I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. An interesting read. The cover is beautiful.

This was interesting, but also depressing in a way, for it made me uncomfortable because it was a bit more dark that I usually read, but also it was just confusing. to many inner family dark secrets. For our main character really took her relatives issues to heart and it shoed in her own relationship.

⭐⭐⭐ Meh
#thelemonsinthegardenoflove
#amessheldon
#NetGalley published 5/11/21
#shewritespress
#historicalfiction
#womensissues
#triggeralertabortion
#triggeralertbirthcontrol

I really wanted to love this one. But it was just Meh for me. It had 2 timelines ✔️ it had a kind of romance ✔️ but it was mostly just about the suffrage for women, brith control and abortion availability.

One time line was written in the form of a diary that was written by Cassie great, great Aunt Kate. In the back of the book, the author explains that all of the historical information was all based on real history.
It was mixed in throughout the book being compared directly to Cassie's life.

However I did thoroughly enjoy learning more about the "suffragists". I could feel the passion for the movement, since they were abridged from real letters/diary entries. And apparently "suffragette" was apparently a derogatory term made up by the opposers of women getting the vote.

I think the reason why I'm not thrilled with this novel is bc she just slugs through life. Or maybe it's the choice of words the author uses to describe Cassie's life. Or maybe it's that the novel is written in 3rd person and more on the passive side. I'm said to say that I didn't like it more. I did want to keep reading so it does justify the ⭐⭐⭐.

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Cassie Lyman is sifting through the archives looking for a topic for her doctoral dissertation when she comes across the Kate Easton collection.  Kate Easton is a relative of hers and Cassie finds intriguing artwork centered around women's suffrage that Kate illustrated.  Before Cassie can dig much deeper, she is pulled to her sister, Penny's shotgun wedding at her Grandmother's cottage.  Cassie is quickly put to work by her mother who has organized every last detail.  In her precious spare time, Cassie begins to ask her relatives about her Aunt Kate and reads the diary entries that she copied.  Cassie learns that her Aunt was an important force within the women's suffrage movement and that their experiences in life may not be that different. 

Lemons in the Garden of Love explores the real life relative of the author, Blanche Ames Ames through the fictionalized Kate Easton.  Kate, like many others, was an unsung hero in the women's suffrage movement.  Kate used her talent to draw political cartoons that called attention to the women's need to vote as well as how women were being treated in the early 1900's.  Though Kate and Cassie lived 70 years apart, their issues closely mirrored one another.  I enjoyed reading through Kate's diary entries while Cassie began to see the parallels in her marriage and how her family wanted her to behave; however, Cassie had more options as well as safer options to consider.  One of the most entertaining parts of the story were the many characters in Cassie's family, her grandmother, mother sister, Aunt Charlotte and her husband were all unique as well as products of their time.  Their opinions and actions clearly showcased the conditions of how they were raised with certain privileges and biases that they held. One of my only complaints was that the speech seemed unnatural at times, however, this is a shorter story, so it wasn't anything I couldn't get over. 

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

Thank you to Net Galley and She Writes Press for the chance to read and review this book. The opinions expressed are my own.
This book just wasn't for me. The story idea seemed to have great potential, but the flow just wasn't there. I liked the historical storyline, but the present day storyline just didn't catch my interest.

A big thanks to NetGalley, Author Ames Sheldon and She Writes Press for the ARC giveaway. This is my honest review.

In 1977 Cassie discovers the diary of a great aunt who was active in the fight for legitimizing birth control, and decides to write her dissertation about her, meanwhile, Cassie discovers parallels between the journey her great aunt went through and her own.

I felt that the story had so much potential, but unfortunately, it was not an easy read for me. The writing was stilted and had an unfinished feel to it.
The story itself was very interesting, and as I understood: it was based on actual facts, which makes it an important read. I just wish it was easier to actually read.
If you do make it through, don't miss the drawings in the end!!

I finished this book because it was a short read. The writing was decent but the connections between the present and the past felt forced. I also felt like the story was developed fully. It read more like a work in progress than a final published draft should have.

