The Heirloom Garden by Viola Shipman is a book to read and relish and stop and ponder. If it doesn't have you thinking about your own garden and the beauty of flowers, I'll be really surprised. The book wends its way through the seasons of all the stages of a garden and that of life as well.

Meet Iris, a woman who has built huge walls around her garden, she is a botanist who is very passionate and knowledgeable. She has deeply loved  her family, loved and lost.

Meet Lily a young seven year old who has a mother - Abby, starting a new job - and a father Cody, a returned service man who lies on the couch and seems to be lost in post war horror.

They all have their challenges. Iris is so isolated and  not able to leave her place. Cody can not shake himself out of the stresses of war, Abby must work amongst men who are arrogant and not half as able as she is. Lily - well she has to deal with them all. In a way she is the catalyst that sets all things in motion. She is a total delight.

This is a story of growing friendships, taking small and new steps, reaching out and withdrawing. It's about the wisdom of age and the wisdom of youth. It is about remembering history and honoring it.

Can you tell I loved this book! It points to the goodness, caring and hope that can be present if we just give it a chance.

This lovely story has two settings - during World War II and modern day. There are two principal characters, Iris Maynard and Abby Peterson. This is delicate story of how two women are affected by war though decades apart. There was no doubt while reading this book that in some way Abby and Iris would connect. It was a delightful journey to see this unfold.

As the title and cover depicts a garden - well, more than one - is involved. Starting with Iris, she used her horticultural skills to create a garden that was hidden behind a very tall fence. When Abby and her family move next door, the solitude Iris experienced for decades would be taken away.

This was a very sad story at times, especially when one woman lost her husband in a war, and another whose husband survived the war, but was traumatized and plagued with PTSD. It is Abby's husband who survived the most recent war, and she is greatly saddened by her husband's emotional state. They have a young daughter who is caught in the middle of uncertain times for the family.

When the little girl begins to spend time with Iris, it does not go smooth at first. This is where the book became compelling. I loved the four people who were significant in this book and watching layers being peeled back was so very touching.

The gardens in this book were also part of the story. The descriptions of the flowers were so real I felt like I could smell or touch them. For a story that is bound to touch many hearts, with a mix of sad and joyful moments, I highly recommend The Heirloom Garden.

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

Thanks so much to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy of this book!

Viola Shipman is one of my top 5 favorite authors and whenever I find out that she has a new book I make sure to check it out!

This is such an inspiring story of love and loss that is weaved in to the story of a flower garden! It makes me want to drive up to Grand Haven and hang out in this flower garden! The story is amazing and must be read!

I have enjoyed all of Viola Shipman's novels so far, but this one takes the cake. Each of Viola's novels is set up so that the sections of the story talk about particular items related to the title of the book. (Ex. in The Charm Bracelet, each part of the story was about a particular charm and how it fit in to what was taking place throughout.) In The Heirloom Garden: A Novel, each section is about a flower and how it connects to Iris's past, as well as how it relates to what is currently happening. I'm not much of a gardener, but I enjoyed the descriptions of the various flowers and was able to visualize and appreciate them that much more.

This was a sweet story overall. I liked the bond that formed between Iris and the Petersons. While there were some sappy moments, it was a nice escape from everything else going on in the world. I even got teary-eyed at times. Lily was adorable and reminded me of my daughter. However, it was hard to get a grasp of her age. There was a comment made about it late in the story, but sometimes she was watching shows that were too mature for that age. I also couldn't figure out main character's ages. If they were mentioned, it was in passing but the ages didn't seem to fit their descriptions. I guessed Abby and Cory to be in their early thirties after a while.

The story gave me a lot to think about in terms of what war veterans go through. Even though Iris was a war widow, she still had her own experiences that were along the lines of post-traumatic stress disorder. I couldn't even imagine what she must have been going through and how she stayed strong for as long as she did.

