Reviewed by Emma Crowley
1941, England: When Anya is sent to rural England to work as a spy, she’s glad to escape a terrifying situation at home in war-torn Russia. But as she settles into life as a land girl, she fears she’s made a terrible mistake.
With her life at risk every day, she can only turn to her fellow informer, Nikolai, who she finds herself impossibly drawn to. They both desperately want to join the fight against the Nazis and when they are told Russia has switched allegiance, they start to believe their love might stand a chance.
But no one can ever know their secret history, and being together puts them in the gravest danger. So they devise a plan. If they’re ever separated, they will find their way back to each other. They just have to follow a series of secret coded messages. Clues no one else could possibly understand.Starting with a small key, left in the place that has become most precious to them: the secret garden.
Now, England: When Laura agrees to restore a beautiful garden in the grounds of an English stately home she sees the opportunity for a new start, away from heartbreak. But when she finds a box buried under the weeping willow tree, she is spellbound by its contents – a key and a cryptic note. As she begins to piece together the fragments of a love story that stretches across wartime Europe, Laura doesn’t realise it, but she is embarking on an unforgettable journey. One which will change her own life forever.
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of Garden of Secrets to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Garden of Secrets is another wonderfully written story by Suzanne Kelman combining a wartime secret, an impossible mystery and a love story that is hard to leave out of your mind once it slowly begins to unfurl. I have to admit that both the title and the cover are what drew me to this book, there is just something about both that really stands out although I would have read it anyway given I have read all the books that the author has so far published. The title just speaks out that there is a mystery to be solved and I was very eager to see what it was.
The story is told through the dual timeline format which moved seamlessly back and forth between the war years and the present day as a discovery is made which sets in motion a quest for to uncover the mystery behind something buried in a secret walled garden. The two strands of the story work very well together, both being strong and well told. Usually, I prefer the past over the present but here I became quickly enthralled by both elements and that’s thanks to the descriptive writing which lead me on a journey of discovery, hope, bravery, love and devotion. I have found in the past that the author’s books can take some time to get going and I am left longing for the story to get going. Yes,this did again happen here as I found the Nikolai/Anya sections set in Russia were too drawn out but once British soil was reached things intensified much more.
November 1941, Hatworth Manor in Norfolk and Anya is out in the black of night determined not to be discovered. She has a secret tucked under her clothing and hopes the snow will not reveal her tracks or what she is about to do. She hides something in the soil underneath the willow tree which has long stood in the walled garden of the manor. She wants to save the only man she loves but knows that if she is caught her life will be over. Instantly, my interest was piqued, I wanted to know the background to Anya and who exactly is the man she loves? What was she hiding and why did she feel the need to do so especially in the dead of night? What danger surrounds her? Plenty of questions and food for thought were provided in the opening pages but to find out the answers the reader must be patient and enjoy the story as it unfolds for the answers will come to those who wait and what will be uncovered is a love story that will certainly tug at the heart strings.
In the present day, Laura has arrived to work at the manor. She will stay at the cottage of her university friends, Simon, who is the estate manager, and his wife Alicia. Laura has a very interesting job in that she is a garden restorer, bringing run down gardens back to life through redevelopment and replanting but she does so very sensitively focusing on the history of the garden. This new job couldn’t have come at a better time for her as she had desperately needed to get away from London and her now ex-boyfriend Liam. She had done everything in her power to make her eight year relationship work but the straw that broke the camel’s back was Liam cheated on her. Laura is not in a very good place. Her life is shattered and she has a terrible fear of never being loved again. She is very down and at times she is frustrating in that she can’t seem to shake the funk that she is in and this is in total contrast to the way Nikolai and Anya are feeling the more the story progress’.
Seeing the abandoned walled garden gives Laura a ray of hope. It seems to call to her as it does to the other main characters in the book even though they are separated by 75 years. The garden becomes like a character in itself. A place of refuge, hope and love amidst the terrors of the war. It has an unusual aura about it which radiates from the pages and it becomes a special place for Laura as she sets about renovating it and bringing it back to its former glory. It offers her security and a sense of being hidden away from the world and the problems that enshroud her. The garden had lay hidden, overgrown and neglected for so long but now was waiting to spring back into life and as this starts to occur Laura discovers underneath the willow tree a cigarette case with a silver key and a ration card inside with a message saying-Please find me Grace Mere is our only hope. Of course, she can’t but not be fascinated as to what this all means and she feels such an urge to solve the mystery of what has been found.
Later on, we are privy to an even deeper reason as to why Laura feels so called to track down the person who hid this if in fact they are alive. This quote really summed up the journey Laura went on as she attempted to reconcile the past with the present both in terms of her own life and the incredible love story that was waiting patiently to be told. ‘Fate has an unusual way of taking us on paths of discovery that end up leading us back to a new truth for our own lives. It’s all part of the marvellous experience we call life’. I loved the way Laura set about seeking the answers to the mystery. Step by step through subtle clues and meeting people she draws ever closer to the truth and meets Jamie, a painter, along the way. I loved the use of Charles Dickens - The Old Curiosity Shop as a strong link for solving the clues and basically a good old fashioned mystery developed that had you rapidly turning the pages.
The story in the past is told from two perspectives, that of Nikolai and Anya. Their story begins in Russia, Anya is trying to escape her abusive stepfather and feels even more of an urgency when her mother dies suddenly. Nikolai comes from a well to do background but is determined to uncover just what happened to his father when he was taken away and killed. Soon they both come to work for the Russian government and although Nikolai is training against his will when he comes into contact with Anya who is part of his training you can feel a spark between them from the moment they meet. Soon they are both drawn into a web that will be hard to escape from.They find themselves working as Russian spies and are transported secretly to England. They arrive at Hatworth Manor under new names and Anya becomes Annie the Land Girl and Nikolai becomes Nicholas the new footman. They are to report back on the movements of planes at a camp near the manor and to listen to any details being discussed about the war by the lord of the manor.
Their task soon pales into insignificance when they discover the walled garden and like Laura in the present it envelops itself around the couple and the personas they have been forced to adopt can be dropped. I know I should have despised the pair given they were spies and trying to help the Russians in the war but the way the pair were written you just forget all that and appreciate the deep and solid love connection that develops between the pair. You wish their love didn’t exist in times of such trouble and danger and that they could just be free to be together to show their love to the world. Instead they played a very dangerous game yet they never let their ‘characters’ slide and showed such bravery, tenacity and strength for each other. But fate has a way of intervening and their love is torn apart. Anya sets in motion a plan which they had devised in case they were discovered and informed on. Will it work? Can they follow the clues set out for each other? Once separated will they ever reunite? How does this all connect back to Laura in the present and just how crucial a role does the walled garden play? You’ll definitely have to read Garden of Secrets to find out. Despite the slow start it goes on to be a wonderfully told heart-breaking but also heart-warming story.
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