In the Shadow Garden by Liz Parker - Book Review

In the Shadow Garden by Liz Parker

Publication Date: 13th Sep 2022

Genre: Contemporary Romance, Magic Realism, Family Drama

4.2 Stars 

One Liner: Entertaining 

Yarrow in Kentucky is a magical place. The three generations of the Haywood family heal people’s pain and feed it to their shadow garden. The shadow garden gives them rich fruits, herbs, vegetables, and flowers in return.

The Bonner family owns the local bourbon distillery and brews a different kind of magic. On one day every year, a shot of Bonner bourbon can make a person’s worst memories go away. The lives of the Haywood and Bonner family are more entwined than the Haywood ladies would care to admit. 

Something happened twenty years ago. No one remembers what made everyone willingly give up the memories. A person died, and no one remembers how. As the secrets from the past come to light, The Haywood ladies have to make decisions that can affect their future. 

The story comes in the limited third-person POV of many characters. 

My Observations: 

Since I didn’t reread the blurb before starting the book, I was surprised to find it heavier than expected. Yet, I enjoyed the sense of intrigue and drama it created. 

The first 35% is slow. The last 25% is super fast. The second half worked better for me as I wanted to read to the end and could do it by staying up a few minutes extra. 

The book started with three family trees. Yep. I recreated those on paper (as I always do), but the relationships between some characters are still confusing (‘is’ because it’s still messy in my head). 

There wasn’t enough breathing space in introducing characters and changing POVs from one character to another. Lucky that all of them didn’t have a chapter with their name. 

The concept of the shadow garden was wonderful. I loved how it is an integral part of the story from start to finish. A book with magic should have magic as one of its characters, and this book does that. 

But… the story was too elaborate for a 330 page-book. That meant one thing happened after another, and with different POVs in each chapter, you had to pay full attention to keep up. IMO, the premise deserved more. I’d have loved it if the whole story was divided into two books (220-250 pages) with proper character development and optimum utilization of the setting. 

While I decided to go with the flow, I didn’t know if I should root for Irene or Addison. The chapters whizzed by before I could make up my mind. In fact, there’s still a chance for a prequel. Give us more details about the past, about why Maura didn’t like Bonners and Addison’s childhood. 

Despite the lack of character development, the book was entertaining and enjoyable. The mystery wasn’t much of a mystery after 50%, but I sure wanted to know how they would connect the dots. 

What I loved the best was how the Haywood ladies weren’t all goody-good. They had their faults and weren’t perfect parents/ grandparents. There are subtle lessons in the book about family relationships, supporting the younger generation, and trusting them to make their own decisions. 

Another important lesson is how a person can end up pushing away their loved ones by prioritizing their hate for a third party over loving/ supporting their own. I so wish this was given enough space for the gravity of the act to sink in. 

The LGBT side characters are delightful and cute, as adorable as the lovely cover and the drawing of flowers at the beginning of the chapters. 

There’s a glossary for reading the shapes in tea leaves. Tea leaves are a big part of the book. I’m yet to get into it (just started learning tarot), but seems like destiny has it lined up for me. I’ve read quite a few books with magic, witchcraft, and tea leaves reading as major themes since I started learning. Though the glossary is limited, I loved that I could save a copy of it (along with the meanings for different flowers). 

To summarize, In the Shadow Garden is an engaging book about magic, tea leaves, flowers, mystery, love, families, and choices. Pick it up when you want something light (as long as you keep track of the characters). 

Thank you, NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing), for the eARC.  

#NetGalley #InTheShadowGarden