Ireland, 2010 . Gilly Townsend’s beloved landscaping business doesn't survive the financial crash. Just when she thinks she’ll have to move back home, a profitable project to restore an inspirational walled garden lands in her lap. But she never expected her wealthy boss from London to inspire her as well. Marc Fletcher just wants an escape for him and his four-year-old son. As he tries to forget a dark past, Gilly’s skills in the garden bring light back into his life. As he and his landscaper grow closer, a family shadow threatens everything he holds dear. Amidst increasingly angry blackmail, Marc and Gilly’s love starts to blossom. But when threats transform into criminal action, will the developer’s poisonous past bury Gilly six-feet-under? The Neglected Garden is a standalone mystery thriller seeded with intrigue and a sprinkle of romance. If you like gutsy heroines, enigmatic heroes, and twists you won't see coming, then you’ll love Suzanne Winterly’s captivating garden mystery.
Gillian Townsend’s a landscape gardener, her business is struggling and she’s moved in with her sister. Vanessa’s engaged to Ken, she’s her father's favorite and successful daughter and Gilly needs to find somewhere else to live before the wedding in a few weeks. Her situation improves when she offered a job restoring a two hundred year old limestone walled garden, four months work and it should keep her bank happy. She begins work on the project at Glanesfort House, her assistant Dean doesn’t have a lot of experience and she hopes to finish the job on time.
Marc Fletcher is a property developer, he’s Gilly’s new boss, and she finds him rather intimidating and attractive. He has a sweet little boy Samuel and his nanny Alice is lovely and kind to Gilly. Marc has a secret past, his wife passed away in a car accident two years ago and someone is blackmailing him. Gilly moves into an empty cottage on the estate, she sees a ghost like figure on the lake and in her cottage window.
Some strange things are going on at Glanesfort House, the person behind it is the last person you would expect, and the danger and deception changes Gilly and Marc’s relationship. The Neglected Garden is a story full of secrets, mystery, intrigue and set in a beautiful two hundred year old garden and estate in Ireland. The story has lots of twists and turns, and it keeps you guessing right until the end. I received a copy of this book from NetGalley, a quick read and three stars from me.
I was the wrong reader for this book. The cover is beautiful, the premise so promising: a neglected garden brought back to lush glorious life by a woman with her own broken and neglected career, finances, and love life--in the countryside with fascinating characters. Here's why I was wrong: I was seduced by what could have been and was shattered when it did not come together. Was it the writing? Yes. Was it the characters? Yes -- even the protagonist is as trope, as trite and cardboard as all the others. It felt at times like cardboard figures set up so you could knock them down once you'd shoved them into the appropriate box. Was it the situation? Yes. All of these could have been pushed down so I could read the story to the end, but I couldn't do it because the protagonist was such a whiny, self-indulgent, inept....well, I couldn't stand her. That's why I was the wrong reader. I wish I wasn't, but I was and I'm sorry for that and wasting my time on the book I started twice and could not read.
I enjoyed this book from the start. I found myself not wanting to put it down. However, I knew from the moment Fergus was introduced into the story that I wasn't going to like him. Sometimes I got angry with Gilly for being so obtuse and not recognizing he was not a good man. I really liked the character Samuel. He was such fun.
This story has a good premise and I had high hopes for it. As a landscape designer, I am naturally drawn to books about rescuing abandoned gardens, (Who wasn't influenced by "Secret Garden?) and the description of Gilly's work in the garden is adequate. However, Gilly as a character is lacking. She is thoughtless, rude, contentious for no particular reason, just how she seems to be. She is not particularly likeable and I am sure I don't know why Marc is drawn to her. As the story opens, she has just been fired from another job because she complains about children and dogs playing in the gardens she designs. She is often in trouble because she blurts out antagonistic questions without considering how they will be received. She trusts the wrong people, and tells herself that people who seem nice aren't interesting or trustworthy. She seems lacking in sense. She rather resents her family's efforts encouraging her to be more careful, to try to not antagonize yet another employer. Gilly, with her erratic nature, just manages to limp through a disjointed plot, and she interacts with other two-dimentional characters. I don't particularly recommend this.
This was a decent and quick read, but I went into it expecting something a little bit different. The following 3 genres is what this was billed under. +International Mystery & Crime (Kindle Store) +International Mystery & Crime (Books) +Women's Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Fiction
There was some mystery and suspense, but definitely more romance than anything. Especially since it not only involved Gilly and Marc, the 2 main characters, but Gilly's sister's wedding planning and relationship, also taking up large portions of the book.
Typical tropes of young broken hearted female that never seems to get it right in the relationship department, meets hot, rich, foreigner, single dad, with a mysterious past that's not open to discussion, and needs someone with experience in the same field that the broken hearted female works in. Of course, there's a whodunit adventure to be solved that works it's way into the plot.
