I read this over the Christmas period and it was a feel good simple book to readthat left me feeling very warm at the end. The book is full of great descriptions of life in a Cornish village with the very parochial residents. The title was evident throughout as the garden plays a very important part throughout the whoe story. The characters were very well described, their emotions and lives easy to follow and could all be someone that the reader could associate with. I now want to visit the Eden Project, but not to steal the plants!
A little too precise and very predictable but it does have a happy ending all round which left me with a feel good view about life.

There is so much( to enjoy in this book and I loved meeting all the characters who helped Lowena settle into her new home and job. Lowena was easy to like as she helped others too, even arranging a coach trip and welcoming people into her garden. I loved the idea of the box handed down to her when her mother died - couldn’t we all do with a magic box in our lives.

An absorbing story set in beautiful Cornwall, by the sea. Plenty of characters to follow, all bound together by the library and Lowena’s garden. An enjoyable read.

I loved this sweet book, it was so gentle and an easy book to read. Set in Cornwall is always a plus for me. This story meandered along and really hit the spot. My final book for 2021. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

After Lowena’s mother dies, she sells both their houses and buys a cottage by the sea.
She is looking for new beginnings and sets up a library in the area.
As she settles into her new life she meets many interest characters and some new friends.
A feel good story that will make you smile.
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK One More Chapter for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Does Lowena's mother's seed box really have special powers? Her mother always believed and now Lowena needs some positives too. She''s moved to St Merryn in Cornwall, bought a house, and taken a job in the library. She's scattered the seeds to make a garden but she discovers, as will the reader, that it takes the village to truly blossom. The people of the village are key to this story of a woman starting over and if there are perhaps a bit too many of them to keep everyone straight at all moments, well, that's how life works too. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's a good read with a positive outlook and delightful bits about gardening.

I very much enjoyed this story. A real feel good novel. A great read from the first page I didn’t want it to end. I look forward to reading more by this author.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my copy of The Garden by the Sea, a beautiful, feel good story full of characters you'll love and more happy endings than you can shake a stick at.

A charming heartwarming story about second chances, finding your tribe and love. All with a sprinkle of magic.

I got this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoy gardening. I adore stories with the older population in them. I like a bit of unexplained magic in the world. A glorious watercolor book cover always draws me to a book. All that being said I should have loved this book. While I did enjoy it, it did not reach the point of “I cannot put this down” feeling. The first half dragged a bit to me, and I believe that is why I was “reading” about the actions of the characters in the book, instead of caring about them and what would happen to them. At the half way point, I was more interested and that had me wanting to finish the book to find out the outcome of the character’s lives.

I think the plotline was excellent. A woman at a crossroad in her life moves to a new area, grows a lovely garden, while also growing wonderful friendships and a community blossoms. I honestly do not know what was missing for me, to view this as a 5 star book. It could be simply that I did not identify with any of the characters. I do think that this book will be a great story for other readers and maybe if I had read it at a different time in my life, it would have been a great story for me also.

I want to thank HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter and NetGalley for allowing me to read the advance reader copy, with no obligation to write a review. My review is written freely as a hobby, and is totally my own opinion, not influenced by receiving the ARC.

This new novel is the second in the Cornish Escapes series of novels. It features Lowena Rowe who has just lost her mother. As she clears her mother’s house out ready for sale she finds a family seed box which her mother had claimed was a magic box full of seeds and soil from Tintagel. This is definitely a keepsake Lowena wants to cherish. Her mother was an avid gardener and Lowena wants to plant the seeds into a garden she can already envisage when she moves to Cornwall.
All the business completed, she begins house hunting. When she arrives in the village of St Merryn she finds the home of her dreams. It is a quaint cottage with potentially lovely sea views. The old couple who are selling their home have let the garden grow wild, obviously unable to do the work themselves any more. But Lowena is up for the challenge and immediately puts is a bid at the asking price. She is gutted to hear that there are other similar offers on the table already, so she offers a higher sum of money. It is worth it for she has fallen in love with everything about it. Soon it is hers.
The new library, which has been gifted to the community by a local philanthropist, also becomes Lowena’s new job. Everything is falling in to place for her and she throws herself into the new job and getting her cottage just as she had imagined it would be. She scatters seeds from her mother’s precious box in the garden, hoping they will grow into healthy plants. This is the first step in her plans for her garden. But she has ideas for improving the garden which she soon puts into action.
Lowena becomes immersed in the community. She arranges a house warming party with a difference and promised refreshments for help with getting the garden shipshape: weed pulling, digging plots, pruning rampant bushes and sowing her plants. The villagers, curious about a new single lady and her past, come and make a huge effort to be sociable and hard working. New friendships are made as Lowena seamlessly fits into St Merryn’s community. She arranges outings, gatherings and more.
This was a lovely feel-good story about new beginnings, friendships and community spirit. It was a very pleasant interlude in my reading, beautifully written and with a host of characters of all kinds: retirees and workers, kindnesses and frictions, the characters relatable and diverse. The storyboard was full of action, surprises, love and loss, teenage pregnancy and brewing romances. I received this book through my membership of NetGalley and from publisher One More Chapter in return for an honest review. Thank you sincerely for my copy. I loved that the issues were relevant for our modern day lives and how Amanda managed her story so charmingly and left me with a gorgeous ending. I am so pleased that I discovered this storyteller a few years ago and look forward to reading more of her novels.