2 stars
This book had such potential. I was so excited to read it.. But unfortunately it is awkward. It is hard to explain. The writing is choppy. There is no fluidity to the words.

Thanks NetGalley, She Writes Press and Ames Sheldon for an ARC to review.
I loved it and enjoyed following Cassie's evolving through studying Kate's diaries and letters. The similarities and differences between Cassie and Kate is like a witness recording the significant struggle women like Kate had throughout history.
I liked the book's structure and would definetly love to read more by the author.

Set in Massachusetts in the 1970s, this book is classified as Historical Fiction but didn't feel like it to me. In any case, the story itself is an interesting one. Women's studies student Cassie is a young married woman whose life is full of questions and stressors. She is also uncertain what to write her dissertation on. In her search at the library she reads the Kate Easton Papers written decades earlier which are very revealing in several ways.

I like the epistolary format in general so was glad to see some of it in this book. Cassie navigates a very dark period in her life along with her family, friends and husband. The Birth Control League of Massachusetts and the suffragist movement are highlighted in Kate's letters.

The main characters felt a bit uninspired to me and weren't convincing, especially in times of difficulties. I didn't feel engaged. Some aspects of the book were intriguing to me but not others. Just personal preference. Very clever title and cover!

My sincere thank you to She Writes Press and NetGalley.

Set in 1977, Cassie is writing her doctoral thesis on the history of women's rights. She discovers she has an ancestor who was heavily involved in the movement from the 1950's. Kate Easton, her great aunt founded the Massachusetts Birth Control League, a precursor to Planned Parenthood. As she researches she uncovers some family secrets. A good look at the 70's. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I found it interesting that this novel made such a point 'place', where one grows up, especially as an interesting indicator of how families handle typically handle or address stress and crises? Without even reading that this book was set in New England I could tell the characters were from there just by how they interacted and spoke to each other, the sharp edges of conversations and the clipped and brisk phrasing. They loved each other but there was minimal gentleness to their familial love (to me). This isn't a bad thing but it's quite different from the way in which Southerners deal with the same situations or problems. Both regions have take-charge women that will run over any obstacle to get things done they way they feel it should be done but I found it fascinating to witness here. I'll leave other reviewers to share the story line. Final opinion: an interesting book not something I'd choose to read again.

This story is set in the late 1970's and is the story of how Cassie Lyman, a graduate student, navigates a critical time in her life. She is developing a research subject for her doctoral thesis in women's history, when she comes across a fascinating amount of information at Smith College about Kate Easton, a woman who founded the Birth Control League of Massachusetts in 1916. Cassie also discovers that she is actually related to Kate Easton.

At this point, Cassie has been living in Minnesota, but she has returned to her childhood stomping grounds for the wedding of her sister. So, in the foreground of this story is Cassie's current family drama surrounding the wedding and-- other later developments. Meanwhile, Cassie is obsessed with reading Kate Easton's journal entries and letters. As time goes on, Cassie finds parallels between her life and her great grand aunt's, and is thankful for and awed by the work and strength exhibited by her predecessor.

I enjoyed the historical background of this story-- Kate Easton's writing was the best part of this historical novel. She seemed real. Unfortunately, Cassie did not come off the page for me, and I thought that she seemed too young. For example, the petulance she feels towards her mother's bossiness before and during a family wedding was surprisingly immature. Then, she is absent during most of her sister's wedding reception because she can't resist going up to her room and read Kate's letters. This seemed both rude and childishly self-absorbed. Also, the way she avoids her husband during the event, which he has had to fit around his schedule, seems unfair.

One part of Cassie's life that is never developed is how she came to be married to Martin, in the first place. Their marriage is an important part of Cassie's life, and so should have been drawn with more detail.

In contrast to the dearth of background on Cassie's marital situation, there is a lot of dialogue, much of which I found awkward and sometimes unlikely.

