The Night Garden

by Lisa Van Allen

Nestled in the bucolic town of Green Valley in upstate New York, the Pennywort farm appears ordinary, yet at its center lies something remarkable: a wild maze of colorful gardens that reaches beyond the imagination. Local legend says that a visitor can gain answers to life’s most difficult problems simply by walking through its lush corridors.
 
Yet the labyrinth has never helped Olivia Pennywort, the garden’s beautiful and enigmatic caretaker. She has spent her entire life on her family’s land, harboring a secret that forces her to keep everyone at arm’s length. But when her childhood best friend, Sam Van Winkle, returns to the valley, Olivia begins to question her safe, isolated world and wonders if she at last has the courage to let someone in. As she and Sam reconnect, Olivia faces a difficult question: Is the garden maze that she has nurtured all of her life a safe haven or a prison?

Genres: Magical Realism, Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Chick Lit, Contemporary, Magic

352 pages, Paperback

First published October 7, 2014

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 - SIT A WHILE AND REMEMBER WHATS FORGOT. Stars.

Think of your favourite fairy-tale characters, smoosh them all together and add all the colours of the rainbow, as well as all the others you know of, and quite a few you haven’t heard of yet, and write it for grown-ups. That pretty much sums up the Technicolor ride you go on with this book, sprinkle in a little bit of magic, a little bit of mystery, and a whole lot of weird and wonderful and you will happily find yourself ensconced in Green Valley.



To visit Pennywort farm was too be reminded of everything in the world that wag beautiful, and bountiful, and luxurious, and endlessly good.

It is hard to give you too much information about The Night Garden without giving things away, and I don’t want to do that, this is a book you should start blind (not literally obviously) and let the writing and the characters draw you into its pages as it goes. On the surface everything seems pretty normal at the farm, yes you could call its inhabitants a little quirky or eccentric, but essentially they are good, hard-working people.



The story builds gradually, this book is definitely not a sprint to its finish, things assemble as the plot develops, there isn’t a huge turning point, but lots of little ones, that all culminate into bringing everything together, like a well thumbed recipe or your favourite cocktail, you know it’s right, by the feeling it gives you and not necessarily by the approval you receive from cooking or mixing it.

”I’m not going to give up, Ollie.”



Sam and Olivia are special, their love-story starts when he was 8 and she 6, the things that separate them initially, become the things that eventually bring them back together. This isn’t like any other love story you are likely to read, and because of that I cannot recommend it highly enough. It isn’t often that you pick up a book that is so wholly unique that you cannot liken it to any other story. The Night Garden is definitely a book I would put in that genre.



There was magic in the maze, people said. Magic that gave inner clarity, that stripped away all pretensions that a person fabricated around himself.

Lisa van Allen is an author whose work I have read and enjoyed before, and I will certainly be seeking more from her again in the future.

It’s not where you’re born that defines you; it’s where you’re reborn.

ARC generously provided via Netgalley, and it was my absolute pleasure in providing the above honest review.

[Susana · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars

Review to come closer to the release date, as required...




Release Date: October, 7th

Arc provided by Ballantine Books through Netgalley

It appears that I have been lucky.

Up until this book I had never considered the fine line in which magical realism authors have to stay in in order for things to work. The phrases used that should be magical, instead of cheesy:

Part of Olivia's particular allure was how mysterious she seemed, how kind hearted yet distant, how nurturing but withholding, how resistant to summary of any kind.

Up until this story I had never read such a poor attempt at this genre...

I wasn't able to read this as magical realism: for me this is a mishmash of soap opera romance with some silly metaphors, performed by lacklustre characters.

"Cats had begun taking dust baths like birds, and birds began lazing on porch stairs like cats (..)"

Well, that, or cats could just open their big mouths to provide a nice cool shade for the birds...

Descriptions should be used to help the story be told. They should not be used to fill pages "per se!"

And that's what I feel happened here.

I don't want to read a book mainly filled with descriptions, in which the characters don't have anything in them... besides some extremely deranged drama!

Long, long, boring descriptions that surpassed the clichéd and went full into cheesy department.

"The birds in the valley began to sing such intricate and virtuosic songs, that scientists with recorders and binoculars started to come from miles around, enraptured by avian talent."

Two words that probably should never, ever be used together!
Avian + Talent!

First she knew that she still wanted him in the same old way, on a level that was elemental and animal and chemical and utterly miserable and thrilling and miserable again.

Yes, there is quite a number of adjectives that can be used in a text...
But just because you can use them... doesn't mean you should use them all at once.

For me, this overuse of adjectives doesn't make a sentence stronger, it makes it weaker, because the whole thing is just too verbose!
Why can't you people just save a few trees?!
If you can say something in a single page, why use ten freaking pages?

(..)he could see that she was wearing a pale cotton dress that made her look as sweet and cool as an ice cream cone.(..)"

