I will admit that it took me a moment to get into this story, mainly due to the number of characters (even with the handy family tree at the start). However, once I got a handle on the family- the story rolled along nicely. There’s a mystery that permeates the story and centers around two families and an event so awful that the entire town gave up their memories of that summer. More than that, it’s a story about healing the pain and trauma of memories. A story about family. A story about magic.

**I would like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read this early.**

When I read the synopsis for Liz Parker’s In the Shadow Garden, it seemed to have everything I like about fantasy set in contemporary times: multiple POVs, magic, a small town, family secrets, grudges, betrayal, and a forgotten summer. There were parts I really enjoyed about In the Shadow Garden, and some that I was a little more lukewarm about.

My main frustration with the story doesn’t detract from how well it was written, because it had a certain flow to it that kept me reading. I was, personally, a little frustrated by Addison. She was fine, but I feel like I spent a lot of time waiting for her to learn from her mistakes. When she did, it was great, and I wish there had been more of those moments. The rest of the characters, however, were good, but it was Kaden and Irene who were my favorites. I really loved what Parker did with them. That was something I have to highlight too: the emotional stakes were just as consequential as the magical ones.

I did like the overall themes and messaging, about family and healing over time as well its foil within the story: how forgetting wasn’t the easy solution (or relief) it was originally portrayed to be. The sinister nature of what was happening was like a weed the town, Yarrow, never realized it needed to get rid of. There was a sense of foreboding connected to it, which steadily built over the course of the story. It made sense too, considering how secrets could stay buried forever when there was no one to remember why they were ever important. It all tied back in with the magic, the garden, the bourbon, and the people who made them a focal point within their lives. I’d describe it as a calling. And it was one of my favorite things about In the Shadow Garden.

All-in-all, In the Shadow Garden was good. Besides a few hiccups, I really appreciated certain character arcs, as well as the give-and-take necessary for the magic of the titular shadow garden to flourish. It was pretty cool. I would definitely read another book by Liz Parker.

Disclaimer: this copy of the book was provided by the publisher (Forever) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you!

In the Shadow Garden is what you would get if you took a witchy Alice Hoffman novel to a small town in the South, mashed it up with a Romeo-and-Juliet-style family feud, and topped the whole thing off with a bottle of bourbon.

"But beneath the earth, the garden was hard at work…"

I loved the seamless blend of the Haywood family’s light & healing magic, with the dark magic happening at the Bonner family’s bourbon distillery. The Haywoods use the products of their garden to help people heal, cope, and grow—especially after trauma. Conversely, the Bonners offer an escape from reality by brewing specialty bourbons that will make you forget your unpleasant memories.

"It was a slow, messy, lifelong process of starving the roots of the pain, and even then, the grief didn’t always die. That’s what her family was there for, to pull those feelings free and ease that heartache."

The story is breathtakingly atmospheric, with lush descriptions of flowering plants, glowing fireflies, humming cicadas, and lively community festivals & parades. I felt completely transported to small-town Kentucky as I read. The book offers something for everyone, seamlessly blending elements of mystery, fantasy, and romance.

"People gave up their darkest moments to our bourbon and found peace. It was its own sort of healing."

I’ll admit that the magic system is very confusing, and not fully explained, which left me feeling like I was missing something. Adding to the confusion for me was the way that the mystery unfolds slowly, through flashbacks. Eventually, enough came together for me to appreciate the ending, even though I never really did get an explanation of how/why the magic works.

"I think some pain we’re meant to keep. To remind us who we never want to be."

Highly recommend this one for fans of The Once and Future Witches , These Violent Delights , or The Bourbon Thief .

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A huge thank you to Liz Parker, Grand Central Publishing, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Wow! Just when I think I can't read a new take in magical realism, another author comes and blows me aways. I loved the whole concept of this story, it's magic and its people. Definitely hits the top of the best reads of 2022. If you're a fan of mr I totally suggest. ♡

This book gave me tons of Practical magic vibes!! A small town, a history of magic, dark secrets, second chances and a malevolent presence that is threatening to overturn the well-being of people's lives. This book is twisty and has something for everybody - from romance, suspense and a few thrills too. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review! Plus WOW, is the cover for this book stunningly beautiful!!!