I liked the feel of the seasons and holidays, from a sunny and hot Fourth of July all the way through a snow-filled Christmas. Viola evoked the spirit of each holiday and brought the experiences to life so that I could see them taking place, even though I was reading this in March.

Overall, another touching and heartfelt story that will stick with me whenever I see a beautiful flower.

Movie casting suggestions:
Iris (2003): Jane Alexander
Iris (past): Betty Gilpin
Abby: Alia Shawkat
Cory: Jai Courtney

What a wonderful, heartwarming story! The author tells the story through current times and then looking back 60 years with Iris, Abby, Cory, and Lily. The knowledge the author departs on flowers is fantastic. You can almost see and smell the gardens and the flowers. It is so delightful to see the relationship between the characters unfold, especially Iris and Lily, showing how much an elder person can teach a younger one and vice versa. This book discusses current issues such as women's rights/ job discrimination in the workplace, returning military personnel and how it impacts families, overcoming loss, and the joy of gardening.
I have read many of the author's previous books and have enjoyed every one of them. The author's style of writing is easy to read and follow. The character development is great as one is able to picture each character and really get a feel for that person.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

You can always count on this author to provide a charming, heart-warming read. This book is set in Michigan and is a story about love, loss, gardening and the healing people can help each other with. It is an endearing story of an old woman, and a young family who moves in next door. They each have had a hard life, but they befriend and help each other. Very hopeful story.

What an inspirational story! This book was first by this author, not that. O am not familiar with the name, I just never read anything of hers.
The book is beautifully written. The flowers in this book play significant role. The characters are lovable. Everything about the plot flows beautifully here. I loved it!

Thanks to #netgalley and #Harlequin for the opportunity to read and review this book #TheHeirloomGarden by Violet Shipman
Pub date 4/28/2020
I love gardening and I love flowers. This story spoke to my heart with the descriptions of the flowers and the stories of the flowers. This book tells the story of Iris, a botanist in the 1940s, and Abby, an engineer in the early 2000s. Abby and her family rent a sound on Lake Michigan's shore from Iris, a woman who hasn't left her property in 40 plus years.
Both women's husbands served in combat, Iris's husband never came home; Abby's husband came home with PTSD.
Their stories, their lives begin to intertwine as Lily, Abby's daughter breaks a little of Iris's shell.
I loved the descriptions the author wrote about the meanings of flowers, and about propagation and care of them
If you love gardens, you will enjoy this lovely story. I definitely recommend.

If you love to garden, you'll want to add this to your list!

This is an emotional read. Iris was an easy character to connect with and root for. I enjoyed watching her get a second chance at life. I've been to Grand Haven, Michigan in the past, and I loved the area. So, it was great to see the setting in this book, as I recognized some of the places mentioned. I also enjoyed how each chapter is based on a different flower.

It's an emotional story with vivid descriptions.

In this book we learn just how much impact two very different people can have on each other.

There is Iris who was a very young WW2 war widow and Abby whose husband returned but has a severe case of PTSD. He can't function and drinks too much. These leads to him ignoring his young daughter.

Iris has been isolating herself and has built a wall both figuratively and literally. She pours all her love into her garden. She describes her feelings through her flowers. Abby feels isolated because her husband is home but not really present.

Iris watches this young family struggle and starts letting the young girl into her garden and eventually her heart. She yells at the Dad to sober up and step up because his daughter and wife needs him. He starts to attend therapy and helps Iris and his daughter with the garden. Abby does too once she gets home from work.

These four people help each other heal and we get to watch them bloom just as the flowers do. Iris has let down her figurative wall and by the end of the book she lets down her literal wall and her neighbors get to see her beautiful garden for the first time in decades. Abbie's family is whole again and Iris has the family she never knew she needed.

We meet two women generations apart who have lost their husbands.

One has a husband who never came home from WWII, and one has a husband who came home but is lost to PTSD.

Iris loves her flowers and her family, but they are now gone including her daughter.

Abby moves into the house next to Iris, has her husband and her daughter, and a job as an engineer since her husband can no longer work or function.