Ice cream cone? Really?
I can't even...

Then there's this sense of white book for white people, because of phrases like this:

"If people shunned them because his family had been white and Jewish, and hers was neither of those things, they were too much in love to notice or care."

"Neither of those things.."
Maybe its just me. But this particular phrasing rubs me the wrong way...

So, what colour was she? Blue, Pink, Black?
What's the problem with using the actual word?

Then it has that slight sermon(ish) thing about God...

"It was only by the Grace of God that they had managed not to have sex;"
*Snorts*

This was supposed to have that thwarted big romance vibe!
But instead what I got was: Two kids that knew each other growing up, and who then decided to experiment (their words) making out.

They liked it so much, so of course they had to be in love :/

First and only love. For her at least... poor woman :/

The romance between a strong, good woman, and a kind, courageous man...

Then due to the amount of information given, we get things like these: In one moment Olivia's hair is peach coloured, and in the night it is the colour of wine.

No

I don't care which time of the day it is. Colour pigments aren't rainbows!
As a redhead myself, that doesn't happen, unless you change hair colour multiple times a day (DON'T!).

Less is More! Don't overcomplicate things.

Then this is not appropriate reading material to scientists because this would probably give them an apoplexy!

We have a character who has to be in constant contact with poisonous plants, because if she doesn't, she will die!

How? Why?

No one knows for sure... it appears to involve some gross parental neglect, but besides that?
Nothing...
Now, this is where the magical realism would enter, if this had been properly developed!

This setting could work! (I am thinking about Alice Hoffman's beautifully done "Ice Quee"n in which the characters have some different health conditions...) But unfortunately this one was so poorly done that I didn't buy this for a instance :/

Oh, and the last part, with the monstrous vines and all that?
That should be in a fantasy book, not a magical realism one:
It was way over the top.

I am aware that this review borders the angry... and you know what?

Yes, it does, because people keep comparing this to Alice Hoffman and Sarah Addison Allen, and that couldn't be further away from the truth, and that leaves me upset.

Alice Hoffman and Sarah Addison Allen books are about connections: friends, family, lovers.

This one is mainly a convoluted romance... and I didn't even feel all that love between them!

Then there's the story of Olivia and her father, but the thing is so ridiculous that I am not even going to bother with it...

Here we don't have strong women's relationships. We have our main character, Olivia, that is all that is good and kind, and perfect, and basically the perfect woman... and then we have the other ones: Who aren't.
I don't think I will be reading any more books by this author.

[Leah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wish I had something better to say, or at least something more to comment on. Truth be told, nothing about The Night Garden grabbed me. I didn't care about the setting, I didn't care about the characters. I didn't care that instead of a bed, Olivia's sleeps outside in a garden full of poisonous plants. The magical aspect did nothing for me. If you're new to Magical Realism, please don't start with this novel. If you're a fan of the genre, I'd still say give this one a pass. Maybe if I was stuck in a waiting room for an hour and had nothing better to read I might be inclined to give this one another shot, but as it stands, I simply didn't care enough to continue.

For the full review and more, head over to The Pretty Good Gatsby!

[Brittain *Needs a Nap and a Drink* · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had such potential but it just fell flat. There. I said it.



Olivia is poisonous to people and has distanced herself purposefully and absolutely. That is, until her old flame Sam comes back into the picture and is determined to figure out a cure for her touch issues. All of that being said, she also keeps a barn full of lost and misunderstood women who look for answers but provides little to no comfort to them. Her father is a hermit living in a ravine by himself and the entire thing is just a bit strange.

I came to hate the neighbors and the boarders. There are always those people that cannot keep to themselves and leave people alone who wish to be left alone. A nosy and self righteous neighbor is one of the worst things that a person can be because they assume that their ways are the best and everybody else is wrong. People like that make my skin crawl. I'd rather live next to a frat house.



Mei was equally bad as a supporting character. Rude, selfish, and childish. She was infuriating to read and if I was Olivia, I would have kicked her out. She was supposedly looking for answers but what it seemed like to me was that she was looking for a handout. There were no redeeming qualities to her.



What I am trying to say is that the horrible supporting characters were such foils to the perfect and virtuous main characters that it made me mad. Apparently everybody else in this little valley were severely flawed where Olivia and Sam were not.

The writing style was also incredibly slow. It dragged on. This was not a long book but it still took me a decent amount of time to get through it. It mimicked the arduously slow summer that was occurring in the book and while that might have been intentional, it was just as painful to experience.

But more than anything, the thing that annoyed me most was the basic ignorance of basic botany. I know this is supposed to be a *magical* garden but there is certain stuff that cannot be ignored. Like identifying mushrooms using spore tests instead of just looking at them. Or the fact that the botanist doesn't realize that there are some people that don't have reactions to poison ivy. It seemed like easy knowledge was ignored for the sake of a story and that always ticks me off.



