Loved this book! Felt like I was in the midst of World War II. Rhys Bowen is always amazing at fleshing out her characters and bringing them to life. Entertaining and engaging!

An enjoyable read. Glad to see the diversity of writing of which Rhys Bowen is capable. This stand alone is an interesting story of breaking free, standing alone, making friends and reconciliation. Set during WWI a good coming of age in a new world. More serious than the Royal Spyness novels. Nice for this time of change.

Pulls on the heartstrings, resilient characters - a sweet romance set during WWII - well written and well- researched.

This is the first book I’ve read by Rhys Bowen and certainly not my last!

This novel is set during WW1 in England and very descriptive of this time period. There are multiple novels written about the WW2 time period, so this was a nice change.

The protagonist, Emily, is a 21 year old female brought up in a wealthy family and not allowed to join in with the war effort. After meeting an injured Australian pilot who was recuperating near her home, she was determined more than ever to do her part in the war effort. After being turned away to work as a nurse, she joins the Women’s Land Army where she meets women from all walks of life, but none as comfortable as hers.

Emily is befriended by a wealthy land owner, Lady Charlton, who she works for during her work and although not so fond of her, she eventually becomes her staunch ally.

Although Emily is quite naïve and sheltered, I found myself rooting for her throughput the book.

Thanks to Lake Union Publishing for a chance to review this copy through Netgalley!

Protagonist Emily Bryce is the stereotypical daughter of a judge, living a comfortable existence doing nothing in the last years of World War I. Her best friend is a nurse on the battlefields of France and Emily desperately wants to do her bit as well. Her beloved older brother, however, had been killed at the front at Ypres, and her parents are frightened they will lose another child if they allow Emily to leave. In her gilded prison, Emily frustratedly sits alone in her bedroom, day after day, looking at her family’s garden, now in full bloom, with beautiful flowers like rhododendrons and azaleas, a well-tended green grass lawn, and blossoming “apple trees in the kitchen garden.”

Forced by her social climbing mother to visit a convalescent hospital for wounded officers that has taken over a neighbor’s house, Emily meets a handsome Australian aviator whose plane had been shot down and who believes that Emily can be as strong as his own outback-residing mother.

Inspired by him, Emily finally breaks free of her parents and joins the Women’s Land Army, as a land girl. Sent from farm to farm to harvest the crops, and many other back breaking tasks, Emily and her fellow land girls form a family of sorts that grows stronger after the Armistice. After saving farm after farm, Emily finally gets to grow her own herb garden as she settles in a village and develops a unique friendship with the Viscountess in the Manor House. Here, in this place, Emily also plants her own life roots and tends to her own health and well being. Perhaps that is the victory garden hinted at in Ms Bowen’s title. Or perhaps the title describes a life that celebrates, among other things, Emily’s hard fought for victories for the freedom to live as she wants and to answer to only those she wishes to have in her life. (In return for an honest review, I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.)

I always enjoy reading books Rhys Bowen writes. I enjoyed this one and look forward to her next books.

Rhys Bowen is well known and loved by mystery readers for her Molly Murphy and Royal Spyness series. She has also begun writing a number of historical novels. The Victory Garden is, I think, the second of these.

The story is set during WWI. A young woman meets a cheeky Australian pilot. What will happen in their relationship and how will it impact Emily’s life?

During the war, Emily becomes a land girl. She finds a journal that intrigues her with the powerful properties of herbs. How will this discovery impact her life moving forward?

From this brief outline, the talented Ms. Bowen weaves her story. If you are a fan of the author, consider giving this or another of her standalone novels a try.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

I really loved this book in a new to me author. The characters and location really and to the story. I can't wait to read the next one. This book keeps you guessing until the end.

The Victory Garden by Rhys Bowen

Brief Summary: Emily Bryce turns 21 and grows tired of feeling useless at home during WWI. After falling in love with a pilot rehabbing at a hospital near her home, Emily is inspired to join the Woman’s Land Army(WLA), women who worked the land to yield the crops to feed the country. One of her assignments takes her to the garden of an Estate, where she discovers the journals of a medicine woman and is inspired to learn herbal medicine. This new found skill gives her a sense of purpose when tragedy strikes. This is my second book by Rhys Bowen and I was excited as I enjoyed her previous novel.

Highlights: I learned a lot about the WLA. This novel does an excellent job of giving the civilians’ perspective. Emily is a very admirable character who was held to rigid expectations held of women at the time. I also found the glimpse of soldiers rehabbing war injuries fascinating. As a rehab professional, I can not imagine sending my recovered patients back to the battlefield.

