The Garden of Forgotten Wishes - Trisha Ashley (Blog Tour)

Date of Reading: 03/08/2020

Author: Trisha Ashley

Publisher: Bantam Press

Publication Date: July 23, 2020

Rating: 4/5

(This review is part of the blog tour organised by Random Things Tours)

About the book:

The brilliant new novel from Top Five Sunday Times bestselling author Trisha Ashley

All Marnie wants is somewhere to call home. Mourning lost years spent in a marriage that has finally come to an end, she needs a fresh start and time to heal. Things she hopes to find in the rural west Lancashire village her mother always told her about.

With nothing but her two green thumbs, Marnie takes a job as a gardener, which comes with a little cottage to make her own. The garden is beautiful – filled with roses, lavender and honeysuckle – and only a little rough around the edges. Which is more than can be said for her next-door-neighbour, Ned Mars.

Marnie remembers Ned from her school 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.

Can a summer spent gardening help them heal and recapture the forgotten dreams they’ve let to get away?

Review:

        Be warned! This is a novel on workaholics and if you are not one, prepare to face the onslaught of guilt to follow. I know it is fortunate to have your hobby as your job, but the way Marnie involves herself in gardening will make anyone jealous. And the journalistic sort of writing style with the picturesque setting creates the perfect ambience. I am new to Trisha Ashley's books and she has totally hooked me.

        Marnie barely managed to escape from an emotionally abusive marriage and spent some years hiding with her adoptive family in France. Hearing the news of her ex-husband's remarriage, she is now back in England accepting a gardening job in Jericho's End. Apart from the supposed presence of fairies in the area, the place also holds an emotional appeal as it is her mother's native village. Vane family is hated in the neighbourhood and her mother's warnings of not to go there propel her not to reveal this old connection. But will the secret cost her the trust of handsome Ned Mars?

        The love story is just the tip of the iceberg. Trisha Ashley's detailed narrative covers every nook and corner of Jericho's End and its companionable community which has a healing effect on both Marnie and Ned. The efforts in opening the Grace garden and the excitement surrounding it are quite immersive and easy to relate. The four hundred page book doesn't give you much of a story, but we will be transported to Jericho's End along with Marnie, living and breathing the country air.

Meet the author:

Trisha Ashley’s Sunday Times bestselling novels have twice been shortlisted for the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance, and Every Woman for Herself was nominated by readers as one of the top three romantic novels of the last fifty years.

Trisha lives in North Wales. 

For more information about her please visit www.trishaashley.com, her Facebook page www.facebook.com/TrishaAshleyBooks or follow her on Twitter @trishaashley.