This was such a delightful book. 3 generations of witches have kept the magic alive in Yarrow, KY but something is up. The youngest, Addison, takes more than just the pain and grief from people (the Haywood's specialty) she takes the whole memory. Because of this she's been relegated to the Shadow Garden and feels like she is now enough. To add to things, a long lost (weirdly forgotten) Bonner (The Haywood's rivals and creators of a bourbon that allows you to forget any memory of your choosing at the annual festival) has arrived and brings with him a tidal wave of questions about a summer 25 years ago that that whole town forgot.

This book is a beautiful book, both physically (I mean look at that cover) and story wise. I loved getting to know the Haywood's and their dynamics as 3 generations of women given great responsibility but not always great at communicating with each other. This is a story about grief, pain, and how to move on healthily. I definitely saw some of the twists coming but that did not take away my enjoyment from the book.

Thank you Grand Central Publishing and Netgalley for the arc!

Yarrow Kentucky is known for its Bonner bourbon and the Haywood shadow garden, both of which have their own magic. The bourbon aids in forgetting, while the garden aids in healing. But not all is as it seems. No one remembers a summer from 20 years ago, and when Kaden Bonner comes back to Yarrow for the first time in 20 years, no one remembers him either. As the Haywoods struggle to piece together what happened, tensions between the two families come to a head, threatening the town’s peace.

I absolutely loved this book. The romance in the work occurred between two older characters rather than focusing on the teenager’s romance – I can’t say enough how excellent this was. I will say that I never had a deep connection with any of the characters, but I was able to connect to them enough to enjoy the story and become emotionally involved with what happened to them. Make sure to utilize the family tree at the beginning. The work is told from the POV of several different characters, and it was a bit tricky to keep them all sorted at first.

The author did an excellent job at keeping the mystery going until the end of the work, but still contributing enough information during the book to maintain the reader’s interest. The pacing was well done, and I enjoyed how the author incorporated the remembrances/flashbacks throughout the work. I would have liked some explanation for how and why the magic worked as it did, and where that magic came from – this wasn’t addressed at all, and while it didn’t leave a large hole in the work, I would have appreciated some exploration of this.

The whole idea of the shadow garden taking pain and growing something beautiful from it was an excellent metaphor of real-life healing from trauma. The combination of auras with different plants to indicate someone’s emotions was really well done and created some beautiful imagery. I also enjoyed the exploration of the tea leaves and the meanings of different symbols.

I highly recommend this work of magical realism and look forward to reading more from this author. My thanks to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for allowing me to read a copy of this work; all opinions expressed in this review are my own. This book will be published on September 13, 2022.

Thank you NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for a chance to read In the Shadow Garden.

This book was so beautiful. I loved the magic, the garden, the bourbon, the rival families, the multiple generations of witches, tea leaf reading, and the flashbacks to the past. I loved that the magical garden was sentient and the grew from the negative emotions the Haywood witches withdrew from their clients. I also enjoyed all the relationships in this book. This book was a cozy read with a little bit of suspense sprinkled in. I can’t wait to read it again.

I love fantasy magic witch books and multi-POV chapters, however I did struggle to connect as much as I would’ve liked with the characters but I really loved the magic and the mystery and everything else, it’s a great read. Its everything I could want in a mystery witch book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book has such a unique premise, and I really enjoyed it! Highly recommend if you like fiction with a bit of magic sprinkled in. Thanks to NetGalley and Forever Books for the ARC!

I really enjoyed this book! In The Shadow Garden is a great fictional story about magic found in routine places: teacups, gardens, Kentucky, cornfields, bottles of whiskey. The magic of the families at the center is unique and central to the story, with enough twists and turns to keep the reader enthralled with the plot. There are tons of strong women characters throughout, with strong relationships of all types that are explored. People who enjoy fantasy and feminism will enjoy this book!

The Haywoods are a family able to make certain kinds of magic specifically by using plants and herbs. They take care of the residents of Yarrow. While sadness is necessary in life, it can also become overbearing. These are the times that the Haywoods are able to help by "plucking" the roots of the sorrow out of the person who needs help. They do not take all of the sadness at once, but little bits over time. It's a gentle easing of a person's grief. These emotions are then given to the dirt of the Shadow Garden, causing an abundance of healthy growth. The Bonner family distills bourbon from the corn seeds that they originally bought from the Haywood family. Their bourbon can cause you to forget, and once a year this particular bourbon is offered at a festival. The Bonners have taken away some of the Haywood's business because many people would rather completely forget an undesirable memory than have it plucked gently over time from their hearts. The Bonners harbor many secrets and the two families are rivals that do not care for each other. The magic in the book is truly unique. Mixed in is love, a mystery and death--the book has a lot going on. Perhaps too much, which is the reason for my 3.5 star review. I became confused while reading the book due to the large family and the author giving everyone a large part in the novel. It took a lot of thinking on my part, remembering who, what and where. There is a family tree in the beginning that was helpful and I am grateful for that. Truly some imaginative work on the author's part.
Thank you to NetGalley and Forever Hachette Book Group for the DRC in exchange for an honest review.

The Haywood and Bonner are rival families that have lived in Yarrow, Kentucky for many years. The shadow garden has magical powers and people seek it out for many reasons. Twenty years ago, the town forgot that summer. This book tells the tale of what happens when the memories start to return!

Bourbon magic that makes you forget? Yes, please! This magical story of family and love and loss weaves together multiple view points to piece together the mystery of what happened the summer of 1997--a summer an entire Kentucky town has forgotten. The cast of strong female characters bonded together by their family legacy and friendship drive this mystery to a satisfying conclusion.

