusiastically

Thank you NetGalley and Gallery Books for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR, Bookbub, and Instagram accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication (and Instagram again).

Rating: it was amazing

This was such a good book! It centered on a British garden in three different time periods and I loved all three stories. I don’t know much (anything) about gardening but I could picture this one quite well.

I’m curious about the author’s choice to set the present day story line in 2021. Is that how authors are going to handle 2020? Just skip over it as if it didn’t happen? Fine with me!

This is the second book I’ve read by Julia Kelly and I’m adding her to my list of must read authors.

Thank you to Goodreads Giveways for the ARC.

Rating: it was amazing

When I saw Julia Kelly’s name pop up on NetGalley, I immediately requested the book without even reading the description. I’m a huge fan of Kelly and the cast of characters she creates. She effortlessly laced multigenerational characters with a common theme, place or object. And my instincts were 100% dead on...The Last Garden of England is FANTASTIC!

Last Garden weaves together the lives of several strong, independent women from present day and all the way back to the early 1900’s. The common denominator...a beautiful estate and is luscious gardens. From their inception to their restoration, the gardens of Highbury tell link these amazing characters, tell beautiful stories and keep their secrets.

The 1900’s introduce us to Venetia Smith...a well known architectural gardener is hired to turn the land of Highbury into vast gardens for both beauty and entertaining. She works for a hoity, toity family who value social class above all else. When she falls in love with her boss’ brother, her reputation as well as her job are in jeopardy. She’s determined to tell a story with her landscape design but ultimately the garden will harbor her secret for generations.

In the 1940’s Highbury is requisitioned to the British Army as a convalescent home. The lady of the house Diana is determined to keep the gardens organized and maintained while her life is hanging upside down. She rediscovered her voice and her strength as time passes and she too, hides a secret within the garden.

Jump decades forward to present day and Emma has been hired to restore the gardens to their original state. As she searches for any kind of plans Venetia may have left behind or Highbury owner Sydney’s great grandmother may have kept in and old box, she not only begins to dig up overgrown roots but the secrets within the garden.

All of these ladies find themselves, their strength and love within the walls of these gardens. Much like the plants that grow within, they take time to establish their roots and then begin to blossom.

This is a huge win for Julia Kelly. I did not want this story to end...in fact I can see this book becoming somewhat of series, a stand alone book for each of the characters. Well done Julia! Thank you so much to Julia and NetGalley for giving me early access to this gem! One of my favs of 2020!!

Rating: liked it

I received this from Netgalley.com.

Set in three timelines. 1907: Venetia Smith, 1944: Beth Pedley, Present day: Emma Lovett are all involved with Highbury House Gardens.

I enjoyed all the gardening stuff, the designing/planning and how different flowers/shrubbery would mature and create the garden rooms. I spent much time looking at pictures of the flowers that were mentioned. But, there were very familiar storylines making this an uncomplicated (boring?) predictable read.

2.75☆

Rating: it was amazing

This book by Julia Kelly is stellar!!! There are 3 timelines...1907/1944/2021. The story revolves around the gardens at Highbury House.

Venetia is the first one to begin work on the gardens but is forced to leave before her work is done and leaves for America to start a new life after some scandal/tragedy.

In the 1944 timeline, Diana is the new the owner of Highbury and it has been taken over by the government as a hospital during the war. Stella works in the kitchen and Beth works on the land at a nearby farm and comes to Highbury to sketch the gardens.

Emma is in the 2021 timeline and has been hired to bring back the beauty of the gardens. She is able to use sketches from Venetia and Beth both to try to recreate the gardens to their fullest.

This is a beautiful story about so many things but the most important to me is that this garden was the happiness of so many people. There was sadness too but the garden brought them to happiness.

Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery books for an early copy of this beautiful book.

Rating: it was amazing

Netgalley ♥️ it's January 1908. She walks in the winter garden surrounded by Christmas Roses. I loved the opening descriptions.bthen it's February 2021 and Emma is meeting with clients. I liked reading about Emma's work in the winter garden. I loved going back and time and reading about the past. I loved reading about the beginnings of the garden. I loved the characters and seeing how they would connect to the present.

Rating: it was amazing

Bestselling author Julia Kelly plants the seed of an idea, nurtures it into a vivid, intriguing seedling, then fertilizes, prunes, and shapes its various twisting branches into a stunning garden. Connected across the decades by a garden in desperate need of their care, three fascinating women grow alongside one another, shedding secrets and insecurities, eventually blooming with self-realization, hope, and love.

Rating: really liked it

The Last Garden in England was my first book by Julia Kelly, and it won't be my last. In this latest book, her story is set around the lives of five women who are connected by the stunning gardens of Highbury, a remote country estate in England. I enjoyed Kelly's writing style, vivid descriptions and how she incorporates a variety of female lead characters, illustrating how their circumstances, professions, and social standing impact their lives.

