This was a beautiful book that I was allowed to review. I would and have been recommending this book to all my reading friends. This story is a delightful story of Lilli and her two young daughters. The voice is so true and the events are genuine, one moment you are laughing out loud and the next you are wiping a tear away. Lilli is a widow who four years after her husband death she is still raw with emotion. Her sister Rachel helps her out and as the story evolves it interweaves the lives of a small group of people who are also taking a gardening class. Lilli is taking the class to to fulfill a commitment to her illustrating a gardening book for her job. Her life makes some significant changes as a result of the gardening class and the people she meets there. People who become a community and take care of each other. Growing relationships as their garden comes to life.

I enjoyed this book. It is indeed a very sad subject matter and I am fortunate to be an ovarian cancer survivor. I understood all the emotions that Karen was feeling and I understood Jake wanting to be with his father. I struggled with the same things Karen did, this man who was out of her life and her son's life is now back when she is struggling with a battle she may indeed lose. I didn't rooted for her to get better, for her son to not like this man who never made any attempt to find out what happened to the woman pregnant with his child. The author handled it well and things in life are not easy and indeed messy. The naive in me wanted a very different ending.

I really liked this book. I have always been intrigued by Daphne du Maurier and the book Rebecca and the Birds, even though I had never read that book. I believe I will now as it's very interesting how many of her books and short stories were made into movie but then were almost unrecognizable to her. The story reads so clearly and friendly, also like a fiction story instead of a very concise biography of an author who really didn't get the respect she deserved. I believe I will also look into Sarah's Key by de Rosnay. I enjoyed her style.

This is the first time I have read this author, although I have been interested in several of her other titles. Victoria was a very good read. I enjoyed the story of a young girl who would become so influential in her country. I love a book that will make the reader want to continue learning about the subject. Daisy Goodwin has done a lot of research on this story about a neglected young girl whom nobody believed could become Queen. I love the feisty character and the transformation that made Victoria a powerful woman. The novel is so full of details and reads like the story of a mighty teenage girl who will change the world.

Do you love history? What about storytelling? Are you a romantic but a realist as well? This book is for you! I found it delightful and so well written. The story of Dortchen Wild and Wilhelm Grimm is set in the early 19th century while Napoleon is trying to conquer Europe. It feels like a fairy tale of its own, as in all fairy tales there is the evil/wicked antagonist in the being of Dortchen's abusive father. Dortchen and Wilhelm are the poor but happy protagonists who can't seem to make each other aware of their feelings. The story is filled with the beautiful telling's of what will become Grimm's fairy tales, and as in all fairy tales finally a happy ending for "The Wild Girl". Kate Forsyth's second book is a beautiful work of art. I enjoyed her first book, Bitter Greens but for me this is a winner.