I really loved Garden Variety! As someone who lives in a major city and wishes she could have her own garden, this was the perfect book to live vicariously through.

Lizzie lives in LA and is a member of the Vista Mar Community Gardens. It’s very difficult to get into this club and it’s very difficult to stay a member! They have lots of rules and regulations that are strictly enforced. But the people are friendly and they all have their quirks.

I loved the relationship between Lizzie and Jarod and their slow burn romance was just fun to follow. I like that neither expected much, but really grew to love and appreciate each other.

I always enjoy reading something that so unlike anything else. I didn’t know I needed a garden club romance, but I would absolutely read more!

Thank you so much to @bibliolifestyle and @williammorrowbooks for my gifted copy.

4.5/5 -- I loved this book, start to finish. A community garden is such a fun place to highlight relationships and drama! The best part of the story for me was the amount of garden talk--talk of things like veggies, plants, soil pH, heirloom varieties, composting, gardening methods, garden implements, everything. Anybody can enjoy this story but I believe gardening enthusiasts will really gobble it up.

Plus, there's a really fun map of the garden in the book, showing each character's plot in relation to the other characters, where the compost piles are, etc. SO FUN.

This is a Fiction book. This book takes place in a community garden, and there is a lot about gardening. I love gardening, and I really love growing my own food. I think you really need to enjoy garden, or you will want to read a lot about gardening to read this book. I personally have never used a community garden because I own a lot of land, so I just grow on my own land. I have friends that use a community garden to grow their plants in, and the stories they have told me is a lot like this book. I love the characters in this book, and they really grow on me like their plants grow. There is a lot going on in this book, and I think the community garden is like a family. With any family there is a lot of drama, but they still have love for each other. This book made me want to get my garden planted and going, but it is not time in my area to do that...LOL. The ending of this book really touched my heart. I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher (William Morrow & Company) or author (Christy Wilhelmi) via NetGalley, so I can give an honest review about how I feel about this book. I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

After leaving the hectic world of the city she begins a new life on a small farm coop where she is finding her happiness and health. She continues to enjoy a calmer, slower paced life until a neighbor begins to throw out all the hardworking that is being done and causing more trouble for everyone. Also Lizzie's romance is beginning to fade before I has the time to bloom.

4.5 Stars, rounded up. Will Goodreads never man up about the stars?

I never thought that a community garden could have so much going on besides gardening!

I'm not much of a gardener-if I garden at all, it is in pots on my deck, but this book made me want to go and really get my hands into the dirt and make some new friends. I did get a tad annoyed with the moaning about global warming, but I did find it fascinating to find out how gardening/planting differs throughout the country.

Don't get me wrong; this book is more than just gardening advice (tho you do get a lot of that); it is a romance, a bit of a mystery, a laughing and crying book. It is a book about strong characters and shy characters---it just seems to have everything that pushed my buttons and allowed me to love it.

*My thanks to William Morrow, NetGalley, and Ms. Wilhelmi.

What a lovely debut novel from Christi! I've been an avid podcast listener of hers for years and have enjoyed her non-fiction books but it was a treat to read a novel from her! I enjoyed the cast of characters but I did think the Lizzie character was a bit unlikeable and somewhat underdeveloped. Despite that, I think this is a fun book to dive into on a long weekend or for an upcoming beach read!

I really enjoyed this debut book by Christy Wilhelmi because I am a garden nerd who loves a little bit of drama in life and this books offers a heavy dose of gardening with just the right notes of drama and people development.

The story takes place in Southern California in a community garden where the characters are all about control, keeping to themselves and trying to heal themselves through the garden. But new gardeners and old enemies will change the dynamics of the relationships much as the way the seasons change the dynamics of our gardening!

A fun read for those of us that love to get our hands into the dirt and fight the elements to reap the rewards of the effort in home grown fruits, flowers and vegetables.

Thanks William Morrow and Net Galley for chance to read!

This is a hard book to keep interested in. It's a good storyline, just wasn't super exciting. It's about a community garden, all the politics inside their group, dealing with someone wanting to buy the garden and making them leave it. There is a bit of romance when a new guy gets a section of the garden.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a temporary, digital ARC in return for my review.