🍂 I'm starting to get in the mood for fall, and "In the Shadow Garden" by Liz Parker was a great start to the season for me! 4.5 ⭐

🌿 Addison Haywood lives in a bourbon town in Kentucky with her mother and grandmother. They practice plant magic (although Addison has never grown into hers) by pouring the townspeople's sorrows into their "shadow garden." Think fruits, veggies, and herbs in shades of black and gray. Eating from the garden amplifies your emotions; the women also read auras and tea leaves.

🥃 The Haywoods are bitter rivals with the Bonners, who make the town's bourbon with corn that originally came from the shadow garden. The town is thrown into chaos when a long lost Bonner brother returns to town and the two families must examine their connections.

🌽 I like plants and I love bourbon. Practical magic has always been fun to read about for me, and as a fellow empath, I related to the Haywoods a lot. I thought the book was really well-paced and I liked that we got multiple perspectives across multiple times. The twists and turns got a little muddled for me at the end, but maybe I was just sleepy 😂 Overall, I really enjoyed the descriptions of the garden and how alive it felt, and both the plot and the characters were well-developed.

🍅 Did you grow any flowers, veggies, or herbs this summer?

⚠️ murder, grief, infidelity, emotional and physical abuse

This book was absolutely wonderful! Filled with magic, secrets, stolen memories, family, romance, and even murder, it is the perfect book for fall (and the other three seasons as well)!

I can't wait to see what Liz Parker has for us next.

Wow wow wow wow wow 😳

What a magical, beautiful, soul inspiring story!!!

Beautifully written and full of down home southern charm... I am so glad I read this. Talk about a book that takes hold and doesn't let go.

I don't typically like books told from multiple perspectives but this one does the job right.

Trigger warnings: child abuse, alcoholism, domestic violence, loss, death.

Well I binged this book. 😂 I was wanting a book full of magic and love and that’s exactly what Shadow Garden is all about.

When Kaden’s dad - an abusive man - dies, Kaden Bonner decides to go back home to Yarrow. He hasn’t been back in over 20 years, and somehow nobody can really remember him. Three generations of Haywood witches have rivaled and distrusted the Bonner family for years. But they miraculously trust Kaden.

The magic is acting up and the mystery behind it kept me turning the pages. A whole summer is missing from everyone’s minds. A Haywood dies. Kaden left. But what actually happened?

I loved the family dynamics. And the mystery. And the love. It made me feel all the things. The shadow garden was such an interesting concept. And I loved the incorporation of the nature and magic. It was just such a beautiful story.

Highly recommend for fans for witchy books, romance, family drama or mysteries because it has it all!

This beautiful, atmospheric book drew me in deep with its soulful vibes and intriguing story. It's as lush and enchanting as a garden, as rich and dream-spinning as a glass of bourbon. I loved the heartfelt magic and the masterfully wrought characters. IN THE SHADOW GARDEN is a gift for anyone who loves a mix of witchiness, mystery, and romance.

I love books that are themed around modern-day witches and magic realism in general, and this book sure fits the bill! We’ve got a family of women (the Haywoods) who can help someone heal by taking their bad feelings and transferring them to a magical garden (the shadow garden of the title). We’ve also got another family who has a bourbon distillery (the Bonners) in this Kentucky town. Somehow their bourbon, made from corn that originally came from the shadow garden, can make people totally forget a bad memory. Every year the town holds a festival where people offer up their worst memory - and the Bonner bourbon makes it go away! In fact, there’s a whole summer (1997) that no one can remember at all! What happened that summer is at the heart of the mystery in this book.

So… we’ve got a great set-up for an interesting story with overtones of a family feud on top of all the magic. There were a lot of characters to keep track of and that was hard at first (there’s a small diagram at the beginning of the people in the three main families, which was helpful). Eventually this wasn’t an issue.

