The Girl in the Garden (Awash with Summer Roses Book 1)

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Throughout this novel, I would catch myself nodding empathetically and I thoroughly enjoyed the author's vivid descriptions, the writing that seemed, at times, almost like a stream of consciousness. I experienced these characters, and their stories, as highly relatable and I delighted in reading more about each of them. But what happens when a single mother of 2 teenage girls moves in to this tight-knit world? Everything is not as perfect as it seems, and slowly things go off kilter. Families with secrets, teenage love, green-eyed monsters, and an unresolved 15 year old murder of a young girl that was killed in this very garden make for a captivating story that I found hard to put down. And what is it with seat mates on flights who don’t get the hint when you have your nose in a book? Last year it happened when I was reading The Seven Good Years. Yesterday, it happened as I was reading The Girls in the Garden. Some drunken idiot sitting next to me kept asking what I was reading, whether it was any good, and sorry for bothering you, it won’t happen again... I used to read too but I don’t have time anymore, how’s that book by the way …

As she nears the shape, she can see it is a foot. She holds her breath deep inside her body and rounds the corner timorously. The characters whose stories weave themselves together in this lovely book are given up gradually. Each character is isolated, by choice and/or circumstance. Each one excepts or rejects the isolation in unique ways--and yet there are connections that exist, unyielding, even if not forcing themselves. Do you think Clare made the right decision in keeping Pip and Grace’s father’s release from the hospital a secret? Why or why not? I liked it, certainly reading from each characters perspective enriches any story. I just couldn’t feel for Iris, and I wonder what other readers will think of her. Claire may have been brusque but I think life did that to her, she had to have crocodile skin and strength. June may have been the one the reader is supposed to ache and hope for, but Claire captured me. This is quietly sad and lovely both.Well, I am going to be in the minority here. I had heard a lot of good things about this book. I anxiously awaited my copy to be available at the library. I waited and waited and waited. Then finally it was ready. This is a character-driven novel at it’s best. Odd, eccentric, maybe even a little strange, the characters in this book kept me in the dark until the end. I had a hard time deciphering who was legit and who was shady. But, when Grace is found unconscious, and hospitalized, remaining in a coma, leaving everyone unsure of what happened to her, a dark side of the idealistic garden community is exposed, with long buried secrets coming to light, prompting some to take drastic measures to protect one of their own.

the ocean- like life - simply beyond comprehension because of its magnitude, it's meaninglessness."Faithful to the thriller genre, Jewell makes liberal use of red herrings and plot twists… The answer to the whodunit is a sly—and satisfying—surprise.” — The New York Times The Girl in the Garden is a beautiful story. I was immediately impressed by Melanie Wallace's gorgeous prose. Her story enchanted me straight away and I loved the unusual circumstances of every main character. Melanie Wallace regularly changes her points of view and every character has a distinct voice and an interesting story to tell. It felt like I was allowed to take a peek in all of their lives, which is a great way to tell a story. Each person in The Girl in the Garden has wonderful characteristics and flaws, told in a way I found pretty factual. I enjoyed that aspect of the story especially, all of the characters have a strange history and they have their secrets, reasons for peculiar behavior and faults. They are human, but not perfect, which I absolutely loved.

The Third Wife is a summer gem. The story is complex… the many characters well drawn.... Readers of Donna Tartt and Tana French will recognize Jewell’s pacing for what it is: essential. NY Journal of Books I found the ending to be very satisfying and, if not completely happy, it left me feeling hopeful that everyone in the book had learned valuable lessons from the events that took place, and that they would ultimately allow those lessons to govern their futures.Why do you think Lisa Jewell wrote primarily from Pip, Clare, and Adele’s perspectives? What do these narrators have in common? What is unique about their different standpoints, and how does this affect the story? Then she cries out and clutches at her chest when a figure appears at her side. it is Max, the football mad loner of the community. He's only nine, three years younger than her. She can't believe he's still out here, wandering alone at this time of night. As ever, he is holding his beloved football, squeezing it tight against his stomach. he looks at Pip, his eyes wide and appalled. He looks as though he's about to say something, but no words come. He turns then and runs, down the hill, toward the lights. Clare and her 2 daughters move into a new home that shares a communal "garden" with other families. Things seem fine at first as they always do, but then things turn out to not be as fine as they seem. There are cliques, family secrets, jealousy, relationships changing upon the arrival of the new family, and a 15 year old murder mystery of another teenage girl. June is the daughter of 'trailer-trash'. She has never known parental love. Now, age fifteen, she is a mother herself... When the baby's father abandons her penniless and alone - she is not surprised at her fate.