THE SEA GARDEN

The Sea Garden by Deborah Lawrenson
Genre: Historical Fiction
My rating: ★★★★★


This book is comprised of 3 novellas that tie together in the end. I picked up this book on a whim while I was browsing in Barnes & Noble. I was drawn to the title and the part of the description reading "...restore an abandoned garden." I love gardening. I was also interested in reading a book that was historical fiction and I quite enjoyed that I would get to travel back in time for part of the story.

Book I The Sea Garden takes place in 2013. Ellie Brooke travels from London to a small island off the coast of France to fulfill a garden commission but it's not what she was expecting. From the start Ellie is put in strange situations and it only gets more and more creepy the longer she stays on the Island. While reading I was wondering if Ellie was just insane.

Book II The Lavender Field takes you back to 1944 France where you're introduced to Marthe who is blind and finds her passion of working at a lavender field and creating perfume scents. Once the war begins Marthe, and everyone around her, are drawn into the Resistance. I found the character development to be superb. I especially enjoyed the authors writing of Marthe and how she perceives the world in scents. The chapters are named after scents which I really loved because I could then relate those smells to the book.

"The scent was all around them; it curled and  diffused in the air with a sweet warmth and a subtlety, then burst with a peppery, musky intensity." ~ Chapter 2 Wild Violet

Book III A Shadow Life takes place during the same time as book II.  You're transported back to London and you're now on the other side of the War. You'll meet Iris, an intelligence officer, who had no idea what she was getting herself into. While reading about Iris and her co-workers I found myself wondering how I would deal in the sort of situation they were in. How brave these women were serving their Country was touching  but scary.

I really didn't expect the ending until very close to the wrap up and was surprised since I was so invested in these characters. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read. It's written beautifully and I am putting this on my reread list for sure!

Let me know what you thought of The Sea Garden in the comments or find me on Instagram @julias_paperback

xx, Julia