For the most part, the relationship and the mystery are kept a a PG rating, with nothing too deep or violent.
It's a quick page turner, if you're looking for some time to burn, and wanting a stand alone storyline that doesn't get too complicated.
Sorry but I found this so disappointing., mainly because I found the heroine was unmitigatedly awful from page one. Antagonistic, unreasonable, unbusinesslike and really quite stupid. She behaved like a tiresome teenager rather than an aspiring business women. She was so self obsessed and insensitive, I couldn’t see why Marc would fall in love with her.
The premise was good, and I was looking forward to enjoying a romantic story with a touch of mystery. Sadly, the characters were one dimensional, the villain was obvious very early on and the heroine’s stupidity in trusting the villain was so patently incredible that it ruined the plot.
There were some really nice passages in the book and the author can definitely write - some excellent descriptions and realistic dialogue.
I liked the hero Marc and his son, Sam. They both deserved better.
I thought it was too long and needed serious editing. Sorry but I clearly wasn’t the right reader for this book. I like intelligent, sympathetic heroines who I can engage with.
Ireland, 2010. Gilly Townsend’s beloved landscaping business is in trouble because of the financial crash so when she's offered a project to restore a neglected walled garden on a country estate, she's thrilled. The owner, Marc, is an English property developer who lives there with his 4-year old son and his housekeeper. From there, the story becomes a little disjointed. There's an air of mystery about Marc and a romance between him and Gilly comes out of thin air as does her sudden like for children. Gilly treats each area of the garden as a separate "room" which is something I would like to have seen.
I have discovered that I am a fan of mysteries with characters who are landscapers in the UK (Ireland in this case). Who would have guessed it!?
This one stars slow and took me a while to get into.; But once I was, I enjoyed the relationship between Gilly and Marc , mystery and satisfying ending.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the copy to read and review.
Well edited. Characters are good but It could have and should have been half as long. What was up with the meaningless boring Information? Wow!! It was so incredibly dry I wanted to delete it less than a quarter way through. However, I have a thing about needing to know the ending. (Even if it is totally predictable.)
Plot was scattered. Hard to follow and the characters weren’t very interesting. I tried to stay involved but found myself skipping large sections especially towards the end just to move it along.
ARC #review of "The Neglected Garden" by Suzanne Winterly
Ireland, 2010. Gilly Townsend’s beloved landscaping business has trouble surviving the financial crash and a break up with a boyfriend and her sister about to get married (and wishing she would move out) does not make life more rosy.
Then she is offered a project to restore a neglected walled garden on an country estate near Dublin. The owner is Marc, an English property developer, who lives there with his 4-year old son and his housekeeper. The house is used as a conference centre and the buildings on the estate are rented to tenants.
At first glance it looks all very idyllic but there are dark clouds on the horizon. Marc experienced two traumatic events in his life and is now blackmailed by persons unknown and Gilly and the small boy see a strange white lady.
The novel has some romance elements in it but I was not so impressed. It feels like that comes up from thin air and you see no gradual warming. But that might be just me. Another aspect of the novel is the mystery part and I did like that. Also thought it well thought through. What I found really interesting was Marc's time doing business in Japan. There is a lot of gardening in the book. For people with green thumbs a must I think. In my case sometimes quite lost in translation. As Gilly explains to someone flowers and plants have Latin names because the local names can be very confusing when you cross a border. I can vouch for that :).
Gilly and her sister Vanessa could not be more different. Vanessa is organized, methodical and has a plan for everything. Gilly is haphazard, unwilling to think things through and right now finds herself in a predicament. She has given up on her present job, walked out on it actually, is overdrawn at the bank, has no place of her own and knows she is on sufferance at her sister's flat.
A chance offer of turning a neglected garden into an oasis of tranquility serving five apartments with an employer who is not a control freak is a wonderful chance for Gilly to assert her independence and get her life back on track.
The employer himself a wealthy businessman seems to have a lot going on in his life, lots of secrets and is an enigma. It does not help that both Gilly and Marc are attracted to each other but both are wary of the future.
Involving past secrets overshadowing the present, a complicated case of revenge, abduction and over riding it all beautiful garden talk makes this book very readable! Romance with shades of suspense and mystery all evolve very nicely together.
This is a book that kept me reading deep into the night and I finished it in almost one sitting. It is a great debut novel that had intriguing mystery, suspense and gentle romance storyline with a variety of good characters. I also loved the setting...rural Ireland and old building and neglected garden that is coming to life when the main female character is hired to do that. Her boss is good to her and they become close but something is bothering him, a secret from his past... after few twists and turns there is one satisfying end. All in all nice summer reading material that by that hint of gothic drama will give you a few gardening information too
Ireland, 2010. Gilly Townsend’s beloved landscaping business has trouble surviving the financial crash and a break up with a boyfriend and her sister about to get married (and wishing she would move out) does not make life more rosy.