I keep saying this in my reviews. It could have been awesome. But it wasn't.

[Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

I never before realized what a subtle balance is required in a good magic realism story. Since it is my favorite book genre, I figured the more fantastical elements the better. Van Allen proved me wrong with this story.

The garden itself is beautifully described, a wondrous creation of hedge-bordered maze-like spaces with differing themes. The garden maze can help the wanderer realize the answer to his or her questions, and it grows magically. But even elements of the garden itself seem unbelievable. How can Olivia add a new room to it each year? As a gardener, I know how much time and money goes into gardening, and I see no source in Olivia's life for the massive income needed to maintain a garden this size, let alone add on to it yearly. This is a nitpicky detail, but it made me pause with confusion, as did many other details in the book.

One room of the garden has a subterranean mushroom cave where a plethora of varieties grow under a huge grass-covered door in the ground. At this point, the garden just seems a thing of fantasy ungrounded in reality. Again, the resources needed to create such a place (excavation, logistics, planning) seem entirely inconsistent with the details of the characters. So it's a pretty amazing garden, but it has no grounding in reality whatsoever.

Having the garden in the story with everything else somewhat grounded in the reality we know would have been a decent magic realism balance for this book. But on top of this, we are told that Olivia herself has poisonous skin, and is unable to touch another person even in passing for fear of killing them with poison ivy-like rashes. O...kay. We're getting a little further into Suspensionland of Disbeliefdom, but if the book was done well, perhaps I could have followed along.

But it wasn't. The romantic relationship was stilted...we were supposed to believe that these two people reunited had previously been extremely close, so they already understood each other. This just seemed like a lazy romance plot line where you don't have to build anything between characters at all because of a convenient existing detail. And the resolution of all of the built-up conflicts that had been pounded into our brains throughout the book were "fixed" quickly and unsatisfactorily at the end.

By the way, all of this is not even to mention the inconsistencies in the book itself that a good edit and proofread could have fixed. For instance, on page 14 Olivia's outfit is described as a close-fitting tank top, work boots, and a long cotton skirt, "more accommodating than denim." On page 16, moments later in the story, she "pulled a handkerchief from the back pocket of her pants and rubbed her sweaty face."

Similarly, when Olivia re-met Sam, she looked at him blankly until he asked if she knew him, and then she acted surprised. A few pages later, she said she instantly recognized him again when he moved back, despite his changed appearance.

On page 50 "Olivia herself had no idea that at four years old she'd already caused such a sandal."

It may sound like I'm nitpicking the book, but really, when I love a book I can forgive an awful lot. But when I'm already distracted by confusing plot and character details, and over-the-top supernatural elements, all of these little things add up into an unsatisfying story.

Van Allen's first book, The Wishing Thread, had promise. It wasn't quite on the level of say Alice Hoffman or Sarah Addison Allen, but it was enjoyable. This one, however, just seemed rushed, both plot and typo-wise. A better editing team and more time to ponder story changes would be advised for her next novel.

[Debbie Robson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really believe that we are drawn to certain books at certain times in our lives. Sometimes we don’t even know that we have chosen the “right” book. For me 2015 was a terrible year health-wise. My eczema flared up to the point that I couldn’t function at work or at home. I reached for this book because I loved the blurb and the location of the novel -upstate New York:
“Nestled in the bucolic town of Green Valley in upstate New York, the Pennywort farm appears ordinary, yet at its centre lies something remarkable: a wild maze of colourful gardens that reaches beyond the imagination. Local legend says that a visitor can gain answers to life’s most difficult problems simply by walking through its lush corridors.
Yet the labyrinth has never helped Olivia Pennywort, the garden’s beautiful and enigmatic caretaker. She has spent her entire life on her family’s land, harbouring a secret that forces her to keep everyone at arm’s length.” Well, what the reader finds out fairly quickly is that Olivia’s skin is poisonous, which of course was an odd coincidence when I was reading the book. Because of this I found the book emotionally comforting and reassuring.
Beyond this personal experience I believe that The Night Garden is a wonderfully healing book as it is quite insightful in highlighting how we sometimes hold ourselves back by worrying too much about other people. This is Olivia’s case but the writing doesn’t constantly remind us of this, instead the allegory is told amidst an amazing landscape:
“The Pennywort farm with its fields and woods and outbuildings and barns and garden maze was like a living, human sized terrarium: exclusive, self-sustaining, self-contained. What happened on the farm, happened for the farm, so that in the same way a plant made its own food from sunlight the farm kept itself running by effortlessly drawing toward it and claiming the things it needed - including Olivia.”
With such skilful writing as above, Van Allen draws us into the world of the Pennywort farm and her childhood best friend Sam Van Winkle who has just returned home after many years away. There is magic realism (which I often don’t like) but for me it doesn’t exist in The Night Garden for itself but to drive the story. There is much to love in this book including the beautiful descriptions of Olivia’s world. Highly recommended.