We follow the lives of both characters present day and past.

Gardeners will absolutely LOVE this book.

The flower and gardening information is outstanding and described in such detail you can visualize it.

I also enjoyed how flowers were compared to feelings and life events.

Viola Shipman has given us another heartwarming book filled with positive thoughts and virtual hugs.

The writing is beautiful just like the uplifting story line.

THE HEIRLOOM GARDEN has characters that will warm your heart once you get to know them.

The book was a bit difficult to follow for the first ten percent, but once you got going, it was as marvelous as always. 4/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Iris has been self isolating for decades.
She was a young bride and a young widow.
She lost her husband in a war and she lost her daughter to polio.
She’s been alone with her garden for a very long time.
Gardening and flowers have always been important to Iris. She used to garden with her parents and grandparents as a child. She worked in a victory garden during the war. She even cultivated her own flowers and sold them.
But one day Iris decides to just shut herself inside. She builds a huge wall around her property.

She rents out the property next door, the new tenants aren’t supposed to talk to her.
This doesn’t stop the little girl next door. Lily meets Iris through a hole in the fence one day. When Lily needs help one day, she goes to Iris.

Lily’s dad suffers from PTSD after his own time in the army. Iris feels bad for him but she knows that he needs to step up for his daughter. He’s drinking too much, sleeping too much, and his wife and daughter cannot depend on him at all.

Iris feels like she’s supposed to help this family. So she decides to let them into her life.

I enjoyed watching Iris get a second chance at life. My heart broke for her in the beginning when every moment of her life was dedicated to her plants. Her plants really are her family, her family’s stories and memories live in the plants. And everyone needs different things in life to be happy. Iris wasn’t miserable. She found a way to keep going after her loss, she created a beautiful little world around her. But she was still lonely. It was beautiful to see her open up and let others in.

This author’s books tend to make me think of my grandmother too. There’s nothing specific about Iris that reminds me of her. They are two totally different characters :) but I think the author always throws some grandmother vibes in their books and that warms my heart.

I got to read an early ebook edition from NetGalley. Thank you!

The Heirloom Garden is the latest West Michigan lakeshore based novel by the author writing as Viola Shipman. Once again, the reader is taken to the Lake Michigan coast, this time the setting is Grand Haven. If you are familiar with the area, many familiar landmarks are mentioned. If you aren’t familiar with the area, the author does a great job of describing a summer along Lake Michigan. The story centers around two neighboring houses along the shore. In one house lives Iris, a once famous botanist, who having lost her husband and daughter, now lives as a recluse. I particularly enjoyed the passage in the book that described the process that Iris used to hybridize her daylilies. Moving in next door is a young family. Abby is an engineer who works at a local paint company. Cory is a veteran of the recently ended Gulf War, struggling with PTSD. And Lily is their daughter, who is spending the summer at various camps in the area. As the four get to know each other, then help one another through the struggles each is facing. Each chapter is themed on a different Midwestern flower and plays an role in the story.

I received an advanced reader copy of The Heirloom Garden via NetGalley.

While women in today’s work force to face struggles, it was a little over the top in some of the situations that were portrayed at Abby’s workplace. It was also a bit heavy handed in the politics of the Gulf War. These detracted from the overall theme of the book, they just weren’t needed.

*** I received an ARC of this novel via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review ***
I absolutely love this book. It is so well written and easy to connect with. I loved the descriptions of Iris' gardens, heirloom flowers, and cottage on the lake. It is a story of history, family, healing, and friendship between a little girl and an old woman. I was presently surprised to find that this book takes place in Grand Haven, MI along the shore of Lake Michigan. I have never read anything by this author and look forward to reading more of Viola Shipman's work. I would most definitely recommend this novel to my fiends and family, and have actually suggested that our local library purchase it once it's a available.