Then she is offered a project to restore a neglected walled garden on an country estate near Dublin. The owner is Marc, an English property developer, who lives there with his 4-year old son and his housekeeper. The house is used as a conference centre and the buildings on the estate are rented to tenants.
At first glance it looks all very idyllic but there are dark clouds on the horizon. Marc experienced two traumatic events in his life and is now blackmailed by persons unknown and Gilly and the small boy see a strange white lady.
The novel has some romance elements in it but I was not so impressed. It feels like that comes up from thin air and you see no gradual warming. But that might be just me.
Another aspect of the novel is the mystery part and I did like that. Also thought it well thought through.
What I found really interesting was Marc's time doing business in Japan.
There is a lot of gardening in the book. For people with green thumbs a must I think. In my case sometimes quite lost in translation. As Gilly explains to someone flowers and plants have Latin names because the local names can be very confusing when you cross a border. I can vouch for that :).
Thank you NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the eARC. At first I didn't like Gilly, she had a small hissy fit at her sister's after walking out on a client whose garden she was working on. But when she gets a new one at Glanesford, outside of Dublin, to restore a walled garden, she got her act together and became much more sympathetic. It's a big job and she's thrilled to have the chance at restoring the space and earning some much needed money. Her boss, Marc, is good to her, even though he's at first not easy to get close too. He has a little 4-year old son, who is alone a lot with his caretaker as his father travels back and forth to meetings. As time progresses they are drawn to each other, but Marc's past is mysterious and full of trouble. As things come to a frightening head and the past catches up with Marc, there are some tense and dangerous times.I On the whole I enjoyed this book. I had to suspend my belief a bit and sighed at the choices Ginny made, but it was a good read with a satisfying conclusion.
A beautifully writtwn drama, sure to tug on your heartstrings and make you appreciate your relationships more . Will definitely read more book by this author.
Good story with a hint of gothic drama. The characters are believable and, while the mystery is not horribly complex, it is resolved with a satisfying finish.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story. It’s intriguing and surprising twist. The book has been well edited and lacks all the spelling errors so one ten I found in modern literature. I look forward to reading more by this author.
I love a walled garden, I love Ireland and who doesn’t love a mystery in twined with the promise of a romance. This wonderfully written novel had it all. I truly found it hard to put down. I felt transported to the walled garden at Glanesfort, I called smell the roses, and feel the heat from the sun on my face. Landscape garden designer Gilly is struggling to keep her business afloat when she lands the dream job of renovating the walled garden of an Irish mansion. Little did she know what she was taking on. The garden work was a breeze compared to the struggles she encounters when becoming close to her client, property developer Marc. Is he all that he seems? What is lurking in his past that threatens to destroy him ?
I thought this was an enjoyable read but not as good as The Family Shadow. It lacked the elegance of phrase and the mystery seemed less intense. I did enjoy reading about the plants because I like to garden.
I liked this book but not nearly as much as The Family Shadow. It seemed to me that The Family Shadow had an elegance of phrase that this book lacked..almost as if it were written by a different person. I also felt the mystery was less intense in this book. I did enjoy reading about the plants because I like to garden.
I thought this book was a good read. It was a bit slow from the beginning to about middle and the ending was a bit confusing, maybe it was just me. I didn't really like the character Gilly, I felt she was a bit jealous of her sister and was pinning over a man that she had never met. Like I said in the beginning a bit slow, didn't really care for Gilly, but overall its a decent book.
Really enjoyed the twists of this mystery/love story and all of the beautiful descriptions of the scenery. I admit that the ending was a bit abrupt for me and I was not ready for the story to be over. Was hoping there would be a series with these characters but hopefully one day there will be a second book. I suppose you have to stop the story somewhere, but sad it’s over!
I found this book very interesting and very much liked the characters and twists at the end. There were blends of mystery and drama which added interest as to what would happen next. I enjoyed the whole story from the beginning to the end. I found the author's style most intriguing and want to try more books 📚 to read and see if I enjoy them as much as I did this one. Thanks for sharing your talent with me! Pegge
I found the story fun and well written , though the main character seemed bit naive and perhaps it was due to her youth??? However, otherwise the characters were well rounded and I quite enjoyed the " yarn"
Couldn’t put it down. She has well developed characters snd they mesh together well. It doesn’t read like a formula book and I like the way she aunts vivid beautiful pictures using words
It’s all the things I read about this book and more. It’s refreshing with that little bit is suspense. I love it!! Couldn’t put it down. Will follow this author.