The Garden of Lost and Found: The gripping tale of the power of family love

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In the present day art historian Juliet Horner, the great granddaughter of Ned and Liddy, sees a sketch of the original painting come up for sale. But what intrigues her even more is when she receives a letter with a key. She is now the owner of Nightingale House which she finds surprising considering the last few years of estrangement from her grandmother Stella. What secrets are enshrined in the house and can Juliet be the one to uncover them? Is the time right for her to move or is it fate considering the sad state of her marriage to Matt and the discovery she will soon make? Juliet feels that things are all wrong and that she has messed up and that her family is spiralling out of control. A leap of faith is made, one which will test her and throw up many surprises and difficulties. She knows unless she takes this step and embraces the opportunity presented to her than her children will continue to suffer. A break with the chain is needed and I was ever so glad when she left Matt and brought the children Bea, Isla and Sandy to Nightingale House. I wasn't sure what kind of book I was reading most of the time - is this a post-modern take on young adult fantasy? Is this gritty urban drama with a twist of C.S. Lewis? Is this gay fiction for people who hate gay fiction? I felt like a sense of wonderment was implied throughout the book, but at the same time I never felt oohed or aahed. Mysterious overtones wafted through the book, but the big reveals always end up feeling more sobering than awe-inspiring. It's mostly set in two times and from two points of view although there are letters and chapters which span the intervening years and characters. Liddy and her great grand daughter, Juliet are the main narrators, Liddy the wife of a great Victorian painter, Juliet an art historian, specialising in late Victorian and Edwardian painting. After her marriage breaks down, Juliet takes her children to Nightingale House, Liddy's beloved home and that of her mother's before her, to recuperate. But the house is full of ghosts and secrets. Why did her great grandfather burn his greatest painting? What caused the rift between her grandmother and father? And how did her life take such a wrong turn? I’m a huge fan of Harriet Evans and having reviewed her last few books here on the blog am delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for the new release, The Garden of Lost and Found – and to be winding up the tour on its final day. My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for the tour invitation and to Headline for the review copy.

The story was bot motherhood: Lyddie’s refusal to allow and operation that might save her child’s life, Stella cutting Juliet off when she married Matt, Juliet’s idealisation of what a mother should be and how her children should behave and the house was another child to be looked after too. The painting the Garden of Lost and Found not only depicted a lost pre-war wold but also the depiction of motherhood.blogtour Adventure Ancient Egypt Art History Australia Book Blogger Bookliterati Book Recommendation Book review Contemporary Fiction Crime Del Rey Doubleday Emmeline Kirby and Gregory Longdon Mystery Fantasy Festive Reads Florence Folklore Harper 360 Harper Collins Harper Voyager Historical Fiction History Independently Published Italy Karen Swan Literary Fiction Magic Mantle Books Melville House Murder Mystery Myth Orenda Books Pan Macmillan Penguin Random House Psychological thriller Romance Secrets Simon and Schuster Supernatural Suspense thriller Women's Fiction Zaffre Books Book title Search for: Search Search Recent Comments Lose yourself in this unputdownable tale of the enduring power of family love, told by three generations of extraordinary women. . .

I loved the rich detail of this story – the vivid descriptions of the house and gardens, the well developed characters, the trials and tribulations they faced, it was captivating. There must have been quite a lot of research which has gone into this book and it shows in the detail with various historical references. One thing I especially enjoyed were scenes involving the dolls house, which was made for Liddy and is a replica of Nightingale House. I’ve always been fascinated by dolls house and the detailed miniatures for them. Despite having had The Wildflowers on my shelf for the longest time, this was my first introduction to Harriet Evans. I really enjoyed her writing style as it’s beautifully descriptive. At times it felt as if I was right there at Nightingale House, hearing the rain patter on the windows, smelling the glorious scents from the garden, maybe even hear a mouse skitter across the floorboards. The Garden of Lost and Found is centred around the Horner family and a painting. Ned Horner used to be quite the well-known artist and “The Garden of Lost and Found” was his masterpiece. It captured his children on a beautiful day, playing in the garden of their beloved home, Nightingale House. But in 1919, a few days before his death, Ned destroys the painting.This sweeping tale is by turns painfully sad and heart-lifting, with characters that stay with you.’ Good Housekeeping In contrast, we suddenly move forward to a typical 21st century family, meeting Liddy’s great grand-daughter, Juliet an art historian, struggling to bring up 3 children in a troubled marriage. The descriptions of a teenager, small girl and a toddler are hilarious and realistic, and I could feel for Juliet as she tried to maintain her professionalism at work with so little support from her husband. Discovering she has inherited Nightingale House changes her life dramatically and is not welcomed by her children. In many ways I preferred reading about Juliet to the story of Liddy and of Stella, Juliet’s grandmother, but they are essential to the person Juliet is, to her love for the house and garden and her intense interest in art. One of Evans’ great talents, and indeed one of the great pleasures of this book, is how seamlessly she intertwines the past and the present; the events of over a hundred years ago still sending ripples through the generations. The story moves through the decades, painting a beautiful historical picture that ends in tragedy and takes us all the way through to Juliet frantically trying to hold her life together in any way she can. Nightingale House is at the very centre of the story and it’s a character in itself: enchanting, haunting and full of secrets, mysteries and memories.