Customer Reviews

The Rose Garden

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Susanna Kearsley stole my heart with A Winter Sea and ever since I have been eagerly reading every work of hers I can get my hands on. Her writing is magical, I simply adore the way she has with words. This one did not disappoint! What a fantastic story. I am fascinated by the way she seamlessly melds past and present in her stories and The Rose Garden is no exception.

One thing I love about the romantic aspect of Ms. Kearsley's novels is that the romance is simultaneously subtle and yet stunning. I really appreciate how she can make the hair on my neck stand on end and my heart swoon, while at the same time never revealing "intimate" details or turning it into a trashy smut-fest. The romance is in the dialogue, not in the ripping of bodices, and that makes it all the more headily romantic, to me.

I highly recommend this book, as I do every other one of hers. She does not disappoint!

I discovered Susanna Kearsley's stunning work this year through her `Winter Sea' novel and fell in love with her prose, impeccable story weaving and evocatively unique plots so much so, that I back ordered as many of her books as I could find! And, I continue to devour them happily and greedily.

So I was thrilled to discover her newest release, `The Rose Garden' this month! Her books almost defy categorization because they are haunting time travels woven between historical and contemporary time periods placing them as paranormals. But whatever their `category' the feelings they evoke and read they provide place them at the top of any list as far as I'm concerned.

Like `The Winter Sea', Kearsley laces the right touch of paranormal with possibility to heighten the sensuous characters so perfectly drawn that their depth and personality allow them to practically leap off the page and take you with them on the journey as centuries melt into one another and the reader becomes deliciously immersed in the tale no matter what the time period and, with minimal effort at doing it.

Kearlsey's `The Rose Garden' delivers on all accounts with a haunting, atmospheric and romantic story in Eva Ward whose return to the home, Trelowarth, she loved during childhood summers on the Cornish coast brings to life the past and lights her future path. Following the death of her sister Katrina, Eva decides to scatter her ashes in the one place they both felt they truly belonged. Staying with friends Mark and Susan and their step-mother Claire, who have decided to open a Tea Room, she spends the summer helping her friends launch their new venture. And, discovering the voices and hidden pathways of the home and grounds that lead her back three centuries to Jack and Daniel Butler - original owners of Trelowarth. Somehow, Eva has become an unwitting time traveler whose vistas melts and shifts to reveal a new setting.

Well-known and respected smugglers and Jacobites, the Butler brothers operate `The Sally' a ship conducting trade and are hunted by the evil Constable Creed whose sister, Anna was Daniel's late wife. Attended by loyal, family friend Fergal, Eva learns the ways of 1714 and wins the heart of Daniel whom she comes to love. But her involuntary shifts between the centuries mean she must discover the meaning behind them, how to help the Butlers and decide where she truly belongs. Thanks to the staunch Claire whose own secret helps Eva unlock the mystery, finding happiness in the right century may be possible.

The poetic descriptions and settings coupled with the lyrical prose are so captivating as to weave a web around readers from which there is no desire to escape. Conflict and tension go hand-in-hand between the centuries, their characters and sub-plots delivering a page-turning read in which we keep wondering how this is going to work.

All of which is heightened when Daniel pronounces to Eva, "Whatever time we have," he said, "it will be time enough." We can feel Eva's confusion, love, despair and excitement over leaving and returning to Daniel, her time period adjustments and aching for resolution.

Clever plot twists and details are elegantly peppered into the story (look for the dagger and watch the plumber) and provide a richly satisfying and provocative story you'll hate to put down.

Curling up with one of Susan's books is like being under a warm blanket with a cuppa tea before a roaring fire ready to have her tale whisk you away as she does Eva. Run to the bookstore, your Kindle or Nook and purchase this luxurious read that gets A+ in delivering everything you could ever want in a read!

This book had everything I love in books--set in England; a crumbling, gothic mansion; mystery; romance; time travel; "magical" hidden caves; a "twist" at the end...and I enjoyed the author's writing style. I only wished there was more of it! Despite the 400+ pages, the text is large, and thus this is a fairly fast read...which is a shame, because I felt like there was a lot more room for some character development. Don't get me wrong, there was a story--it was started, it was concluded; I was not left thinking "wait, what happened?" However, I still felt like I didn't really get to *know* the characters, and had some trouble believing some of the relationships (how do you fall in love with someone you've only met a few times, for a few days at a time?)

