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After a divorce and a great deal of soul-searching, Lotte has abandoned her successful career as an architect for a degree in garden history, and uprooted her three children to take a job as head gardener to millionaire Brody Keegan at Maddon Park in Oxfordshire.
Brody is as ignorant about gardens as Lotte is knowledgeable, his tastes as loud as hers are quiet. As Lotte locks horns with her boss and his spoilt young wife, she finds herself on an emotional roller coaster. she knows what is right for the garden, but - still raw from divorce, anxious about the children and frightened of entanglement - she is less sure of what is right for her.
Lotte is newly divorced and it still stings. She has managed to pick herself up and makes the decision to start afresh with the children, new career path, new home but she is not ready for a new man. I instantly took to Lotte as she is a strong character who knows what she wants...well for her family, anyway.
Brody, "Lord of the Manor", has more money than sense when he buys Maddon Park and has grand plans for the estate, along with his young model wife, Amber. Brody was not easy to like with his brash ways and ideas.
By contrast, Peter, who is helping Lotte to research the history of Maddon Park, is gentle and a good friend to Lotte and the children.
I knew from reading the Prologue, giving background information on Maddon Park, that this was going to be a novel I would really enjoy. I wanted to know more about the history of the Park. Once Lotte and Brody were introduced into the story at the job interview for Head Gardener I was even more excited to read on and see how this explosive working relationship was going to work.
Lotte was interested in restoring and preserving Maddon Park, whereas Brody is only interested in throwing his money into wrecklessly developing Maddon Park. Surely a recipe for disaster.
As Lotte spends more time researching the history of Maddon Park and working with Brody she discovers that not only does the Park have hidden depths, Brody does too.
A strong cast and great observations of the new feelings, hopes and fears in relationships for a divorcee and her young teen daughter.
My only reservation about this novel is that by the time I had reached page 100 I was expecting this book to be just an enjoyable read uncovering the history of the Park and it's restoration. After a slow, but enjoyable start the author gets down to the nitty gritty of people in the story and the novel becomes much more exciting.
4.5 out of 5 for me!
Thank you to Quercus for sending me a review copy. This did not influence my review in any way.
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