In the end, I thought her life came together easily, with her problems solved in predictable ways. This is a light, pleasant read, but not overly compelling. The history about Massachusett's Birth Control League was intriguing.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me this opportunity.

I absolutely loved this book - it was so moving, and the writing just made me want to keep reading. Cassie was incredible relatable to me, from her relationship with her mother to her marriage. I loved the family dynamics and the strong female characters.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book tells the story of a young woman, Cassie, in the late 70s exploring the decision of whether or not to start a family as she finishes her dissertation on Women's History, focusing on diary entries from one of her ancestors to guide her focus. The events in her life mirror her ancestor's diary entries as she proceeds through the novel, giving her guidance as she has to make tough decisions regarding her future.

The novel wasn't bad, but felt like a good short story dragged out to be a full length novel. There honestly is not a whole lot going on over the course of this novel and a large portion of it felt like filler for the author to get to novel length. The book did not feel super cohesive, but the inclusion of the historical viewpoints on events was a nice choice for helping the main character grow through the course of the novel.

I would give this a 2.5/5. Not a terrible read, but it did frequently feel unfocused and like it dragged out a fairly short story to get more content.

This novel starts as Cassie and her family are preparing for the wedding of her younger sister. Cassie's family are all together for the first time in a while, and as Cassie has recently uncovered the diary of her aunt Kate, she takes the opportunity to find out as much as she can. She didn't know anything about her aunt, who was one of the founding members of the birth control league of Massachusetts.

Many of Cassie's family are predictably awful. Though I'm not sure awful is necessarily a fair description, particularly for the women. They believe in really conservative gender roles and seem to judge Cassie for her own choices. And yet I can't hate them for it, because how many of them were ever truly shown that there's another choice? I started off really disliking Cassie's mother, and I'm not sure I ever warmed to her exactly, but I began to understand some of the choices she had made and why she behaved the way she did. There were characters I love, Cassie, her cousin Helen and her aunt Charlotte in particular.

Hilariously, I'd decided that I did hate Cassie's husband Martin before he even showed up. He's mentioned in passing before he arrives for the wedding, and I knew I wasn't going to like him. And I was right. He's irritating and possessive and he does that thing where he insults her, without seeming to. He'll tell her how she should be doing her work or imply that she's always at fault. He just gets progressively worse and I was filled with the overwhelming urge to punch him. But he was also written so, so well. The author really captured his horrible personality in a way that was infuriating but still very believable.

But this book is so much more than the characters, though I adore them. It really spoke to me about the role women are often forced to play in society. What really struck me is that although things have changed, they've also stayed the same. There's this moment in the book, where Cassie is reading from a diary written in 1912, and she reads the line "I believe the difficulty lies in men who are too theoretical; their theories omit all the particularities of actual experience." And all I could think is that this is so true even today. Whilst I know many men who respect me and view me as an equal, I also know so many who don't. Or who have certain expectations.

Women are still expected to take the majority of responsibility for caring for children. For cooking and cleaning. For organising events. And we're also expected to go to work as well. So it's like we've won the right to vote, to work, to in theory be equal to men. And yet in some ways we've ended up with even more work, because in many cases, those domestic responsibilities haven't shifted in part on to men. Of course I know this isn't the case in every family or situation, but it was so interesting how this book takes place in 1977 and also looks back to 1912-40 through her aunt's diary and yet so much is still true today.

I also love how Cassie's aunt Kate's work became very relevant in Cassie's own life, and how learning about her history helped Cassie make choices about her future.

It's important to recognise that Cassie's story is quite a specific one. She's a white, middle-class woman, and so her experiences are definitely influenced by that level of privilege. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, Cassie's story feels very real and honest, but I'm sure not all readers will identify with it. I couldn't identify with coming from a family who has that level of money at their disposal, but Cassie's struggle to be taken seriously as a woman still resonates with me very deeply.

All in all an excellent read, I'll be keeping my eye out for more work by this author, and anything else the publisher releases.

The historical notes at the end of the book were fascinating and really motivate me to find out more about the real people this book was based on.