I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I really enjoyed this one the plot kept me interested until the end which is not easy, and the characters were engaging and believable. I highly recommend this book.

I absolutely loved this book! It was such a captivating read! I couldn’t stop reading! I loved the characters and the story! Highly recommend!

First of all this book grabbed my attention by its name and cover first. I knew what was inside this magical looking book would take me away to another world. This book spans 3 generations and the descriptions of nature are gorgeous and was perfect to read while in nature. This book tugged at my heart. I’m so glad I found this little gem of a book. Thank you to Netgalley for this book.

This compelling and absorbing novel crosses generations and multiple POV's but is primarily about Sarah, a woman living in a small UK town and raising two sons. There are family secrets buried in Littlefold that she is unaware of, as she cares for her children whilst struggling to feel connected to the other mothers at her child's school and to her husband, who is often absent. She develops a friendship with a boy called Finn, her loneliness translating as an attraction to him. The narrative is rich with beautiful descriptions of the natural world, but is also deeply nuanced in terms of the tensions and relationships in Sarah's family. I loved the way the history of her relatives and their secrets trickled down to her. She suffers the same frustrations as her grandmother, and as a reader, I enjoyed knowing what her connection was to Finn without her finding out. This is an intricate and delicate story, which reveals and hides at just the right moments.

I was very attracted to the cover design of the book and the blurb sounded interesting as well so I expected a story with a bit of magical realism in it. However, the story proved to be very straightforward...infact the plot just revolved around a few generations of women of two separate families and how an affair connects them. The writing was beautiful especially the description of the woods, the lake and nature in general and the book was well paced. I found the character of Finn interesting and only his backstory held some sense of intrigue and interest. Overall a quick read.

My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher Muswell Press and the author Louise Soraya Black for the e-Arc of the book.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 💫

Girls meets boy, boy insists she's going to be his wife one day, girl obsesses about nothing else. Such is the stuff this book runs on and I wasn't that interested to find out further.

Many thanks to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the ARC. However, it's not for me!

DNF

Some beautiful, descriptive writing here of a woman's discontentment with the constraints of life, marriage and motherhood. Sarah is fascinated and finds solace in the woods and the lake behind her house. She is also fascinated by a young man she finds there. The story is told through the years and the eyes of three generations of women: a grandmother, a mother and a daughter all with burdensome secrets to keep. One star knocked off for the main subplot being so unlikely to be acted on and another for a story line relating the woods and menace left dangling and unresolved.

2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 stars because of the beautiful descriptions of nature. This novel revolves around a few generations of two intertwined English families living in the Surrey suburbs (countryside?). The location is close enough for a train commute to London but feels rather rural. The author clearly has a love for the English landscape. She also has some lovely biting descriptions of the new mini-mansions and their owners vs the old home loved and lived in by Sarah and her family. But for me, there was way too much jumping around of timelines, forcing me to stop and figure out who was what age and so forth. And the plot just never really went anywhere solid. There is a family secret that is revealed to the reader and to the older two generations but Sarah in the present day (2011 mostly) never finds out why she has this mysterious connection with Finn, a local teenager. His interactions with Sarah were “off” and didn’t ring true to me, but Finn’s story, and the tragedy in his younger life, were interesting enough to have given him more of the book. I wished for a more revealing, more satisfying ending.

Thank you to NetGalley and Muswell Press for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This book is a mixture of genres and I really enjoyed it. I think evocative is the word I would use to describe it. What starts out as a story of a lady who is living in the country and slowly getting used to life there whilst her husband works in London turns into a "love that dare not speak its name" type of story and a murder mystery at the same time. Elements that should not mix do mix in this book and effortlessly so. I read it in three evenings after work; the writing so good that even I, in the centre of London could imagine myself lost in the countryside. The author writes in a way which calms and soothes but also progresses the story.

3.5/5

This review may contain spoilers.

I found myself quite intrigued by this story. By the characters and their connections to each other. With that being said, I found the “relationship” between Sarah and Finn weird and disturbing. He was a child, aged 16, and she was an adult. Not only that but they shared a grandfather, which we knew as the reader but it never came up between Sarah and Finn. I would have liked to have seen them find out they were related and seen how they would have navigated that and dealt with their feelings for each other.

I loved ‘The Water Garden’ by Louise Soraya Black. I found the descriptions of the countryside really evocative. I especially loved the characters, so much so that if there is one criticism it would be that I would like to find about more about each of them,

Thank you to Netgalley and Muswell Press for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I found The Water Gaden purely by chance while I browsing the "Read Now" section. The cover grabbed me immediately. It's so bright and beautiful. Once I read the synopsis, I knew it was a book I needed to read.

I was immediately drawn into the story. Louise's writing is absolutely beautiful, almost lyrical. The descriptions of Surrey and the lake were so vivid I felt like I had been transported there and was watching the story unfold in front of me. All of the characters and the storylines were weaved together wonderfully.

I was left with a major question at the end, and couldn't quite figure out from the ending if Sarah had figured everything out about her family. For that only reason, it wasn't a 5-star read for me.

Highly recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley, Louise Soraya Black and the publishers for giving me a copy of this book to review. All thoughts and opinions given are my own.
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This book was just wonderful. Something about Blacks writing entranced me from beginning to end, it was emotional and fast-paced. I read this in a couple of days and wow.
The way that this book jumped across through the generations of the family meant that it was a puzzle to figure out what was going on, but it slowly became clearer, the more I read and the more I read, the more I was hooked.
It intrigued me as well that there was a 16 year old, blonde character called Finn, which is exactly the age and name of my own brother.
I really loved this. And will definitely be recommending it others now that it is out!

I received The Water Garden as part of a NetGalley giveaway.

Sarah has moved to the countryside with her husband and two young sons. Left along with the children for long stretches, she finds herself drawn to an artificial lake and the fate of a boy who drowned there some years before. She also finds herself in the orbit of Finn, another young man who comes to the lake, seemingly to pay tribute. Little does she know, however, that she has closer ties to the situation than she'd ever thought. Told from alternating perspectives past and present, The Water Garden is a saga of two families over more than half a century, and the secrets that can strain and alter relationships forever.

This was a good read--perhaps not as juicy as some of the "uncovering old family secrets" novel out there, but I appreciate it being a bit quieter and less sensational. I had some deep reservations about the end--it sullied Sarah in my eyes--but I guess I can accept it without sanctioning it. The world Black draws is lovely, haunting and realistic, and a nice complement to the brooding feel of the novel, and the character are similarly complex and flawed. All in all a very well-crafted narrative.