[Ayah · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Review:

I received an eARC of The Night Garden from Random House via edelweiss in exchange with an honest review.

This book is a great collision of Shatter Me's Juliette and the beauty of The Secret Garden , two of my favorite reads.

Lisa Van Allen has such an exquisite way of painting such a creative magical realem, then bringing it to life with her amazing description. Her writing is not only limited to this, but also the beauty of portraying a person's state of mind and the credibility of storytelling.

It took me a while to be absolutely into this book, but once I did, I couldn't put it down.This book gave me butterflies in my stomach and a few tears rolling down my face. You learn lots of important lessons about life, like how you may not fit in like anyone else and still be happy and like sometimes people do stupid things with intentions to protect you, then end up hurting you.That life can take something very important from you, yet you should keep looking for a way to cope with it and make the best out of it.

It was told mainly from three different perspectives, where you got more up close and personal, and you get to learn about the character's past memories before any of the other characters, making you feel like a secret keeper.

Sometimes I got lost to if a certain character was dead or not. There was also that one sentence that I found to be a bit creepy, in an awkward way, but that did not effect my overview of this book.

I am looking forward to read more from this outstanding author with her beautiful descriptions, down to earth characters, and finally but not least, the captivating story.

I gave this book a 5/5 stars and an A- according to my own rating scale.

[Vickie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like and enjoy The Night Garden by Lisa Van Allen. I enjoy magical realism but unfortunately, this book did not live up to the expectation.

Olivia Pennywort is not a character that I could believe in...everyone is allergic to her and she sleeps in poison ivy every night. Arthur Pennywort, her father, was selfish - leaving a 16-year-old Olivia to run the family farm so he could go live in the ravine. Sam Van Winkle was a relatively flat character as well.

There was some promise in the premise of the book. However, the writing style was laborious to read. I felt at time that the author was trying to modernize the fairy tale "Rapunzel" but she fell short of the goal for me.

Lesson learned: Don't read a paperback book while sitting in the sauna. The hot dry air will melt the glue and the pages will fall out as you read. LOL!!

Go Cards! L1C4!!

[Shelleyrae at Book'd Out · Rating 3 out of 5]

“To visit the Pennywort farm was to be reminded of everything in the world that was beautiful and bountiful…luxurious and endlessly good.”

In upstate New York, Olivia Pennywort tends the family farm and the remarkable garden maze that she has created as a haven at its heart. It is said that the maze offers its visitors the answers to their most difficult questions, but it affords no such benefit to its caretaker who harbours a secret that forces her to keep everyone at arm's length. Over the years, Olivia has schooled herself to accept that there is no solution to her problem, but when Olivia's childhood best friend and sweetheart, Sam Van Winkle, returns to town, her fiercest desires are rekindled and she is compelled to ask herself if the garden she has created is her protector, or her prison.

Van Allen's prose is often lyrical, with vivid imagery of the garden and its surrounds. I could easily visualise the bordered up house, the stone walled garden of poisonous plants and the ramshackle cottage where Olivia's father made his home, though I wish I had a better knowledge of horticulture to fully appreciate the individual design of the maze.

" As she approached the garden maze, she saw that it too had gone wild with the joy of the rains. The smell of flowers was so thick it crossed the line from pleasant into nearly repulsive. Inside, Olivia wound through the twists and turns, admiring how rambunctious and joyful her maze seemed, as if it were spring instead of late summer. Morning glories the size of dinner plates stayed open all day long, and thickened beds of coreopsis gave off a mustardly glow. There was a slight breeze that carried the faintest scent of autumn, and far beneath the sweetness, the mineral scent of winter."

Though billed as magical realism, the magic wasn't grounded in the way I would expect from the genre, and instead I feel the story had more in common with a modern reinterpretation of a fairytale like Sleeping Beauty. Olivia, beautiful and beloved by all, lives alone at a top of a tower, is essentially trapped in stasis, and is eventually rescued by her Prince Charming, who has to hack through wild overgrowth to save her.

The romance between Olivia and Sam, which began when they were childhood sweethearts, and is reignited on his return, is touching and soulful. I sympathised with their hopes and fears for their relationship, I believed in their yearning to be together and I could feel their frustration at not being able to have skin contact.

" And then he was threading his fingers into the mass, twisting and untwisting it in his hands. She didn't even try to make conversation while he touched her; the sensation was too exquisite, too painful and pleasurable at the same time. He combed his fingers through her hair from top to bottom, and each time he caught a tangle it was like a little bite, a small and precise blast of desire like the spark from flint and steel."