So, basically, I enjoyed this book, I just wished it had been fleshed out more. I do plan to try other Susanna Kearsley books.

Summary:

This book goes back and forth between past and present. When Eva's sister, Katrina, dies, she heads to Trelowarth mansion in Cornwall , where they spent their childhood summers, to scatter Katrina's ashes. While there, she visits with her old friends, the Halletts; she tries to help one of them, Susan, open up a tea house on the grounds...and she also discovers that she can travel through time, spontaneously popping between present time and the 1700s. In the 1700s, she meets the master of Trelowarth at that time, Daniel Butler, as well as his Irishman friend, Fergal. Traveling between times is not easy--especially when it means explaining herself (and her jeans!) to Cornwall's 18th century inhabitants...and it becomes even more complicated when she begins to fall for Mr. Butler.

Eva Ward's famous actress sister, Katrina, has just died tragically young. Returning to a place they both loved as children, Eva brings Katrina's ashes to Trelowarth House in the small town of Polgelly in Cornwall, Great Britain. Katrina's former teenage boyfriend and their family friend, Mark Hallett now owns the family estate and is trying to keep it and its beautiful rose garden solvent.

Eva fights off her depression over Katrina's death by trying to help Mark and his sister Susan advertise Trelowarth and start a new tea shop that will cater to tourists. An old childhood friend named Oliver has popped back in the scene and is a very attractive man. One day Eva "slips" into another time. She is still at Trelowarth, but it is Trelowarth of the early eighteenth century. At that point, two brothers, Jack and Daniel Butler together with their Irish comrade Fergal live at Trelowarth. They are smugglers and about to get involved in an ill-fated upraising to restore James Stuart to the thrown of England. Eva is unable to control when she slips back and forth between the two time periods, but finds herself falling more and more in love with Daniel Butler. Will Eva be able to find happiness between the two worlds? And will the Butler brothers escape their fate?

I enjoyed this novel. I am a big fan of time travel novels. It always fascinates me on the method of time travel. In this novel, Eva fades away or slips through time only while at Trelowarth at unexpected times. I liked all of the secondary characters too and the setting was described beautifully and vividly. The love story between Eva and Daniel was also very romantic as was the story of love between Mark's father George, and stepmother Claire.

I liked the ending. There were a couple of surprises that I didn't catch on to as I read the book that really made it the kind of book I couldn't put down at the end. I really wanted to see where it was going!

Overall, The Rose Garden was a wonderfully imaginative tale with true love, time travel, and a fascinating setting.

This is only the second Susanna Kearsley book I've read (having read The Winter Sea) and I think of the two I preferred it. Although time travel romance can be a little overdone, I really enjoyed her take on it and felt disappointed when Eva would get pulled back to the present when she didn't want to. Unlike The Winter Sea I didn't think the history was over-done and I didn't get bored, in fact it added to the mystery and the lovely landscape that she helped to create in my head. Unfortunately she didn't take that description into her story of Eva and Daniel - apart from her hair, I don't even know what Eva looked like and although she is the narrator I sometimes found her personality a little flat. This made it hard for me to accept that there was much chemistry between the two, but it was only a minor annoyance as otherwise I loved this book and read it straight through. A perfect ending and a lovely story.

First Line: I lost my only sister in the last days of November.

A devastated Eva Ward is given her sister's ashes by Katrina's husband, Bill, with the proviso that Eva take them to the place where his wife was happiest. Momentarily confused, Eva suddenly remembers Trelowarth House, a centuries-old manor house high on a hill overlooking the sea in Cornwall. She and her sister had been happy visiting there as children, and Katrina's first love lived there still.

Welcomed to Trelowarth, Eva decides to spend the summer there, intending to find a local cottage to rent in the autumn, but almost immediately she finds herself seeing paths where none had existed and hearing voices in the adjacent room when no one is there. When she actually finds herself in Trelowarth House in 1715 and meeting its owner, Daniel Butler, Eva has to admit that these aren't simple hallucinations. Daniel, a successful smuggler, is secretly planning to join in a rebellion against the newly crowned King George. As he and Eva try to come to terms with Eva's time traveling, they fall in love. Eva has a decision to make: in which time does she truly belong?