What a beautiful read.Lowena was born when her mother had given up hope of ever having a child but when she makes a wish on an old Tintagel box she finds in the attic her dream comes true When Lowena finds the box after her parents pass away she takes it with her as she moves to the little coastal village if St Merryn start a new life and there her life gets better as she meets lots of new friends ,has a job she loves and even gets to find love ..Great writing and fantastic characters and a lovely feel to the story I really loved it .

A heartwarming and thoroughly engrossing read... After the death of her beloved mother, Lowena relocates to a

new life in St Merryn, Cornwall. She buys a house with a garden and sea view and starts work in

a library. Lowena makes friends with so many interesting people in the community and meets Ben..

She also has an extremely special keepsake from her mother, a seedbox, full of special soil and seeds from

Tintagel with magical powers. Do wishes come true.?

This book is a real gem. An absolute delight to read.

This book has a best seaside setting and was full of quirky characters whom I loved. I just found that there were too many storylines thrown in so Instead of some of the characters being supporting cast, each of them had a problem that Lowena seems to find herself fixing. With too many stories it was difficult to care what happened to them. It was a nice book but it lacked the deep heartfelt rug you usually feel for the main character.

Even the magic of the garden and the special box lost its appeal when everyone seemed to be using it.

Thank you to One More Chapter and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC.

A really lovely story with lots of different threads to the story around firendship, love and magic. Really enjoyable with all the different characters.

This is an intriguing story about secrets and myths passed down to Lowena from her mother. Set in Cornwall, Lowena commences a new job, and develops new friendships in the area. Excellently written, I was hooked from the very first page
When her Mum passes, Lowena decides to move to St Merryn, a beautiful village overlooking the sea, and changes her job to become a librarian. She develops her mother’s passion for gardening and finds help from her new found friends and neighbours. The book has a light hearted welcoming appeal, full of optimism and hope for the future, although also touches on difficult issues. Character driven, the story is well drawn and relatable, with characters developing as the story unfolds.
After being hurt in the past, Lowena is wary about becoming involved in new relationships, but Ben – a wealthy neighbour begins to spark her interest. A sub plot explores the developing relationship between her new artist friend Hilary and Dan. Misunderstandings between the two and various twists and turns kept me turning the pages.
Amanda James sets the scene perfectly, you can almost feel the breeze as it wafts off the sea and hear the crash of the waves on the shore. An entertaining read, Lowena’s garden sounds like a wonderful bouquet of colour and fragrance. Recommended.

Between the beautiful cover art and three of my favorite things mentioned in the first chapter: books, gardening, and cats - not to mention the ocean close by- I was pulled right into The Garden by the Sea. This is a delightful story about new beginnings, friendship, and community spirit. Lowena, Ben, and the whole cast of characters are a joy to visit. Thanks to author Amanda James, HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter, and NetGalley for providing a copy of The Garden by the Sea for an honest review.

Amanda James has written another perfect feel good tale. A long forgotten box of soil from Tintagel (where magical King Arthur lived) contains seeds that Lowena plants in her new garden. The house overlooking the sea and the very neglected garden brings the odd and amusing community together. There is nothing to complain,so; about in this book, it is a delight.
Brilliant 9/10

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Lowena is feeling lost after suffering a loss and decided to make sone changes. She moved to a new town and is hoping to meet new people. She meets Ben and enjoys his company. I enjoyed the different characters and getting to know Lorena and Ben.

A brilliant story . Don’t give up on it as a slow burner but excellent. Lowena is a great character . Her building of the library and finding love was lovely . The house Lowena brought was amazing. Ben was a complicated character and I am was pleased how the book ended . A great read . There are many other good characters in the book.Read it