In terms of plot, however, the neighborly conflict seems forced and fizzles out, and though we are told the garden can offer help to those seeking answers, Van Allen never really shows this. The overall conclusion too is unrealized, almost as if Van Allen couldn't figure out how to solve the conundrum herself, and so just hoped the reader would would accept vague assurances of 'love conquers all'.

A tale of loss, grief, desire, love and hope, I enjoyed the story of The Night Garden.

[Annie ⚜️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Meh.

[Pauline Aguayo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have you ever been mesmerized by a flower? The way it gently sways against the currents of a summer breeze. How regally it blooms in hues of blue and green. Its heady scent of citrus and soil.
Well, don't expect to be mesmerized by Allen's book because it makes no room for such things.

Allen's book promised to be enchanting, and this was its biggest mistake. When you hear a word like "enchanting" you expect a little romantic flourishes here, a few hints of magic there--but unfortunately that didn't happen here. I wanted to be transported into a world of zigzagging mazes, hypnotic gardens, and a unique mystery unfolding around a woman with an unusual propensity to poison those she touches. Instead, all I got was a dragged out love story between a very horny man-boy (who can't feel physical touch) and a shut-in, femme fatale with poison skin. In theory those things should be interesting! But here's what didn't work:

The story took too long to get going. It took about 170 pages for things to get slightly interesting. Allen spent way too much time trying to invoke a mystery surrounding Woodstock, but it never fully connects to the main plot. This is very much an emotional journey, as opposed to a physical journey or adventure for our main characters. There's a lot of telling, never really showing.

Olivia and Sam have chemistry, but it happens a little too late in the story to really care anymore. Sam had potential to be very interesting but his character flaw is fixed very quickly and conveniently in the story. Olivia tries too hard to be a shut-in, and it makes it hard for me to believe so many people would love her instead of hate her for being so beautiful and stand-offish.

There was no romance to the garden. I expected to practically smell the flowers and the earth surrounding me during this read, but nothing was ever so dramatically expressed in the book. Big disappointment for me.

The good: The sexual encounters were interesting. They could have been way more detailed and drawn out since the relationship between a poisonous woman and unfeeling man seem so interesting to me. Sadly, it didn't play out.

I think that so much more could have been done to make this book a more magical read, but it was okay for a quick read here and there. I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone expecting a good love story or magical realism though.

[Tara - runningnreading · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my experience, there are times in life when a particular book resonates with me more than it might if I'd picked it up at any other time; The Night Garden really was what I needed during the time I read it and I'm so happy to have found it. The language of this novel is so appropriate to its theme; flowery, smooth, yet prickly, and often very beautiful. I found myself reading several passages over and over, just to fully absorb the depth of the message.

Lisa Van Allen shares an enchanting tale of a young woman who, due to circumstances out of her control, finds herself a prisoner in her own backyard. In the life she has made for herself there, Olivia Pennywort tells herself that she is content, even happy, and could not imagine why she would ever want a life outside of her own; however, the reappearance of an old childhood friend prompts her to examine what she really desires.

Throughout this captivating tale, there are metaphors for all sorts of life journeys, relationships and struggles; Van Ellen clearly has a love for the garden and its characters, and does a remarkable job of sharing her vision with readers. On the surface, much like garden itself, The Night Garden seems simple and maybe even predictable at times; however, I think if you take a moment to slow down and really explore, you'll find that it is very complex and rife with meaning.

If you are looking for a great read to curl up with as the crisp, fall air moves in, try The Night Garden by Lisa Van Allen; you will transported to a different world!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars! Lyrical, whimsical and utterly charming! Although one cannot help comparing it to the likes of Sarah Addison Allen, this tale is really quite original, crafted in such a beautiful way and truly magical from so many points of view - literally and figuratively. For you see the author strikes just the right balance of friendship and warmth, longing and love, all wrapped up in nature, providing a holistic escape to another somewhat magical place. I found this to be an entirely captivating and delightful read, and I look forward to reading more from this exceptional author in the future! Adding her previous novel to my TBR list as well.

Full review can be found on the blog: http://greatreadsandtealeaves.blogspo...

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Spoiler !!!!

Why did her father keep trying to get her involved with a man who was allergic to her? What kind of relationship did he think they could possibly have? "If he really loves you, he won't care"????? He practically went in anaphylactic shock when he touched her.

I think the father was selfish and a coward. He left her alone to run the farm when she was sixteen because he couldn't face what he had done to her? How much love is this?

And she is a martyr. Not a enjoyable book.

[Judy Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A special thank you to Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

THE NIGHT GARDEN by Lisa Van Allen, is a magical fairy tale; whimsical journey of hope, love, forgiveness and courage.

