Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Unfortunately this book was not living up to expectations for me. I'm unable to want to continue reading at this time. I ended at 30%.

This book was challenging and at times hard to read. I rooted for Harriet and my heart went out to her from the first chapter. The pacing was good and the tension built just enough. Each character was well written. I would recommend this book to everyone who is looking for a little magic and a lot of encouragement to live the life they were meant to live.

“The Peculiar Garden if Harriet Hunt” is a haunting and emotionally charged fantasy novel that captivates readers from the first page. Set in a dark, atmospheric world filled with secrets and sorrow, the story follows Harriet, a young woman grappling with loss and the burden of her own cursed legacy.

The author expertly weaves a tale of grief and redemption, immersing readers in Harriet’s struggle against deadly powers that threaten her very existence. The prose is beautifully lyrical, creating a sense of melancholy that lingers long after the final chapter. The vivid descriptions of the desolate landscapes and eerie settings enhance the book's haunting quality, drawing readers into a realm where hope feels fleeting.

Character development is a standout aspect, as Harriet’s journey is both poignant and relatable. The supporting characters are complex, each with their own traumas and motivations, adding depth to the narrative. Themes of love, sacrifice, and the fight against inner demons resonate throughout, making the emotional stakes feel profound.

Overall, "this title is a masterful exploration of darkness and resilience. Its evocative storytelling and rich emotional landscape make it a must-read for fans of dark fantasy. Prepare to be both enchanted and unsettled by this remarkable tale. Highly recommended.

Harriet Hunt is deemed a strange woman by Victorian society, which makes her dangerous. However, her strangeness is actual a beautiful, complicated tie to the garden of her house. Throughout her life, Harriet is controlled by cruel men when all she desires is freedom. After a slow start, I was drawn into the world of Harriet Hunt!

set in 19th century London, we find Harriet Hunt tending her only love, her garden! Through the death of her father and the turbunlent times she always comes back to her garden. Following a woman and her journey in taking her power back. This was so good!

The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt reminds me so much of Cinderella, and not the Disney version. With supernatural aspects, grounded magic, dark abuses, and keeping to an inner strength this book hones into it all.

There’s a lot I love about this book from the themes and the green witch aspects and the dark undertones but I also wasn’t blown away at the same time. But what more can you ask for? It was a good reading experience and that’s exactly what you expect from any book you give your time to.

It’s possible I have read too many low-stakes, cozy fantasy novels this year, but to me, The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt was just okay. It felt very similar to The Honey Witch - a young, nature-loving FMC who recently lost a close family relative and must adapt and take care of what the relative left behind. While I did enjoy this more than The Honey Witch, I still didn’t find it to be anything particularly special. If you’re a fan of cozy fantasies and don’t mind the low-stakes, it might be a perfect read for you. Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the arc

A hint of magical realism and gothic vibes. Harriet’s connection to plants was beautiful and related so well to her personality.
I do wish there were some trigger warnings for the heavier content. Mentions of domestic violence, sexual assault, and childhood neglect was much heavier than I was expecting with this.
Women supporting each other and taking back their power will always be an A+ to me.

This really felt nostalgic in a way like revisiting Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden and The Little Princess all in one go.

You will fall in love with our MC Harriet Hunt and your heart will break over and over for her. But she is a true heroine of her own story and what a harrowing, powerful, yet beautiful story she has.

If you love a little bit of magic with a true underdog story with true love and beautiful selfless friendships sprinkled in, you will love this book!

I read several reviews before I dove into this book, and I was looking to be disappointed. I am glad I chose to read this book for myself. I loved Harriet's garden, and my heart was torn for Harriet. I am a gardener, so this title caught my eye. I found that this is the best-written book I have encountered this year. The author did a marvelous job and I would love to read more from her!

I received a copy per Netgalley, I was not obligated to leave a positive review.

The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt - Chelsea Iverson

Wow, this book blew me away! So grateful to Netgalley for approving me for this arc! It gave me some Eleanor Oliphant vibes, but mixed with magic, and Victorian England. It was so descriptive, and visually alluring. The prose was amazing, and it was really well paced. Christian is, well, I’ll let you find out what Christian is! Let’s just say, his behaviour isn’t particularly Christian … I loved Harriet’s character, I loved her development and her friendship with Amelia. I loved her witchy links with the garden, and the magic that imbued her plants. Eunice is so sweet, and a truly wonderful cousin & best friend! I also loved Greenwood, and his particular love for cooking breakfast foods. I was not expecting the ending whatsoever, and I was so pleased that after all that; we got a HEA! I implore you to read this once it’s published in December, because it was a complete delight to read, and I’m so grateful I got the chance. I’m very glad I ignored the other reviews for this book, because I found it to be a beautiful, really well written book, with very dark undertones, but ultimately a wonderful example of female rage and empowerment! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


Trigger warnings - domestic violence, survivor guilt, attempted rape, child abuse/cruelty,

The main character is this story is somewhat reclusive, staying home to tend to her mysterious garden and avoid the outside world. The deeper story in this one is the way that people avoid dealing with hard memories and can get stuck in avoidant cycles. The main character is somewhat naive, so she makes choices that I cringed at for her, but ultimately you could see it was due to her own experiences in the past.

I liked the positive focus on friendship between women in this one, and how that can help sustain us.

Harriet Hunt has lived her entire life at Sunnyside under the oppressive thumb of her father, who has recently disappeared, giving her what should be her first real taste of freedom. And while her very best and only friend, Eunice, has recently moved away Harriet has found herself being courted by a hansom young man, something she could never have ever dreamed of while her father was at home. And while Eunice has some apprehensions about Harriet's young man, Harriet has agreed to marry him, if only to stop that Inspector from coming by and asking questions about what happened to her father. She knew she shouldn't have told Inspector Stokes they had argued that evening, but she did and now he's convinced that something very sinister is happening at Sunnyside and that Harriet is at the heart of it.

