The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley
10/06/2015
Eva Ward is a little lost. Her sister and only family member has just died after a long illness. When her sister's widowed husband Bill entrusts Eva with finding just the right place to spread her ashes, Eva heads home to Cornwall. She is welcome back to Trelowarth,, a large estate on the Cornish coast, where she spent most of her childhood summers. At Trelowarth she is surrounded by old friends and memories but finds herself getting lost in time. Eva starts making uncontrolled trips 300 years back in time to when Trelowah was the home of the Butler Brothers, Daniel and Jack, smugglers and Jacobites, that she at first tries to dismiss as especially vivid hallucinations caused by her grief.
Eva becomes heavily involved in the lives of residents of Trelowarth in both time periods. In the past she becomes fascinated by Daniel Butler, a principled free-trader and increasingly pessimistic Jacobite contemplating exile in the face of increasing pressure. In the present day she gets caught up trying to rescue Trelowah from financial ruin, working to help her childhood friends Susan and Mark establish a tea-room and revitalize their heirloom rose business.
The Rose Garden is lyrical and Kearsley is one again able to evoke a powerful sense of place. The two Trelowahs are distinct in atmosphere and energy even as they are the same location separated by time. Both sets of secondary characters are interesting and engaging however I found the main romantic relationship underdeveloped. Daniel and Eva simply spend to little time together and I didn't feel like their relationship moved much beyond physical attraction and some undefined magnetism. Eva has a stronger more developed relationship with Feargal, Daniel's best-friend, pretends to be her older-brother and tutors Eva on everything from dressing her hair, lighting a fire to cooking barley. Secondary romantic relationships get much more developement.
While many GR reviewers complained about the way time travel was explained, I was entirely satisfied with it. I liked that while some of the characters try to rationalize it scientifically in the end we are left assuming that is no explanation remnants of ancient magic and intersecting ley lines that allow the inhabitants of Trelowarth to occasionally be drawn across time by loves that call to them out of their own time.
The Rose Garden was atmospheric, interesting and moving story about grief, friendships and belonging with romantic elements.