Not only is the story enchanting (pun intended) but the cover is absolutely gorgeous. And each chapter has a lovely floral drawing too. Each chapter is told from the point of view of one of the main characters. My two favorite characters were Irene and Kaden.

Reading tea leaves was a big theme in the book and I found that aspect fascinating. (I’m a tea lover but have never had my tea leaves read!)

We will be spending some time in Kentucky in a couple of months and some bourbon tasting is definitely in our plans! I will be thinking about this book with every sip.

The idea of giving up your bad memories is an intriguing one, but I don’t think I’d want to do it. As the song by Garth Brooks (The Dance) says: “And now I'm glad I didn't know, The way it all would end, The way it all would go. Our lives are better left to chance. I could have missed the pain, But I'd have had to miss the dance.”

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

Thanks to Forever Pub for the gifted copy.

In the Shadow Garden is what I would consider a perfect Fall read. It’s full of magic and mystery, really atmospheric and in a small town, follows the generational story of the town’s founding families, and has multiple romance storylines. My favorite characters were Kaden and Irene, whom I fell in love with instantly, but the whole cast is just wonderful. I loved the multiple POVs in this book and the way the flashbacks to the past were done. You’ll be sucked right in for a binge read trying to figure out what happened in the summer 20 years ago and rooting for what’s blossoming in the present.

I cannot recommend this enough! Family magic, secrets, romance, and small-town bourbon come together to create a whimsical, dark novel I couldn’t put down!

This gorgeous cover first drew me to this book and the storyline was just a magical! I loved the multiple POVs in this novel and the dual timelines. The themes of healing from trauma, following your passions, friendship, and family were really well done and the Haywood family dynamic was really special. I loved learning about the shadow garden, the tea shop, and Bonner’s bourbon. The history behind them and the process they followed to utilize their magic was really interesting. I also thought the glossary at the end with bourbon terms and tea-leaf symbols was a really cute touch and I learned a lot about these topics while reading!

I was so investing in trying to find out what happened during that summer twenty years prior and the flashbacks really brought so much to the story. I liked how the author led us to the reveal bit-by-bit, it was fun to piece it all together! My favorite characters were Irene and Kaden. I just loved their entangled history and how they healed together. My only complaint is that I wish we could have gotten more about the history of the magic and how it first manifested, but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of this novel.

I loved the idea of this book and for the most part I really liked the story. I loved the magic and the garden. I loved that they read tea leaves. I wasn’t a fan of Addison or her love story. It felt rushed and unnatural. I did like the rest of the Bonner family but felt like there were way too many characters involved. The magic was interesting to learn about but the ending felt rushed and I was sort of hoping for more. Overall, I’d say it was a really imaginative story that kept me hooked. I think others will like it and suggest everyone check it out.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC.

I really, really enjoyed this book!  There is mystery, there is magic, there is family drama, and I loved it all!
Yarrow, Kentucky is home to the Haywood family, and I fell in love with this spunky, quirky, thoughtful group of witches right from the start.  Right away I felt like I was sitting with them at the table doing a tea leaf reading or day drinking some bourbon on the river.  Their relationships are complex and captivating and I loved the LGBTQ representation. Parker’s writing is so descriptive, coming from multiple points of view, with mystery that is perfectly woven until the very end.  Most of all, I really loved how the shadow garden represented healing from hardship while beautifully symbolizing the vulnerability and strength in that process.  

This book releases 9/6 and you’ll definitely love the witchey, lovey, mystery vibes and also some bourbon!  One I definitely recommend!

Thank you @ lizparkerwrites for writing. Shoutout to @readforeverpub and @netgalley for the arc!