For me, Susanna Kearsley is the queen of romantic suspense. Her Cornish setting is wonderful and the perfect backdrop to both time periods. Twenty-first-century and eighteenth-century secondary characters add richness to the story, and have the added bonus of helping to tug the reader in both directions. When I was reading a modern segment, I wondered what was happening to the characters in the eighteenth century, and when I was back in their time, I wondered about the modern characters. Every chapter was engrossing.

In some books featuring time travel, one period always seems to be stronger and more interesting than the other, but not in Kearsley's books. She knows how to keep a reader's interest throughout her story. I'm not known to read many novels in which a strong element of romance is present because too many writers think they have to include steamy sex scenes to convey how strongly the characters are in love. Kearsley knows how to convey strong emotions and physicality without having anything throb or glisten or heave.

If you're in the mood for a story with a strong sense of place, a cast of wonderful characters, a plot with surprises, time travel and romance, I have just one piece of advice: Seek out The Rose Garden, and when you're done reading it, seek out the rest of Susanna Kearsley's novels.

First Sentence: I lost my only sister in the last days of November.

After the death of her sister, Eva travels from Los Angeles to Cornwall, where they spent summers as children, to scatter her sister's ashes and find a bit of peace among old friends. She doesn't expect to, without any warning, find herself transported back to the 18th century, become involved with Jacobite supporters, smugglers and a man to whom she is very attracted. But traveling back-and-forth through time isn't easy--how does one explain jeans--and deciding where truly belongs is hardest of all.

Ms. Kearsley's very compelling voice and opening draw one into the story from the first sentence. She knows how to touch your emotions while offsetting that with wonderful situational, dry humor.

Ms. Kearsley is very good at giving you the sense of the paranormal with the normal. She shifts time in a way I've not previously encountered, which was both interesting and intriguing. However, the problem with writing time travel is developing a explanation for why it happens, and that was never convincingly done, as opposed to in her prior book "The Winter Sea. There is a very good sense of place and time and both periods of the story. Considering the limited locale in which she was working, this was significant to the enjoyment of the story. You are given a full sense of being there.

The plot was intriguing and well done with a fascinating and seamless incorporation of history into the story. ." Ms. Kearsley provided an interesting perspective on being in the past and knowing about those who had no idea they would be known through history. The book begins with shades of it being a gothic, but then moves into romance and was, at times, a bit trite, but with a very good plot twist at the end.

"The Rose Garden" is an enjoyable read but a bit disappointing as one has come to expect a bit more depth from Ms. Kearsley.

THE ROSE GARDEN (TT/Rom-Eva-Cornwall, England-Cont/1700s) - Good

Kearsley, Susanna - Standalone

Allison & Busby Ltd, ©2011, UK Trade Paperback - ISBN: 9780749009519

I purchased this book after reading the Winter Sea and based on the reviews as well. The premise of the book is about a young woman named Eva and her connection to a house named Trelowarth. The characters were engaging, but as I read it, there seemed to be connections I was missing, until the events started taking place. I do not want to give anything away, but the premise behind the book is so intriguing that it had me glued page after each page.

The story line takes place in two time periods and the thread that binds them isn't made clear until the end; as a matter of fact, for me, I was very surprised, pleasantly so, at the masterful way the story was woven.

If you could envision the threading of a tapestry, you will be able to imagine the masterpiece that has been created in this book.

Even after finishing, I had to think about how this was created and I had to, and did, re-read the entire book. What is very cool is that nothing is handed to the reader on a platter; you have to work it out. After reading it a second time, I still had to think of how the puzzle actually did work itself together.

An EXCELLENT book, well worth the investment of your time!, you will not be disappointed!

Susanna Kearsley is my new favorite author. I love the history woven in with the story, the beautifully described settings, the romance without the smut. This book did not disappoint; the only thing I would change is to add some sort of epilogue for us. Please write faster, Susanna!

At first, I wasn't sure if I was going to complete this book. Although the first 7 chapters are written very well descriptively - I'm not really one to enjoy a bunch of details. I can read a description of something, and then I've got it - so to be honest, I skimmed over a lot of the nature descriptions and only paid attention to the characters. Chapter 8 is when it changed for me. I am so engrossed in what I'm reading that I can't wait until the next time the times will change. Almost like the author knew it, I couldn't even remember what Eva had been doing in the present with one of the changes - until the author reminded me...I had forgotten just as Eva forgot. Brillant. I don't know that I could explain much more without creating a spoiler so I will encourage those who put the book down before Chapter 8 to pick it back up and forge on. It's worth it.