Outside the windows of northwestern Catskills, the Pennyworts each year have expanded the beautiful garden maze to be one or two rooms bigger. Flowers grow out of season and plants that should not have bloomed in western Catskills soil were hardy and flamboyant. Everyone talks about this special and mysterious garden and the Penny Loafers.

The garden and its legend became so popular that women would go to the Pennywort’s property and stay with them for as long as they needed to get answers from the Maze, and in exchange they would only have to help out with chores. These women were known as Penny Loafers.

The maze, some people said, could bring on a kind of mental or emotional clarity—if a person was open to it. The things a woman did not understand about herself might become clearer; the difficult choice a man had to make would not become less difficult but he might feel more confident about making it after a visit to the garden.

Olivia Pennywort is like a beautiful but dangerous plant kept safely under glass, a thing to be admired only from afar. And though few people in Green Valley knew it, she had not come to be so standoffish for her own good, but for the good of everyone around her. Her natural inclination was to be affectionate, trusting, and warm. It had taken many years of careful practice for her to learn how to rein in her enthusiasm about making new friends, to act as if her personality fell in the precise center between friendly and aloof. There was no choice; much as she loved her neighbors, she had to stay slightly away.

She doesn't flirt with men, and she was always generous and amusing to the children, and to the tribe of transient women who slept in the Pennywort barn and took care of the gardens. Olivia isolated, yet strived to be a sympathetic leader, a good listener, and a patient caregiver—but because none of the women ever stayed on the farm very long, she was saved from the moral conundrum of becoming anyone’s actual friend. It was only with her father, the one person who knew what she was and loved her anyway, that she could truly be herself.

She lives in a paradise of such extravagant enchantments that the world had not seen such a place since Adam and Eve and she alone heard its secrets whispered in her ear. The Pennywort farm with its fields and woods and outbuildings and barns and garden maze was like a living, human sized terrarium, exclusive, self-sustaining, self-contained.

However, the beautiful and magical labyrinth never helped Olivia, the caretaker as she has spent her entire life harboring a secret keeping everyone away. However, when Sam Van Winkle, her childhood best friend returns to the valley, Olivia begins to question her safe and isolated world and questions if she should let someone in, as Sam and Olivia both have their own secrets. As they reconnect, she faces a difficult question, is the garden a safe haven or a prison.

A beautifully written and contemporary novel told from different POV (Olivia Pennywort, her father, and Sam). The Night Garden, is a magical story with vivid imagery so real, as if you were walking through the gardens, stopping to ponder while sitting on a bench.

A compelling novel filled with love, happiness, loss, grief, and hope. One of life lessons and reflection. Fans of Sarah Addison Allen will enjoy this magical adventure of love and escape!

http://www.judithdcollinsconsulting.c...

[Kristine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Original review can be found at http://kristineandterri.blogspot.ca/2...

I received an advanced readers copy of this book from Ballantine Books via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

I was intrigued when I read the synopsis for this book but it did not fully describe what this book is about. When I discovered what Olivia's secret was I became excited and prepared myself for a truly great read.

Although the premise of the book was outstanding, the story fell a little flat making it an average to good read when I felt it could have been spectacular. I'm not sure if I can pin point exactly why I felt this way but I'll try.

I found the first half of the book a little slow and hard to get into. It did improve and the second half held my attention and interest significantly more. If I were rating this book on the first half alone it would be lower and on the second half it would be slightly higher. I think the biggest problem I had was in connecting with Olivia and Sam as well as the conflict resolution. Their issues were so profound that I wanted to feel their struggle and attraction for each other but I just didn't. I wanted to feel the emotion, the love, the passion and the heartache that their problem caused. It just wasn't quite there. In fact, their first moment in the water should have given me goosebumps and instead I felt nothing.

I don't want to give the impression that I hated the book because I didn't but I was hoping for a little more. It was an average read that I enjoyed but I probably won't remember it in a couple of months time. I truly did like what the story was about and feel that with a little more work it could have been amazing.

I will be sure to read more from Lisa Van Allen because I do enjoy a little magical realism once in a while and I think that she shows some great potential.

[Lynette · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh. First of all, learn how poison ivy works before you write an entire book around it. I am EXTREMELY allergic to poison ivy, and you don't get rashes immediately. It takes days. And there's no such thing as having a reaction just by being near it.

Second, if you're not going to have a supernatural explanation for your completely impossible occurrence, then maybe you shouldn't have something impossible occur. Seriously, this was incredibly frustrating.

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book more than I thought I would! Magical, mystical, mysterious love story!