This was a heart warming story about the love of family that was the combination of Practical Magic and Midnight at the Blackberry Cafe. For years the Bonners and the Hayward’s have never gotten along despite both families having their own brand of magic. Addison is one of the few in her family that doesn’t have control of her magic that resulted in her losing the love of her life and feeling like an outsider in her family. The book goes between the different characters allowing the reader to fall in love with them. This book left me feeling warm inside and it had enough of a twist that it kept me turning the pages until the very end.

Yarrow, Kentucky isn't just any ordinary southern town -- it's full of magic. The witches of the Haywood family ease the pain, grief, and sorrow of their community, feeding those feelings to their Shadow Garden, enabling it to grow beautifully and bountifully. Unfortunately, Addison, the youngest Haywood witch, can't control her magic like the rest of the Haywoods, instead taking too much sorrow from those she tries to help. Yarrow is also home to the Bonner family, rivals of the Haywoods, who seem to have magic all their own -- their bourbon, the best around, can completely wipe away a terrible memory once a year. All in all, Yarrow, Kentucky seems like a pretty picturesque place to be -- except nobody in town can remember that summer, 20 years ago, the summer that someone was murdered, and someone disappeared. And now, there's something wrong with the Shadow Garden -- the plants are wilting, the soil drying up. When a long-lost visitor returns to town, back again after leaving the same summer that everyone forgot, pieces begin falling into place. Will the town be able to remember all that was forgotten that summer?
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Y'all, when I tell you this book sucked me in, I really mean it. From the first page, I was enchanted with the charm of Yarrow; I could picture myself walking down the streets of town, popping into Lavender & Lemon Balm for a tea, smelling the smoky bourbon in the air. This story is told in multiple different POVs across a few separate timelines, but it was so easy to keep up with everything happening; it flowed like water and I wanted to keep floating. I love magical realism when it's done correctly, and this book does it SO right. The Haywoods can see the auras of others in the form of different flowers, each bloom representing a different emotion or feeling. They can use their magic to reach into the hearts of their patrons, loosening the roots of their sorrow, gently taking some of it away. I love that their garden, that gives back to the community through the delicious, unique produce it grows, is nourished by the sorrow of the community. There's something special about turning pain into something so beautiful.

I loved everything about this world and the characters that inhabit it. I honestly cannot believe this is a debut novel; you can tell how much love was poured into this story, and I really encourage anyone who wants a little magic in their life to pick it up when it releases.

I loved this story SO. MUCH. It has such a unique take on different family magics and I loved that the bourbon was used as a conduit for the Bonner family magic - bourbon is such a staple in so many households, especially throughout the South, and it would've especially been so in a town where the economy is based so much on the distillery! The descriptions of the garden and its feelings, needs, what the plants looked and smelled and tasted like, oh how wonderful! The stage-setting to bring readers up to speed in the Bonner/Haywood rivalries, the descriptions of the setting, the deep delve into everyone's feelings and thoughts... it just draws you right in till you're hooked.

I loved that it was just as much of a mystery to the Haywood family and everyone outside of the Bonners what had happened that fateful summer, along with those beautifully - written plot twists sprinkled throughout. 10/10, 5 stars, all of that!

"The richly atmospheric and luminous debut about three generations of women whose magic is as much a part of life as love, death, and the rich, dark earth beneath their feet - perfect for fans of Practical Magic and Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe.

There's something magical about Yarrow, Kentucky. The three empathic witches of the Haywood family are known for their shadow garden - from strawberries that taste like chocolate to cherry tomatoes imbued with the flavors of basil and oregano. Their magic can cure any heartache, and the fruits of their garden bring a special quality to the local bourbon distillery. On one day every year, a shot of Bonner bourbon will make your worst memory disappear. But the Haywoods will never forget the Bonners' bitter betrayal.

Twenty years ago, the town gave up more than one memory; they forgot an entire summer. One person died. One person disappeared. And no one has any recollection of either.

As events from that fateful summer start to come to light, there must be a reckoning between the rival Haywood and Bonner families. But untangling the deep roots of this town's terrible secrets will expose more than they could ever imagine about love, treachery, and the true nature of their power."

Practical Magic please!