I really enjoyed the different genres that were pulled into this book - from the fantasy of magic to the mystery and suspense I found this book ticked a lot of boxes for me!

I was excited to read this and it did not disappoint! I think one of the neat things was that the book took place in the South and that was such a unique thing to read about as well!

In the Shadow Garden was an interesting book, but it didn’t capture me the way I wanted it to. I liked but didn’t love the characters and I actually felt like there were too many of them- Quinn and Harper seemed unnecessary and then I was temporarily confused about who was married to Nolan, the one who’d be dead for over 20 years I know this seems silly, but it felt like there were a lot of Hayward’s and not very many Bonner’s.

The concept of magic and memories in the garden and the bourbon was again, interesting, but somehow failed to really capture me. While I was invested in the story and curious about how it would resolve itself, I never felt fully hooked.

I will say that, from a psychological perspective, I can’t imagine losing my memories and/or having them tampered with.

In the Shadow Garden by Liz Parker, 4 stars.
This book is the perfect way to spend a summer afternoon. It reads quickly and has an interesting premise. However, I didn’t really feel myself connecting with any of the characters. The book is told from multiple points of view and I think it was just too many. It didn’t allow me to connect with anyone,
I recommend this book for anyone who likes books with magic, strong female characters, and small towns.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my review.

First of all: the cover for this book is absolutely gorgeous. I'm in awe. I preordered this book because I need it on my shelves.

Secondly: what's between the covers is equally gorgeous. We have a multigenerational story about (mostly) women as they sort through all of their trauma, most of which they don't even remember the source of. The descriptions of the shadow garden and grief and summertime in Kentucky were all lush and beautiful. And by the end, I was a complete and utter mess because I just had so many feelings all at once.

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited to read this book. I had heard such good things. I did enjoy a lot of it - I loved the characters and their relationships, the descriptions of the plants and their various healing properties, the tea leaf readings and the magical powers of the Haywood family. I could see the Shadow Garden come to life and feel its powers.

Unfortunately, about halfway through the book, I started to get bored. I was still interested in the plot, but I lost connection with the characters. They didn't seem to grow in any meaningful way that I could relate to. They became caricatures reacting to situations, and I felt like I was watching from the sidelines.

Thank you to NetGalley for an opportunity to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“There were two things every Haywood woman knew: never trust a Bonner, and always trust the leaves.”

I really liked this book. The story is told through the perspectives and memories of several different characters, including the shadow garden itself. I appreciated this choice as it made the overall narrative feel like it belonged to the entire Haywood extended family and not just Addison or Irene or Kaden.

The book grapples a lot with the idea of healing, particularly after traumatic experiences, and what may or may not be the best course to move forward. The Bonners offer people the chance to completely remove a single memory once a year. The Haywoods prefer a more gradual approach in which they gently extract emotions like pain and grief at the root, then feed those feelings to their shadow garden. In return, the garden yields produce that carries the impression of those emotions.

I thought the magic system was really interesting. The Haywood family’s gift is completely related to plants and the shadow garden. Their primary power is to weed negative emotions from people’s hearts so that positive ones have room to grow. They read tea leave leaves when seeking guidance and they can see people’s auras as flowers.

In love. I am in love with this book.

The magic. The mystery. The garden…I loved everything about it. One of my favorite things being how the author left hints to peak interest but I didn’t feel like they took ages before explaining what those hints and how they unfolded. This was a huge plus for me since I tend to need instant gratification. The main mystery of the story wasn’t unraveled right away but with the smaller explanations given sooner, my curiosity was sufficiently satiated.

I liked all the characters. With the multiple POVs, I did feel like we didn’t see all characters grow/develop as much as we could have but I was not disappointed in any way with what we got.

I felt like the magic system was very confusing and I didn’t really connect with the characters.

2/5 stars

Thank your NetGalley and Forever for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to the publisher for my review copy. All opinions are my own.

Okay. {shakes head up and down}. This one was okay. Meh if you will. Now, to be fair. I picked this one up purely thinking it would give me Sarah Addison Allen vibes....and it kinda did. I'm going to talk from both sides over here. What I liked and what didn't work for me.

I loved the mystery aspect. You truly didn't know what was going on.
Really enjoyed the premise. Very different and honestly it worked.
The second chance romance was a go for me...always a good idea.

What made it meh...

I did not connect with the characters. I was very much an observer. It was very surface level for me and I needed more.

At first. There were a lot of characters/families to keep up with. If there is a family tree in the beginning and it is only one book. Red flag.

Trying to figure out who belonged to who and what that person could do magic wise was confusing. I'm still not a 100% with one of the characters....true story.

Overall. I didn't hate it. I'm not sorry I read it. It will however, be forgettable. It was okay.

I picked this on a whim based on the cover and I was shocked how much I loved it. This is what I wanted from the practical magic series. I highly recommend.

I am clearly in the minority on this one! This should’ve been a perfect fit for me but it wasn’t.I typically love books with magic but I struggled to understand the magic, the characters and how everyone in Yarrow was connected to each other. Had to stop and start several times to get engaged in the story. Took a big chunk of time to set up the story and the mystery was only introduced after quite a bit of time. Very slow mystery that was not compelling. Interesting concept: would you be willing to give up memories of your worst life experiences or heartache? Obviously though this comes with a cost. Would it be worth it? Plenty of questions to make the reader think.

Thank your NetGalley and Forever for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.