The Garden of Forgotten Wishes
By Trisha Ashley
Rated: 5 stars *****

Today is my stop on the blog tour for the very delightful summer read that is The Garden of Forgotten Wishes. It whisks you away to a beautiful garden and interesting, characters with their uplifting community spirit, sometimes complicated lives and a bit of romance.
Discover the author, blurb, review and the social media links below.
I thank Haley Barnes at TransworldBooks for sending me a copy of the book and to be invited by Anne to review.

About the Author

Trisha Ashley’s Sunday Times bestselling novels have twice been shortlisted for the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance, and Every Woman for Herself was nominated by readers as one of the top three romantic novels of the last fifty years.
Trisha lives in North Wales.

Blurb

The brand new novel from Sunday Times Top Five bestselling author Trisha Ashley – the perfect Summer read!

All Marnie wants is somewhere to call home. Mourning lost years spent in a marriage that has finally come to an end, she needs a fresh start and time to heal. Things she hopes to find in the rural west Lancashire village her mother always told her about.
With nothing but her two green thumbs, Marnie takes a job as a gardener, which comes with a little cottage to make her own. The garden is beautiful – filled with roses, lavender and honeysuckle – and only a little rough around the edges. Which is more than can be said for her next-door-neighbour, Ned Mars.
Marnie remembers Ned from her school days but he’s far from the untroubled man she once knew. A recent relationship has left him with a heart as bruised as her own.
Can a summer spent gardening help them heal and recapture the forgotten dreams they’ve let get away?

Praise for Trisha Ashley:
‘One of the best writers around!’ – Katie Fforde
‘Full of down-to-earth humour’ – Sophie Kinsella
‘A warm-hearted and comforting read. Trisha at her best.’ – Carole Matthews

Review

Meander through the garden. It looks beautiful. Seek out the lovely plants that are listed on a key code list for what you see on the small map, and jump back with Marnie to 1993 before following her to the first chapter in 2017.

In 1993, life is bitter-sweet as Marnie (Marianne) sits with her mum after her aunt has dropped her off, reminiscing together, even though for Marnie, to bring up the good times isn’t a natural thing for a young child to do. Her mum is doing the rounds of chemotherapy.

Marnie, by 2017 was in France. To live in a chateau sounds idyllic. Like a dream!
This is a book with themes of control. It’s a timely book, since that’s finally one of the main topics up for discussion. This is also about Marnie’s escape, with Treena’s help more than what led up to her fleeing.

The book is as heartwarming and as uplifting as it is heart-wrenching. Marnie, once she has left for the UK, she has a hope to reconnect on some sort of level with the mother she lost to cancer. She also hopes to rediscover herself and some people she once knew at Jericho’s end. The Fairy Falls sound tranquil and is where the Cottingley Fairies were “filmed” and proven to be a hoax, later a film was made.  She also hopes to restore the garden at Lavander Cottage, that she once knew.

She meets Ned, who presents a tv show called  “The Small Plot.” They knew each other from their student days at horticultural college. The only issue is, intriguingly, he isn’t so pleased to see her.

There’s a lot of strength of character and courage presented within the characters in this book. I love that a lot and is, for me anyway, relatable. The characters have been through a lot and yet they still get on with life.

There’s a real passion for gardens and gardening within the book for readers to explore. It’s uplifting how people end up supporting each other to meet the same goal of having a completed garden. Watching it expand is beautiful and elegant to read about. It’s also nice that it isn’t too romanticised, in other words, you can see some of the hard-work it takes to pull something as vast off. Romance blossoms amongst the blooms of nature as the project grows.

This is a beautiful book that shows courage against adversity in so many ways. That’s what makes it a great book for this summer.

After the book, there are related recipes to some of the icecreams within the book. So you can try out making your own, lavender, ginger, minced meat, mulled wine, non-dairy coffee and choc chip icecreams.

Trisha Ashley’s Social Media Links

For more information about her please visit www.trishaashley.com , her
Facebook page www.facebook.com/TrishaAshleyBooks or follow her on
Twitter @trishaashley