Explanation of Rating: 4/5; this was a quick, easy, and engaging read. I learned a lot about the civilian perspective during WWI. Highly recommend for historical fiction fans.

Thank you to Net Galley and Lake Union Publishing for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review

This book is the third Rhys Bowen novel I've completed (I tried unsuccessfully to read some of both the Royal Spyness and Evan Evans series), and is the least satisfying of the three. It seemed to veer more towards the romantic than historical elements and this is a great disappointment to me. There was no real feel for the period - a lot of this could have just as easily taken place in WWII England as in the WWI period, in my opinion. The heroine's journey from sheltered daughter to Land Girl seemed awfully facile. Then, quickly becoming an accomplished "medicine woman' stretched that beyond belief and it was in this part of the book that the writing became tedious and the plot unbelievable.

I had high expectations from my reading of In Farleigh Field (which I greatly enjoyed), but these were dashed, unfortunately. I don't know if I would pursue another in these non-series books.

My thanks to Net Gallery, the publisher and author for a free copy in exchange for my review.

I don't think I was in the mood for this one when I tried to read it, I struggled to get into the storyline. I think others could love it, the writing was very good but I did not feel attached to the characters and decided to DNF at 18%

Rhys Bowen never fails to sweep me away in her books. I loved The Victory Garden and recommend it to historical fiction lovers.

Author Rhys Bowen delivers a heart-breaking war saga with The Victory Garden. As the daughter of a rich family, Emily’s prospects during the war start to diminish. Desperate to do her part, she meets a handsome airman during a visit to wounded servicemen. As soon as she turns 21, Emily goes off to volunteer her services. While her efforts to find a hospital spot were in vain, she was offered the opportunity to serve as a land girl.

Having never herd of this before, I was fascinated by how much detail the author wove into the storyline. Women from all types of backgrounds were recruited to work on farms. While it was a far cry from what Emily was used to, the author took that newness and allowed the reader to see things from Emily’s perspective.

From a relationship standpoint, Emily finds herself in love with the handsome airman, allowing herself to get caught up in the challenges of a wartime romance. That relationship serves to mold Emily into a strong young woman who later finds herself serving as a gardener at a large estate. One of the strongest assets of this story is the author’s ability to make the reader see and feel through Emily’s eyes.

She strikes up a friendship of sorts with the old woman who owns the estate, providing Emily with an opportunity to shed light where only sadness had been for so long. Emily finds a medicinal journal in her cottage and is soon immersed in a story from long ago. Full of twists and turns, this story proves that it is possible to run dual storylines without losing the quality of either one.

The Victory Garden by Rhys Bowen was the first stand-alone I’d read. I’ve read a few of her books in series, but this one is one of my favorites. This perspective into women’s movement was insightful. How class, work, stigma of unwed mothers came to life. The isolation and loss of family gave food for thought. I did learn of the Women’s Land Army and the Victory Gardens in high school, but never did this come alive like this. Recommended.

I’ve grown more enamored of WWI historical fiction since reading the Maisie Dobbs and Bess Crawford series, and this latest by beloved mystery writer Rhys Bowen adds to that entrancement. Emily Bryce falls in love with a handsome pilot sent off to the front, but is left “with child” and grief-stricken when he dies. Her work as a land girl leads to discovery of a medicine woman’s journals on healing herbals, near disaster as she learns more about their mysterious power, then redemption in a story that completely captivates. 5/5

Pub Date 12 Feb 2019.

Thanks to the author, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

#TheVictoryGarden #NetGalley

I am a huge fan of Bowen's Her Royal Spyness series. But her standalone novels have never drawn me in the same way. I did enjoy this book, although I felt it had kind of a slow start. I could never be sure exactly where the story was headed, so I couldn't stop reading. I have to say, my favorite part of reading this was when I suddenly realized what was about to happen. While the clues were there all along, I absolutely didn't see it coming! Overall, this was a good novel. Not one of my favorites, but I did feel like I NEEDED to finish it to see what would happen, so that makes it pretty good. I did like this book better than The Tuscan Child, but probably not as much as In Farleigh Field. I enjoy reading authors who can write in different genres successfully, and Rhys Bowen has proved that she can!

The Victory Garden
British historical fiction about the Women’s Land Army

I received a copy of this book courtesy of the publicist.