This is essentially any other book with a young woman who comes into money and the evil scheming men around her who plot to get her thrown into an asylum. Except the girl can control plants. Which simply wasn't enough to save this from being predictable to the point of not holding my interest for about 85% of the book.

Overall, I think people will enjoy this because of its predictability. However, that's the reason I found myself bored. It was too predictable, which I found was a waste of adding in the whole sentient garden thing. I would have loved to see that portion of this be something more than a euphemism of Harriet's anxiety.


As always, thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this ARC!

The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt shows us some of the truest horror is found in the mundanity of living with a monster in the house. Every time Harriet tries talking herself out of taking her husband's abusive behavior seriously I wanted to scream!! Christian's lurking presence on every page (with that of her father layered underneath) made this read feel claustrophobic in the best way.

On another note, Harriet's musings on misogyny felt a little too aware of modern feminist language to a borderline anachronistic degree. I appreciate a journey of self-awareness in a protagonist, but the several explicit declarations of personal freedom in the face of objectification felt like a very modern understanding of gender + society! Not a deal breaker by any means, just a personal pet peeve.

All around a neat little gothic horror to join the "woman barely clinging onto sanity in old creaky house" literary universe.

Be aware this is a negative review. I went into this book having the complete wrong ideas. I don’t really know what bothered me in this book, it could be that it has too much description which did not keep my focus. I wanted the book to have a little more magic and I really did not expect this book to go in the direction it did. I skim read the last 20% because I was DESPERATE to be done with it.

This was a both cozy and a little dark. Strange and yet simple at times. Conflicting writing at times...not really sure how I feel about it now that is done?
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Such a fun read! Highly recommend.

Many thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Immersive and lush, The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt truly lives up to the expectations set by the title, as we’re introduced to Harriet, the titular character who is a little too strange for Victorian society, and her equally strange garden, whose wild sentience keeps her bound to her empty house. When an inspector comes sniffing around for information about her missing father, she soon realises that being a young woman alone in the world is a dangerous thing, but perhaps the charming and handsome neighbour who’s taken an interest in her can be her salvation. However, as she soon realises, not all that glitters is gold.

The creeping sense of danger that follows Harriet throughout the entire novel, pressing in on all sides from multiple different sources, made her small tastes of hope and freedom truly addicting. The curiosity and protectiveness of the garden is beautifully contrasted against Harriets own fear of losing control, further adding layers to the prison of her mind that keeps her bound to Sunnyside, will broken by both the men in her life and her own guilt over her past.

When everything comes to a head, Harriet’s escape from the house and her husband takes place in truly explosive circumstances, and her courage to seek help from her friends is what finally helps secure her freedom. Harriet’s journey from a peculiar recluse to despairing wife to a woman surrounded by love and brightness was very compelling, and I really enjoyed myself throughout the whole book.

While this story deals with themes such as grief and guilt, the cycle of abuse, and the fears that keep you in bad situations, it is more than anything a story of hope, healing, and finding true freedom. While I’ve thankfully never experienced parental or intimate partner abuse, I hope that anyone who resonates with Harriet’s story has been or will be able to find strength and the room to bloom freely from any constraints.

Content warnings: Domestic abuse (physical and emotional), child abuse and neglect (mentioned), death of a parent, rape (implied and attempted), forced institutionalisation (mentioned), injury by fire.

Harriet lives alone in her family home because her mother died and her abusive father has mysteriously disappeared. She has a magical connection to her wild garden where the plants respond to her moods and protect her from the outside world. Facing difficult questions bordering on accusations around her father's disappearance, along with rapidly declining finances, she accepts a proposal of marriage for protection and security.

I found this book slow to get into as the opening chapter was mainly prose with a lot of description, perhaps too much. I really enjoyed the interactions with the garden, but there was so much description that it slowed the story down and reduced suspense.

My main issue was that I felt as though I had read this story before. I knew what was about to happen and how it was going to end. That is not to say that it has been copied, just that it's been done so often before that it needs a point of difference. The magical garden should have provided that but it still felt as though it needed something else.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC. My opinions are my own.

Harriet Hunt has a green thumb and she loves the plants growing in her rambling garden at Sunnyside House and she’s had more time to devote to it since her father Clement left. Harriet didn’t have a good relationship with her dad and he’s a bully, he did mention visiting a relative and she hasn’t missed him at all.

Harriet’s garden is a wild and over grown place and it’s full of ivy, trailing roses and an old plum tree. Harriet is shocked when she's questioned by a nosy inspector and he’s making it sound like her dad met with foul play and she’s to blame.

Harriet is vulnerable and never been on her own before, she meets Mr. Comstock, after a short friendship and he suddenly proposes. Harriet marries him and thinking Christian will give her the love and security she’s always wanted. Talk about jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire and she's made her situation worse.

I received a copy of The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt by Chelsea Iversen from NetGalley and Sourcebooks in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not normally a fan of magical realism and fantasy fiction, however I enjoyed this book and I felt compassion for Harriet and she's an eccentric and likable woman. Three other characters in the novel were kind, her cousin Eunice and maid Amelia and Mr. Greenwood and I hated two. At times it's a dark and eerie narrative and about controlling behaviour and greed, mystery and secrets. I felt Harriet's garden protected her and had a life of it's own and four stars from me and I recommend.