The story is told in three eras - modern day, 1944 and 1907 by five women whose POVs are woven well together. I'll admit that it took me a bit to distinguish Venetia and Emma whose lives overlap a bit with their similar careers and romantic connections, but it didn't take long for each character - Venetia, Emma, Stella, Beth and Diana - to show their unique personalities as they find their voices, strength and resiliency despite the limitations put upon them by society and their differing social status.

WWII is a super popular subgenre of Historical Fiction and sometimes it feels like I've 'read it all' but I always enjoy it when authors include new-to-me aspects of the war. In this book, I learned about how the British government expropriated country estates for the British army to use as convalescent homes for wounded soldiers. I also enjoyed seeing the different roles women had during the war - land girl, cook, nurse, business owner, wealthy estate owner - and appreciated the depth and complexity Kelly gives her protagonists as they face daunting issues of war and self-discovery.

This was a lighter, wholesome kind of read with a beautiful setting and an interesting blend of story lines that has a bit of everything - romance, heartache, friendship, loss and a dose of botany - but a green thumb is not required! (phew!). This was an enjoyable, if a bit predictable read that focuses on an array of strong female characters who show the importance of friendship and resiliency during tumultuous times.


Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Gallery Books for providing me with a complimentary digital copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: it was amazing

THE LAST GARDEN IN ENGLAND
BY JULIA KELLY

"Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee." --Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

OH WOW! How I loved this wonderful, wholesome gem of a novel. It was so bright written with Julia Kelly's love of her character's. I would give it 100 stars if I could. I also loved every single one of the character's. They were deep and thoughtful to each other. It is an intricately told tale about our humanity coming together for the greater good of working together to make ourselves better. Wait--there are two character's that I almost forgot about that were unlikable during the earliest timeline this wonderful novel was set in 1907. They were the first owners of Highbury Manor for the cruel way they treated icon Venetia Smith but I understand that they were acting the way they did because it was a sign of the times that they were living in that dictated the way they reacted.

It is present day and Emma gets a dream job. She gets the chance to restore the gardens at Highbury Estates to their former glory the way her hero Venetia Smith designed them in 1907. When Emma meets Sydney and Andrew the new owners of Highbury Manor and Sydney finds Venetia Smith's original sketches she realizes that this restoration work will be highly rewarding. Only when they discover that there is a missing key to the gate of the Winter Garden section do they begin to wonder what happened to that key to the completely overgrown and long neglected section. The Winter garden section has a rusty locked gate, but why?

It is 1907 and Venetia Smith is known and highly regarded to designing beautiful gardens for the rich such as bankers and lawyers. She has a reputation for creating beautiful rooms with her unique talent and she is hired for the ambitious job of doing that at Highbury Manor. She will create a masterpiece of the likes of what can only be described as a Monet painting. Each section of this multifaceted garden of different rooms outside will bloom with rich and brilliant luxurious blooms that can only be described as watching the many bursting colors of fireworks exploding in an American 4th of July skies. Something heartbreaking will happen to her that forces her to flee to America and start a new life there.

It is 1944 and Diana Symmonds is newly widowed from losing her beloved husband in World War II. Her home has been taken over by the the British wounded from the war. In short Highbury Manor has been requisitioned as a convalescent hospital. Beth has been put into service as working as a land girl. Beth grew up as an orphan and has finally made a home that she craves to be permanent working on a farm next to Highbury Manor. She meets her future husband a Captain who is visiting the farmer while he is out on a walk from Highbury Manor. His shoulder was shot during his service and while he is healing he and Beth start a romance that will lead to marriage.

Stella works as a cook for Mrs. Symmond's when one day her sister shows up asking Stella if her young son Bobby can stay with her at Highbury Manor. Mrs. Symmond's happens to witness this exchange between the two sister's and kindly gives Stella the okay and encourages Bobby to go and find her only son Robin who is the same age. Stella doesn't want to be tied down with Bobby as she has been taking correspondence courses and shorthand so she can work in London and travel the world. Something equally as devastating happens to Mrs. Symmomd's and an odd bargain is made between Stella and Mrs. Symmond's.

There is a strand of thread that connects all of these different timelines and these wonderful women. It may seem like a lot of character's to keep track of but I assure you it was easy. This is a beautiful, well crafted story that I loved and can't recommend highly enough. I am certain my review didn't do this gem of a novel justice. This is another one of my favorites of 2020. I wish that I came across more novels like this that absolutely shimmers with sparking glitter. The descriptions of the gardens where some of the most beautiful imagery I have ever read. They are reminiscent of Daphne du Maurier's novel "Rebecca," only much more stunningly so. This is one I will definitely be purchasing for that special bookshelf and also for special family and friend's. I highly recommend that you pick up this special book for yourself. It has all the feels and will please all of your senses!

