Liz Parker (2)

Both what I was expecting and what I wasn't. Elentarri read this recently and liked it and the whole idea of a shadow garden that feeds off pain and sorrow appealed to me.

The story more or less covers three generations of the Haywoods; a family of witches whose gift is to remove some of the pain and sorrow of their fellow townspeople as a way to help them heal. This pain and sorrow is fed into the shadow garden and helps the plants within to grow with extraordinary gifts themselves.

My only, biggest, issue was - and I have no idea why - I kept thinking of the youngest Haywood as a teenager. She's not, she's in her latish-20's. Some of her behaviour probably contributed to this misconception, but either way it was a bit jarring. I also kept mixing up who was with whom in a couple of the relationships - fortunately there was a family tree to reference.

I really like where Parker took the story; it was a direction I hadn't anticipated, but it worked beautifully, even if some of the characters weren't as wholly developed out as they could have been. This appears to be Parker's first book - if her character development catches up to her story and plotting development, she'll have a lot of very good books ahead of her.… (más)

Book Review…In the Shadow Garden by Liz Parker

This was a great book full of mystery, magic and a little bit of romance! In this story we follow two families. The Haywood family is known for their garden which is used for healing and the Bonner family is known for their bourbon which can take away a memory. Every year the town holds a festival where the town offers up one memory but twenty years ago, the town gave up more than one memory; they forgot an entire summer. One person died. One person disappeared. The two families fighting and no one knows why. Finding out what happened is the mystery we follow.

The story is told from multiple points of view and some flashbacks. It moves well between them and it really gives you the whole picture but there were a lot of names to keep track of so the family tree was great to have. The mystery has a lot of layers but the way the author drew it out till the very end giving the reader just enough to make us want to keep reading was nicely done! I really enjoyed the characters. They were witty, fun and easy to like! It's a heartfelt and unique story that will be perfect for a fall read!
… (más)

Three stars for beautiful imagery. Odd dots are to circumvent autocorrect. People were either saints or cartoonishly evil (especially Nate) in this. There were too many characters to keep track of, let alone care about. No one was fleshed out. Everyone's voice was the same, despite having generations between them. The passage of time wasn't denoted in present day. A prargraph would happen and then it would be, "And I've spent all day getting to know you!" Oh really? Cause you just got here a few sentences ago. The romance was cheesy, the twists absolutely stupid, and I barely cared about anyone. I kept reading for descriptions of the shadow garden and lakes. The author does a much better job of that than actual plot or characterization. I was curious about this, though, so I'm glad I read it.… (más)