Book Review - The Lily Garden

The Lily Garden

Author:  Barbara Josselsohn

Publisher:  Bookouture

Genre:   Women's Fiction

Format:  Kindle ARC

No. of Pages:   265

Date of Publication:   July 2, 2021

My Rating:   4 Stars

DESCRIPTION:

She held the letter that she had found in the garden, and noticed the distinctive curls of her father’s handwriting etched on the worn paper. Her life had already been turned upside down by one family secret, would his last words force her to leave her childhood home forever?

When Caroline left Lake Summers thirty years ago, she thought she’d never go back to the place where she lost her parents. But when she finds out that the town’s lily garden lovingly built by her mother is going to be destroyed, she knows she must return from Chicago to save it.

Caroline and her daughter Lee are welcomed home by the warm smile of her mother’s best friend Maxine, and piles of pancakes at her cozy little restaurant in town. And Caroline soon learns that she isn’t the only person invested in saving her mother’s legacy, when she meets handsome historian Aaron. As she gets to know him, strolling along the sparkling lakeshore, she can’t imagine anywhere else she’d rather be.

But then Caroline learns a terrible secret about the day her mother died. And soon the real reason Aaron is in Lake Summers comes to light. Will the truth about the people she loves force her to give up a future with Aaron, and the beautiful town that has always been in her heart?

Link to purchase the book

MY THOUGHTS:

 

Caroline is heartbroken that the lily garden her mother created in Lake Summers has been slated for destruction, so she goes home to do what she can to prevent that from happening. She returns with her daughter Lee, who is currently checking out different colleges, and they receive a very warm welcome. One of the people that Caroline runs into is a historian named Aaron, who is also interested in saving the garden.

Caroline, Lee and Aaron are at different places in their lives. For Caroline, there are missing pieces to her past that she is exploring as well as dealing with the situation with the garden. For Lee, deciding on a college and her future is what she is facing. Aaron finds that this job has so much more meaning to him, more than he expected. What is more is that he finds himself quite drawn to Caroline and it is clear that she feels the same.

I really loved the relationships in this wonderful story. Caroline and Lee were quite close. Also, I enjoyed the developing relationship between Caroline and Aaron, and the slow burn romance was done quite well as other issues played biger roles in this story. This story had quite an emotional edge as Caroline got closer to the secrets of her past and this is where some of the town's members came in. The Lily Garden was a well-crafted, emotive book that would make an excellent beach read. Utterlly hearwarming and memorable, this book comes highly recommended. 

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Barbara Solomon Josselsohn is the author of two novels, The Lilac House (Bookouture, 2020) and The Last Dreamer (Lake Union, 2015). Her articles and essays appear in a range of publications, including New York Magazine, Parents Magazine, the New York Times, Westchester Magazine, WorkingMother.com, and NextAvenue.com. Barbara also teaches writing at the Sarah Lawrence Writing Institute and other venues, and is the founder and coordinator of the Scarsdale Library Writers Center, which supports and promotes local writers. She and her husband have three adult children and an indefatigable shih-poo named Mosley, and she is currently at work on her third novel, which is scheduled for release this fall.

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