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having seen the author’s work compared to that of Alice Hoffman and Sarah Addison Allen, I had great hopes for this book. That the book is set in a farm and garden made it even more appealing to me; that the garden is a maze, with many garden ‘rooms’, which is expanded each year sealed the deal. And, oh, yes, there are humans in the novel, too. Olivia Pennywort runs the farm/garden, and has a secret behind why she never touches anyone or allows them to touch her. Her father lives self-exiled in a shack in the ravine behind the farm. Sam Van Winkle, Olivia’s childhood best friend, has returned to the valley as a policeman, following a previous life as a pilot all over. Several Penny Loafers- women who wander in with no job prospects and no money- live in the barn in summer, some the same women every year, some different. They work the farm and garden in payment for room and board. They also seek an answer to their futures, because supposedly walking the maze will reveal the answer as to what they should do. Sadly, the maze has never given Olivia any advice…. Even though she sleeps many nights in the inner garden, a locked, cement walled, room filled with poisonous plants that no one else is allowed into.

Sadly, I was let down. There was nothing egregiously wrong, but it was just… kind of flat. The characters never came to life. The plot had a few problems for the characters to solve, but mostly it just ambled along, with the characters emo-ing. I loved the idea behind the garden, but even it never really became the magical landscape I thought it would- and some botanical errors made me grumpy. The ‘villain’ was pretty ineffectual.

It had so much potential, but it failed to fulfil it. I can only give it 3 stars.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.... It was pure literary fluff. I needed a change of pace of all the horror I've got stacked up on my bedside table, so I thought I'd go with a fun story about a small town and a magical garden. The story line was kind of unsatisfying, the characters were a little flat, the descriptions and narration weren't quite as mesmerizing as I had hoped. Overall, my reaction was "meh." It kind of got me into a summer frame of mind, made me want to drink lemonade while sitting in the shade, but honestly I did skip ahead a lot to read only the dialog so the book would go a little quicker. I feel like this could have been a novella rather than a full-on novel.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ordinarily, I thoroughly enjoy magical realism. Isabel Allende, Alice Hoffman, Sarah Addison Allen, the great Gabriel Garcia Marquez – I love their works that mix magic and the mundane, rational world. There is something about the best of their books that delights me, just thinking about Remedios the Beauty, the most beautiful woman in the world, folding white sheets as she floats away in the distance, makes me smile and think about the nature of beauty, wonder, and wisdom (and also whether I believe in clothes).

The Night Garden really wants to be a book by Sarah Addison Allen, it doesn’t try to reach the heights of Hoffman or Garcia Marquez. If a literary geneticist mixed a Harlequin Romance with one of Sarah Addison Allen’s books and a soupcon of Rappacini’s Daughter, this is what they’d get; it’s not TERRIBLE, but it’s not good either.

Olivia Pennywort has a problem. Somehow, during a childhood spent tending her dumbass dad’s garden of poisonous plants, she herself became poison. Like Beatrice in Rappaccini’s Daughter, the merest brush of her hand makes human skin break out in a rash, a condition that started when she was 15. She has spent the years since then avoiding contact, so for nine years she has isolated herself, never leaving the family farm.

Sam van Winkle, Olivia’s childhood friend and first boyfriend, has a problem. The van Winkles are famous in Green Valley for putting out fires, saving lives, and generally being heroes. But after a plane crash and dying for six minutes, Sam has not been able to feel anything on his skin. The doctors brought him back, but he feels like a part of him is still on the other side.

Sam returns to the Green Valley, and to Olivia. They remember each other with mixed love and pain, their teenaged breakup hurt them both. But the first time Olivia and Sam touch, bazinga, Sam can feel everything again! Yes indeedy, Olivia’s touch not only gave him a boner and a rash, but he could magically FEEL again. The only way it could have been better is if she’d smacked him on the forehead and screamed, “YOU ARE HEALED.”

The dialogue is clunky and embarrassing, both Olivia and Sam are consummate navel-gazers, and we, oh lucky readers, are privy to all their super dramatic thoughts of each other. Their conversations are laughable. I wanted them just to sit down and talk as if they were normal people instead of saying things like:

Sam: But Olivia, I want to touch you!

Olivia: NO Sam! I don’t want to hurt you! I won’t hurt you.

Sam: But I love you Olivia!

Olivia: And I love you Sam, I’ve always loved you. But I cannot touch you. I cannot touch anyone! Oh Sam…

Sam: Olivia, we can work this out. Somehow, I don’t know how, but let’s get married.

Olivia: Sam, I cannot marry you. I am poison. I must be alone, always alone. (She wrings her hands in her apron.) I am angry, but not at you, but I am angry, and sad, and I have not been in the poison garden in two days. I always knew it would be good between us, and it was. So good Sam! And now I have to go back to my poison garden. And I am sad Sam!

Sam: I must go put cream on my rash Olivia, but I will be back soon. I promise you. I WILL be back.

Oh good grief. It was embarrassing. Sam and Olivia don’t do things like read books, play cards, or watch movies, they just feel all their feelings, super dramatically. They talk, super dramatically. It’s all super dramatic.