What a wonderful read, loved this one. Granted, you don’t have to know a lot about flowers to enjoy the heartfelt emotions this story evokes, but I can certainly say as quite an experienced gardener myself, it made this tale all the more enjoyable because I did. I knew all the flowers mentioned and loved the descriptions but diving into the history and meanings made this book all the more enjoyable. I could relate to how spring incites so much excitement when discovering the first blooms to emerge from the cold, ice and snow.
I came to care for all the characters, the storyline was well laid out, and the writing was great. My only con was I found it rather unbelievable that one visit to the counselor would heal the wounds of PTSD so quickly. Otherwise this is a wonderful story. I recommend to anyone.
I was allowed an ARC from Harlequin and NetGalley for my honest unbiased review. This one gets a high 5 stars.

A brilliantly written story about hope, friendship and new beginnings.

A new family has moved into the house next door to Iris Maynard, her parents’ old house. She had no idea what was going on with the Peterson family until they become friends. All Iris knew was they were a young couple with a little girl names Lily, a flower name just like her own. Iris soon learns about Abby’s career and marriage struggles and learns Cory, the husband, is suffering from PTSD after serving in the Iraq war. Iris lost her husband in WWII and her daughter shortly after. She become a recluse after both losses. But with the help of each other, Iris and Cory help each other come out of their shells and learn to live again.

I have read all of this author’s books and with each new one, I say it was the best. This book falls right in line with that saying. I was hooked from the very beginning. The story took me on a journey through the characters lives, past and present, and taught me about flowers and gardening. It also taught me to open my eyes and truly see what’s around me, not just what’s on the surface. The story wrapped up with a ending that brought tears to my eyes.

Despite the fact that I am no way an excellent gardener this story inspired me to get to know the plants in my yard. I'm pretty sure that wasn't a goal of the author, but here we are. Every chapter focuses on a flower and I loved that. It was such a unique way of framing both stories.
The two timelines are equally heart wrenching. Both 1944 and 2003 life presents challenges for our two main female characters. It's sort of a romance/ kind of like historical fiction and completely binge-able.

I loved reading this warm, heartfelt story and watching as the friendship developed between Iris and Abby, both of whom have experienced hardship in their lives. Their difficult experiences at once endear them to the reader. Shipman's descriptions of the setting made me want to visit - and to try my hand at a flower garden! If at times the dialogue comes across as slightly artificial or overdone, the characters do seem genuine overall and I felt honored to spend this precious time with them.

This book gripped me right from the beginning. The descriptions of the flowers for each season, the gardens, and the scents made me feel like I was living on Lake Michigan. Right from the beginning of the book I was rooting for the Iris, Abby, Cory, and Lily to help each other overcome the past and become a "family". I especially liked the relationship between Iris and Lily! This is a wonderful story of love and support! I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to #netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy. I will be looking for more Viola Shipman books to read!

Let me start off by saying that I'm not a gardener. I have a few indoor succulents that have lasted more than six months, which is a personal best for me. I tried a garden last spring and was delighted that anything came up, but it wasn't a success. That said, I really enjoyed The Heirloom Garden, particularly because of the love and care the characters put into their gardens, and the author's lovely descriptions of flowers.

Of course, this novel is more than floral descriptions. Iris is an elderly shut-in, still traumatized by the sudden deaths of her soldier husband and her young daughter. Abby is a mother and wife, with a husband suffering from PTSD after his time in Iraq. This novel is about trauma and war, grief and loss, found families, and hope. I loved the tender relationship between these characters, and the overall message.

I did stumble sometimes over the characters' conversations. Usually they flowed and felt very natural, but at times one or the other would get on a soapbox and begin lecturing in a very formal, very uncharacteristic manner. I found this happened especially when discussing gender inequality at the workplace. I'm all for discussions about this subject, but it felt more like a professor lecturing, rather than an organic conversation based on mutual experiences.

Other than that, I was hooked! And against my better judgement, I'm inspired to try a flower garden of my own in the spring.

Thank you to the publisher for an ARC.