Whilst, at it's heart, this is a romance there are a number of more serious issues which are discussed. Characters and location are lovingly described and there is sufficient plot to keep the reader interested. Good holiday read.

Love in an English Garden is exactly what it sounds like. A stroll through a very bucolic setting, but not much else. A woman who is a widow finds herself financially strapped to care for the ancestral estate of her late husband. Residing within are her two daughters and a very cranky mother-in-law. Her solution is to sell one half of the estate and she does, providing a love interest for one of the daughters and a painting companion for her other. Upon a visit to their small village she procures a gardener that has a crew of second chance young adults and the gardener becomes the widows love interest. The gardening crew is a group of young people trying to correct mistakes in their past and currently become fairly adept at their task. That is about it, a safe very serene, but not too interesting story.

Vanessa, a widow, lives at Orley Court with her two daughters Tilda and Jassy and her nasty mother-in-law. In order to be able to carry on living at Orley they will need to sell off part of the house so they decide to sell the North Wing which causes a problem for Vanessa with her mother-in-law, who will do anything to make Vanessa’s life more difficult.

The new owners of the North Wing are Laurence and his dad Marcus, Laurence needs time away from this job in London and Marcus is coming to terms with his wife’s death.

Vanessa meets gardener Jonathan who with his team of young offenders, are tasked to make over the walled garden at Orley.

There are multiple storylines within the book that all manage to tie in together. It was a beautifully descriptive book with a few sweet and lovely romances. A good read with a nice ending, everything I would expect from a Victoria Connelly book.

3 1/2 *

If you love old houses and beautiful English Gardens then this is a book you will enjoy. A story about a family dealing with loss but enduring and finding love. It is told at a slower pace (almost like taking a leisurely stroll through the gardens.) The romances in the book were sweet, reminding me of an old-time romance. The setting of the grand manor, Orley Court in Sussex was beautiful. I could imagine the gardens as I was reading the book. The author did a lovely job with the descriptions. It's a perfect Spring time book!

It may sound bizarre but I found Love in an English Garden to be an incredibly calming read, perhaps because of the large focus of gardens, and working in the great out doors. It is from the characters love of nature that you really get to know more about all of them.

Not only did the book have a calming affect on me, but I also loved every second of it, which didn't really surprise me as I do tend to be a big fan of Victoria Connelly's books. I literally couldn't put it down for the perhaps four hours solid it took me to absorb every single word. I loved the writing style, and the focuses on a variety of characters, so you got to know a bit more about all of the main players.

There is the Jacobs' family who own Orley Court, but the only way they can afford to still live there is to sell the North wing, and divide the property into two. The Jacobs are mother Vanessa, who is starting to move on with life as a widow, daughter Tilda who loves music but has fallen out of love with the music industry, and Jassy. Jassy spends most of her time in the Oast House and is on the autistic spectrum. She adores painting and is always found either talking about painting or creating art. She doesn't overly like change, and tends to be quite outspoken and honest, which are endearing qualities.

There is also mother-in-law, Dolly who seems to hate Vanessa, also lives in Orley Court and is opposed to anything that may make life better for them all. She especially takes exception to the the team Vanessa hires to look after the garden.

Enter Jonathan and his team of young offenders, who are being rehabilitated with honest hard work, and are a great bunch of youngsters to get to know.

Then there are the people that bought the north wing, father and son, Marcus and Laurie. Marcus has seemed lost since his wife died two years ago, and Laurie is needing a change of pace.

Watch out for unlikely alliances forming, friendships blossoming, and sprouts of romance being planted, with all of these vastly varied characters.

There are a whole host of storylines, which all work together with the focus on the two families and their garden. It may sound when I put it like that rather mundane, but in fact, its fabulous, with so much focus on the people, the interactions, to such an extent that I'm sad the book has finished and that I won't be able to spend any more time at Orley Court.

Thank you so much to Lake Union Publishing and Netgalley for this copy of the book which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Picture perfect!
What a fantastic story! I am ever so grateful to NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of this book prior to publication.
I am a great fan of Victoria Connelly's books, and I must say this is one of her best.
Imagine being transported in an idyllic setting, imagine a series of beautiful watercolours, imagine your favourite British landscapes.
Just imagine. The story will provide a balanced, sweet, uplifting turn of events, where the characters are mere extras and the protagonist is, to me, the beautiful English garden.
It is so well written that you'll manage to even smell the flowers, hear the nightingale, feel the Summer sunshine on your skin.
I absolutely loved it.

When I started to think about this review, I realized that the variety of people and of peoples' stories is one of the things that make this book very unique. Like in real life, nobody is an island and their lives overlap, they fight, they love, they ignore each other. It starts with my problem to identify the hero and the heroine because there are several of them. The main characters are Vanessa and Jonathan and Tilda and Laurence - I think. Jassy, Marcus, Dolly and Jenna are also very strong and loveable characters. All of their lives are interwoven, the actions of one of them influences the lives of the others. Different generations, different backgrounds but when it comes to love, being loved and, well, I think you could say - at being "seen" , they are all the same.

This is something very important, I think. Love is not something just for young people and life isn't over when the one you loved dies. Life and love go on, there is always a chance for a second chance if you're just willing to take a risk. Sometimes your own strength might not be enough but there are others there who will help and support you.
The characters in "Love in an English Garden" get those second chances, they have to learn to take risks, they learn to accept help and I loved reading about them and their fight for something "more".

When Vanessa and her daughter Tilda decided to sell a part of the old manor house that has been in the Jacob's family for generations, they know that Dolly, the mother of VAnessa's late husband and Tilda's grandmother would not accept this decision no matter how much they need the money. What they didn't know was how much their lives would change for the better when Laurence and his father Marcus move into the North Wing. Second chances, new friendships, new love and a much better understanding for those around them will soon follow.

I loved this book and its complex story where one wonderful old manor house and its inhabitants touch so many lives and change them. Each of them has his or her dreams and somehow they help each other to achieve them. A wonderful book that made me think and that stayed with me even longer than the last page.

A gem of a book. This is a gentle book which explores relationships: the characters are very varied as are their histories and story lines. The plot is centred around a lovely old family house and garden. It was a pleasure to see how the story unfolded. A well written book, as equally entertaining and satisfying as the many others I've read by this, one of my favourite, authors.