The Victory Garden - Rhys Bowen

“The Victory Garden” by Rhys Bowen is a historical fiction novel set in the UK during World War II. Emily Bryce has lived a sheltered and privileged life, and is prevented by her parents from becoming a nurse. However, when she meets an Australian pilot on a chaperoned hospital visit with her mother, she is inspired to do more to help out with the war efforts. Too late to study nursing, Emily instead joins the Women’s Land Army. After helping out farmers with their harvest, Emily is reassigned to a large estate to help tame the garden of an elderly widow and moves in with friends to an abandoned cottage near the herb garden. However, when Emily finds her future suddenly very uncertain and approaching at speed, she finds solace in journals left behind by a woman whose life seems to closely parallel her own.

I’ve read a few of Bowen’s books now, and this one is one of my favourites so far. I have a vague memory of learning about the Women’s Land Army when I was in school and the topic being completely bland. This story brings this real turning point in women’s rights to life and Emily is a fantastic character to explore issues of class, the value of women’s work, stigma around single mothers and family rejection. I especially enjoyed Emily’s time living, boarding and working with an incredibly diverse range of women and helping to prove that women can do the same work that men could do. I also really liked that while there were some romantic elements to the story, it certainly was not the main part of the book.

I think that while the first half of the book was incredibly engaging, I found the second half of the book a little slower. Isolated and unable to leave, the second half of the book involves a lot more introspection and a little bit of a mystery which was quite a different pace to the immersive feminist history of the first half. I did feel like the ending was a little bit of a deus ex machina, and that perhaps the book could have used a little more conflict or drama towards the end.

This is a great topic for a historical novel, and I really enjoyed putting myself in the shoes of a ‘land girl’ and reading about such a pivotal point in history for women. It was also a very easy read.

This book was pretty good but not great for me. I never felt an emotional connection with Emily like I thought I should. All in all this was a quick and easy read.

Rhys Bowen is a master storyteller. In The Victory Garden she gives readers and engaging story with well-crafted characters. I'd highly recommend this to any reader, but especially those who enjoy historical fiction and strong female characters.

“The simple message of a garden is hope that sprouts from tiny seeds”

This is going to be quite a difficult review to put together – not because I didn’t love the book, because I did – but because on Rhys’s recent visit to Fiction Books, she answered questions so fully and in depth, that there seems to be little else I can add without repeating the interview, or giving away too many spoilers. You really do need to check out the lovely conversation we had – and of course, read this amazing novel for yourself …

So here goes!

I truly admire authors who can write across multiple genres, for diverse reading audiences and different age groups – and most importantly – do it well! With that in mind, I fully intend to check out the several mystery series Rhys has also written, as I have very eclectic reading tastes and like to mix up my genres.
The Victory Garden is the third in a small series of war-time stand alone novels, which form exceptionally thoughtful, sensitively written and well constructed works of social history and commentary from the times.
The book was littered with strong moral messages: Death and destruction of the human mind and body to breaking point; women’s empowerment; the role and rights of women in society; the breaking down of class barriers; the culmination of the Suffragette movement; witchcraft or simply a new way of healing? – all difficult and controversial mores of an early 20th Century society at war.

All this and much more, laid bare and raw, in The Victory Garden.

The issues were incorporated seamlessly into a storyline which was well constructed, flowed smoothly and moved along at a pace which kept me engaged, interested and eager to know the eventual outcome.
If I had one very small niggle, it would be that for me personally, perhaps this story dealt with too many issues and none of them in any great depth. However, I appreciate that to have expanded on many of them in any more detail, would have made The Victory Garden a chunkster of a book and would probably have verged on the non-fiction by the time it was finished. So in retrospect, I came to the conclusion that Rhys got this this just about spot on and opened up plenty of opportunities for me to carry out more detailed research on individual aspects of the story in my own time – which I did!

The cast of characters were all well defined, strong and brought to life with every stroke of the author’s pen. Whilst none of them was perfect and all flawed to one degree or another, each was given the bandwidth and opportunity to grow into their respective roles, both physically and emotionally. Especially the main protagonist Emily for whom life is turned completely upside down and will never be the same again, after the many life-changing experiences she has to adapt to and overcome.

There was also some lighthearted banter and almost comedic exchanges between Emily and her new found friends, which whilst they highlighted the vast differences in class structure and life expectations between them, also served to bring them together as a force to be reckoned with, as they journeyed, united, on their voyage into a future of self discovery and empowerment. They learned to work as a team towards the common goal, whilst still respecting their own self-imposed boundaries and conventions, still not yet confident enough to challenge them completely, but knowing that the time is near.

Because of the lifestyle and social changing nature of World War I, much of the story revolves around female friendships and struggles, although the male characters were also treated to the same level of nurture and care, as they too had to adapt to their new and changing roles in a society which had hitherto held them in much higher esteem than their female counterparts. This also begged the question in my mind – who really had the greatest changes in social standing and convention to deal with – men or women?