Publication Date: January 12, 2021

Thank you to Net Galley, Julia Kelly and Gallery Books for generously providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#TheLastGardenInEngland #JuliaKelly #GalleryBooks #NetGalley

Rating: really liked it

This story is told in three different timelines but centered around one very special garden at Highbury House in England.
1907: Venetia Smith is hired to design a garden for this beautiful home. She fashions several small garden "rooms" such as the tea garden, children's garden, and the winter garden. When her client requests that she use her brother's roses instead of the variety she had planned, Venetia is initially frustrated but becomes pleasantly surprised by the roses and by Matthew himself.
1944: Highbury House has been requisitioned as a convalescent hospital for injured soldiers in the war. Diana, the owner of the home, does her best to protect her garden from becoming crop land. She befriends Stella, her cook, and Beth, a neighboring "land girl".
2021: Emma, a specialist in English garden restoration, has been hired to restore the seriously neglected Highbury gardens to their original glory. When blueprints of the original gardens are found, secrets are discovered that tell a different story of the history of Highbury House.
I loved the beautiful writing of this story with descriptions of the characters in each time period. It reminded me a little of The Secret Garden with its mysterious abandoned Winter Garden with the locked gate.
Thank you to Gallery Books and Julia Kelly for the free ARC of this wonderful book. I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The views and opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Rating: it was amazing

Julia Kelly has a way with words. The Last Garden in England was so captivating and fresh. This is historical fiction with not two eras, but three! I love the travel through the ages and learning about each stage and life of the gardens.
It was like three stories for the price of one. Even though there are numerous characters, Julia has them so well developed that the story just flows. This is one novel that I didn’t want to end. Thank you NetGalley and Julia Kelly!

Rating: liked it

I loved the concept of this book far more than the execution. I have always been curious about the concept and execution of a majestic, monumental British garden and the idea of following the history of a significant (if fictional) one for 100 years was really enticing.

But, somehow I didn't find the magic I was looking for in this book. The concept of a garden as a statement of wealth and "taste" was not new to me, but the lack of heart and emotion in the couple who commissioned "The Last Garden in England" created a chill in this novel that never left me. Their calculating personalities and business-like approach to what should have been a creative project dispersed in to the tone of the whole book. I never really felt the passion and creativity I expected to experience when I read about the garden. Perhaps that was intentional, but it detracted from the book for me.

This garden was never presented as a happy place, nor the project as an emotionally satisfying one for the designer or the owner. Although the book was garden-centric, it was more a story of love and loss---and women's aspirations. The garden was the foil for presenting these emotional issues, but it was really never the star of this book.

NETGALLEY provided me a complimentary copy of this book in return for a candid review.

Rating: really liked it

*This book was received as an Advanced Reviewer's Copy from NetGalley.

The Last Garden in England is the first book I've read of Kelly's . Choosing to situate her book in three different time periods, they all revolve around the same garden, and the lives of the women who touched that garden.

Venetia is a garden designer in the first decade of the 20th century. Known for her designs and use of non-traditional styles, she's made a name for herself. Now, working on a new garden, she finds distractions that could ultimately end up sinking her career.

Beth, Diana, and several other characters round out the time period during WWII, in which England was besieged and many manors and homesteads taken over in the war effort. The beloved garden designed by Venetia in a previous decade is no exception, granting comfort to the inhabitants of the manor that is being used as a makeshift hospital, and the family who still lives there as well.

Finally, Emma, of 2021, is hired to restore the beautiful garden to its previous glory. A devoted fan of Venetia, unlocking the gardens mysteries becomes just as important as restoring it. And maybe there's time in there for her to discover what she truly wants and needs out of life as well.j

All of the characters are pretty compelling. While I didn't connect quite so much with Venetia, I at least understood her plot, struggling to make a name for herself in a male-dominated world. I think where I lost connection was in the romance, and even that probably only because of how quickly her particular chapters went. My favorite character was probably Diana; I found her complex and interesting, especially given the trials her character has to endure. Stella too really resonated with me. I feel like the book has a potential to paint her in a bad light due to her choices, but I think her strengths were in recognizing her weaknesses and seeking to find the best solution for them.

Overall the book moved pretty seamlessly despite having three different time periods woven in. Each storyline was concise, tied together with the others on the major plot points, and all resolved satisfactorily. While some of the romance points were a bit rushed, I don't think they detracted. And knowing the time period for some it also kind of made sense to have them be rushed. I was pleased to see a lot of information about the various volunteer and work programs during WWII (having just read The Splendid and the Vile it fit in very well with what I learned there). It helped shed a light on that part of history and how people managed. But best of all, the garden was a highlight of this book and I truly appreciated the explanations and descriptions of the various plants used throughout the garden.

A quick, but engrossing read, it's definitely one to settle in with.

Review by M. Reynard 2020