I’ve never read this author but saw a review on one of the book blogs I visit and decided to try this.

A young couple marry after a whirlwind romance and then he (unexpectedly) inherits the family estate, which includes the said sea garden. There’s some menacing secret about this garden that staff seem to be in on, but not the wife who determines to “dig up” (in more ways than one) the history of this particular plot of land.

The book lost me after only a couple of chapters when it flash-backed to the founding ancestor (Jonas?) Jones and his life at sea. I can’t follow narratives about boats or the ocean and I thought it highly probable that it was important to the plot to understand this chapter. I looked ahead – and dipped into another sea episode.

I guess I had hoped that the “garden” would have been major part of that title, and not the “sea”. This just wasn’t for me, so I returned it to the library unread. ( )