Many thanks to Noelle Holten and publisher Bookouture for my spot on this Blog Tour.

A love lost hits my heart with a thud especially in December, and memories of the happy times causes my being to lurch. When a book has a blurb which has the residents coming together to build a garden with a memory tree for the lost loved ones, I am intrigued.

I started reading the story of Nina, a widow who worked in a charity shop with Robyn. The shop came to a close, and they were jobless. Soon they embarked on converting a neglected patch of land into a garden when Nina realized that there were many lonely souls that December just like her. Their friendship healed her. Disaster struck and Colm came to the rescue and brought the hints of second chance romance with him. But the past was not willing to let go of its grip…

Having read many of Tilly Tennant’s books, I knew I was in for an emotional ride. This story too had a thread of friendship running in it, which simply delighted me. The characters were many and charming. The love and caring shown by them, warmed my heart.

Nina and Colm were broken by their past, but looking forward to the future. I loved their tentative steps toward each other. Their story tugged on my strings of emotion, making me feel all gooey and mushy. I love a second chance romance between hearts that were broken and hence cautious.

The book was filled with the spirit of Christmas. The healing power of friendship was shown beautifully in the prose. There was love and romance, fear and heartbreak, loss and sadness. But all of those were bound in a thread of hope and a willingness to take risks. Tilly’s writing made me feel as if there was hope for me too.

A beautiful read!!

I received a free ARC from NetGalley and publisher, and this is my journey into its pages, straight from the heart!! STRICTLY HONEST AND UNBIASED.

All my reviews can be read here

Tilly Tennant was born in Dorset, the oldest of four children, but now lives in Staffordshire with a family of her own. After years of dismal and disastrous jobs, including paper plate stacking, shop girl, newspaper promotions and waitressing (she never could carry a bowl of soup without spilling a bit), she decided to indulge her passion for the written word by embarking on a degree in English and creative writing, graduating in 2009 with first class honours. She wrote her first novel in 2007 during her first summer break at university and has not stopped writing since. She also works as a freelance fiction editor, and considers herself very lucky that this enables her to read many wonderful books before the rest of the world gets them.

As the cold winter nights draw in, escape to the sleepy town of Wrenwick, where the streets sparkle with snow and a lonely young widow is about to find that true love really can strike twice…

As Christmas cheer fills Sparrow Street with excitement, grieving widow Nina is having a hard time. December is always a difficult month to face without her beloved husband Gray, the days feel long and bleak, and to cap it all, she’s just lost her job.

So when Nina hears that Sparrow Street’s Community Garden, one of Gray’s favourite places, is to be put up for sale she knows she must do something. Filled with purpose, she gathers the residents of Sparrow Street around her to turn the neglected patch of land into a Garden of Memories.

Working with her neighbours, single mum Kelly and eighty-year-old Ada, Nina soon finds that she’s not the only lonely soul on Sparrow Street. And as the community comes together and the garden flourishes, Nina can’t help but be drawn to Irish gardener Colm with his sparkling blue eyes and kind heart, finding herself confiding in him about all her recent troubles.

But just as Colm and Nina grow closer and he opens up to her about his own secret loss, Colm’s estranged wife returns from Scotland, wanting to try again. Nina knows she should let the man she’s falling for go – it’s the right thing to do. But what if fate has other plans in store? Will the beautiful garden on Sparrow Street have brought two people together only for Nina’s cautious heart to push them apart?

Publication Date: 9th October 2019

Publisher: Bookouture