I’m not against romance, I read a lot of romance. I even liked Sarah van Allen’s first book, I just think she might want to think about the way she approaches magical realism. The thing that makes it work that the characters have to accept the magical things that happen to them as normal or natural things. Think about Sally and Gillian, the sisters in Practical Magic. They don’t worry about the things they can do, it’s part of their family history. They may choose to use their powers or they may ignore them, but they don’t go around saying, “Oh woe, why is this happening to me? Why must we be witches?” They just order pizza, and go to work, and bake cakes and do the thousand other things people do every day.

And one other thing that got on my nerves...if I woke up tomorrow and was human poison ivy, I would not hide in my house for the rest of my life like Olivia. I'd get some long sleeves, and some gloves, and make it work. But Olivia and her dad just hid away and acted like their troubles were the worst ever.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Night Garden was an interesting book. I really didn’t bond with the characters, but I still enjoyed reading it.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ohhh, this book could've been SO much better than it was! I got a very different idea of what it was supposed to be from the description I read of it. But it was at it's base just a fluff romance. The whole concept of the garden and what it did to Olivia were pretty intriguing, and some of the descriptions were wondrous. I think the author would have been better off fully developing those points and making the love story secondary. All of the "oh, I think I want to be with him - but I have this terrible issue - so I wont - but I want to - nope, I wont" stuff weakened what could have been a great tale. Additionally, the strength of the dialog was lacking in places and something about the end felt a bit rushed and unsettled.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish. I LOVE magical realism but this I haven't had any desire to pick up again after getting a quarter of a way through it. Too bad. The premise is there but it just doesn't add up. I haven't read any spoilers and I can see where this is going. (Maybe I will read the last chapter.)

I usually also love anything with a garden but she lost me with the the poison ivy bit...and having to sleep naked in it just goes too far.

Here's to looking for the next great magical garden book! Cheers.

[Nancy Brady · Rating 4 out of 5]

A magical garden full of mazes is the setting for this novel that features Olivia, the woman who is in charge of it, her father, and Sam, the man she loves. She has a secret, which causes her to be aloof, alone, and untouchable. When Sam returns to the Green Valley area, she must confront her feelings once again. Can she make those changes and take a chance on love, or will she grow into a lonely, bitter old woman?

[Leah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was weird and a bit ridiculous. The some of the magic was interesting, but most of it was weird. It just didn't feel like magical realism. The characters were over the top, too. It made them unlikable. I like aspects of the garden, but that too was a bit much. There is a happy ending. Although, it too is unrealistic.

[Christa Furman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the creativity behind this storyline. Love it! Enchanted gardens, resilient women building friendships with each other, and small town secrets - all of my favorite kinds of genres!
But now comes the dilemma of how to rate a book that I would've written differently. Is it right to lower my rating of a book because I don't like what the characters do - characters are people, and they do things that we might not like. But that's the story. Is it right to lower my rating because the author didn't focus enough on one part of the books - because that's my opinion. So, I wish that Ms. Van Allen had focused more on the magic of the garden - how it gave answers to the women boarders - and on the town's characters. I would've loved for Gloria especially to be more than a flat character. And Tom and all the other boarders.
But my main negative is the lack of beautiful prose. I still can't picture the beauty of the Night Garden, or of any of the rest of Green Valley. For a story based on magical realism and nature, it was remarkably colorless.

[Cari · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've shouted my love for magical realism from the rooftops many, many times and you know I'm absolutely giddy every time I get my greedy little hands on a book that is chock full of it, but sometimes, every once in awhile, I read a book like this and fall right off that rooftop, flat on my face. This, unfortunately, was one of those times... You have no idea how much I wanted to love this book. 😭 For much of the book, I wasn't even entirely sure what the problem was... the characters were just so one-dimensional and flat and basically it was just lacking the magic I'm used to pouring out of similarly styled books from Alice Hoffman or Sarah Addison Allen.

I can say one thing for sure though... It did make me want to garden.

[Stacy Wendt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ordered this book because it was touted by goodreads as a read-alike to Sarah Addison Allen. I'm a HUGE Sarah Addison Allen fan! HUGE! So needless to say I was super excited to read this story. Goodreads knocked this recommendation outta the park. I really enjoyed it. It is a good read for anyone who enjoys magical realism or gardening! I have already had her first book, "The Wishing Thread", ordered for our library collection. It is incredibly similar to "Garden Spells" with a poisonous twist! Happy reading!

[Ann Merriwether · Rating 4 out of 5]

What's not to love about a magical maze garden that gives you answers to your life's most important question? This is a book about a farming family that has a magical piece of land that grows amazing produce even when their neighbors are struggling with bad weather and such. This is a book about the farmer's daughter who has a symbiotic relationship with her garden maze. This is about family secrets and first love and how people tolerate those that are different. Overall I enjoyed this very much.