Review: The Rose Garden

Paperback, 448 pages

Published October 1st 2011 by Sourcebooks Landmark

 ISBN13: 9781402258589

 

From Goodreads:

When Eva's film star sister Katrina dies, she leaves California and returns to Cornwall, where they spent their childhood summers, to scatter Katrina's ashes and in doing so return her to the place where she belongs. But Eva must also confront the ghosts from her own past, as well as those from a time long before her own. For the house where she so often stayed as a child is home not only to her old friends the Halletts, but also to the people who had lived there in the eighteenth century. When Eva finally accepts that she is able to slip between centuries and see and talk to the inhabitants from hundreds of years ago, she soon finds herself falling for Daniel Butler, a man who lived - and died - long before she herself was born. Eva begins to question her place in the present, and in laying her sister to rest, comes to realise that she too must decide where she really belongs, choosing between the life she knows and the past she feels so drawn towards.


My Thoughts:
The premise to this story is that our main character, Eva, returns to her childhood vacation place to scatter the ashes of her sister to a place "where she was always happy".

Leaving behind her life in LA, Eva is reunited with friends of her childhood at Trelowarth House on the Cornish coast. Upon arriving at the house, strange things begin to happen and Eva thinks that she is slowly losing her mind because of the grief she is dealing with over the recent loss of her sister.

Slowly, Eva realizes that she is able to travel in time back to the 1700's and to the Trelowarth house of that time...and its inhabitants. She meets Daniel Butler, his brother Jack and his friend Fergal. Now she has to decide where she really belongs and where she is really happy.

This was my first book by Kearsley, but I doubt that it will be my last. As I read this, I was reminded some of The Time Traveler's Wife , which I loved. As I got more into the book, I could picture Gena Rowlands as Claire and Richard Gere as Daniel Butler (anyone remember The First Knight?)

I enjoyed the way the story was told, the writing, the emotion, the elegance of it all. The descriptions made me feel as if I were walking through the rose gardens themselves, I could feel the drafts through the old house, and the excitement of seeing grandparents meet for the first time.

Kearsley did an excellent job in weaving all the characters and their stories together. The twists, turns and revelations kept me reading into the early hours. It was definitely one of those books that I wanted to keep reading, but at the same time, didn't want it to end.

If you enjoyed The Time Traveler's Wife, Outlander, or even The Forgotten Garden I think that you would enjoy this book.