Spanning from the years from 1907 to 2021, this is the story of the gardens of Highbury house. Focusing on three women, it begins with Venetia Smith who designed the gardens. The second story is set during World War II and the story of three women is told. Diana Symonds is the war widow who owns the stately home and oversees the transformation of it into a military hospital. Beth Pedley is a land girl sent to help on a neighboring farm and Stella Adderton, the cook, is guardian of her 5-year-old nephew. In 2021, Emma Lovett is hired to restore the gardens. Kelly did an excellent job of weaving all three stories together while giving us a glimpse of the history of the estate. Readers will be satisfied with the culmination of all three stories. Combining strong female characters, mystery and romance, there is something for all readers.

I received a ARC of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review of the book. I love historical fiction and am enamored with British history. British gardens are renowned for their intricacy and beauty and I thought this would be a book that would wind the construction of the garden into a story with characters I would enjoy reading about. The garden is designed in the early 1900’s by a young woman whose employers are incredibly stereotyped for that period. They are cold, cunning and without heart. Vivian’s own story is truly enjoyable. We move on to Beth during WWII and honestly it was hard to remember she was designing a garden as Stella’s story is far more compelling. Lastly we move on to Emma who is looking for a key, an actual key, to open a garden long locked. The gardens are a mess after years of neglect. Emma is a modern young woman, her employers are kind and she desires to recreate the gardens to their original beauty. Again, we are dealing with stereotyped characters and Emma is not particularly compelling. I was very disappointed with the book with the exception of how each garden designer’s story wrapped up.

Happy Pub Day to @juliakellywrites 🥳 The Last Garden In England is out now!

"From the author of the international bestseller The Light Over London and The Whispers of War comes a poignant and unforgettable tale of five women living across three different times whose lives are all connected by one very special place."

This book is everything I love about historical fiction: Strong female leads, a mystery to be solved and family secrets to be discovered. I also love the interwoven time lines of Emma, Venetia and Beth throughout this garden's history. My favorite part of this story is in fact the garden, the setting for the novel, and a living, breathing character in its own right. Being a gardener myself, I'm fascinated with gardens and love reading about them, fiction & nonfiction wise!

Is #TheLastGardenInEngland on your #TBRlist? And do yourself a favor and add her other books too!

Thank you again to @simonandschuster @gallerybooks and @netgalley for this gifted e-galley!

For more about the book (like video tours of the garden that inspired the book), and to buy the book, visit Julia's instagram.

Full synopsis in comment below.

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#theeclecticspoonie 1/12/21

Sometimes you’re lucky enough to pick up the right book at just the right time. I needed to lose myself for a little while so I slipped between the pages of this new release. It was the perfect remedy! It’s the story of three women linked together by one English garden in Scotland. The story is told in three eras- 1907, 1944 and present day. You’ll find wonderful characters and beautiful descriptions of lush gardens. (fans of Kate Morton, you will love it!)

Five women, one garden, and the intersection of their lives through the development, support, and rebirth of the garden over a century.

Emma Lovett, has been hired to restore the gardens of the famed Highbury House estate, designed in 1907 by her hero Venetia Smith. But as Emma dives deeper into the gardens’ past, she encounters locked gates and the secrets contained behind that enclosure.

Venetia Smith, the original designer of the garden, is a rare working woman of the time, providing the wealthy with gardens that do justice to their stately homes. Designing the gardens for Highbury House is the pinnacle of her career, but there she also encounters a personal challenge designed to change the course of her life.

Approximately 35 years later, as World War II rages, the mature gardens are in abandoned glory, still beautiful but going wild with lack of care. Three women are tied to the house and garden by circumstances and forge a relationship built of tenuous trust and tragedy. Land girl Beth Pedley, Cook Stella Adderton, and widow Diana Symonds are bound together by a secret that will last for decades.

Overall, a moving, lovely story with beautiful descriptions of classic English gardening, and the friendships and trials of three generations of strong independent women whose lives are intertwined by the gardens of Highbury House. Thank you to NetGalley, the author Julia Kelly, and the publisher for providing this ARC for review. Truly enjoyable!

This was such a captivating read! The story is set in three different eras, 1907, 1944 and 2021 and the main characters are women. These are women who need to be strong, whether it’s because they are striving to achieve in a ‘man’s world’, or to cope with loss, and also complex relationships. What they all have in common is the setting of the gardens of Highbury House. Once I got into this book, I just couldn’t stop reading. It was the type of book where I wanted to know what happened but also didn’t want it to end. I will admit I had tears at one point, this is a book I will remember for a long time. I received a copy and have voluntarily reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is a well-written historical fiction novel with a lovely gardening emphasis. The chapter POV’s switch between five characters across three different time periods. I enjoyed spending time with these five women – each flawed yet likeable in her own way – and the friends they make along their respective journeys. Some of these characters experience new romantic relationships (which were sweet but not spectacular), but not every character is paired up at the end, which was nice to see.

While I liked this book, I didn’t love it. It wasn’t until around the 50% mark that I started to see how the storylines could merge aside from the Highbury garden setting. Up until then, I felt that something was lacking: probably that the characters’ stories could have been more engaging (or written in a more engaging way). Two characters experience climactic moments during the second half of the book, but only one of them touched me the way I think it was meant to. And when we find out how all five storylines are connected, I found it a bit underwhelming (even though the events themselves were not underwhelming, just…kinda sudden for a story of this length?). My final impression was that the book was nice – full of friendship and love – but not exactly memorable.

If you enjoy historical fiction and you’re interested in gardening, this could be the perfect book for you!

I received an advanced reading copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Great book. I loved how it told the story of the garden in 3 different time periods. I will definitely read more by this author.

Thank you #Netgalley, #Gallerybooks,#Simonandschuster and author @juliakelly for the e galley in exchange for an honest review.
I adored this book!! As a lover of gardens and historical fiction, The Last Garden in England was a perfect read.
Author Julia Kelly transported me directly to Highbury House and it's lush gardens. I walked the paths through the tea garden, the bridal garden, the children's garden, the sculpture garden, the water garden, the lover's garden and lastly the walled winter garden, stopping to inhale the sweet scented flowers and marvel at the surrounding beauty.
With a triple timeline, the stories of five women are woven together across nearly one hundred years connected by a special garden and it's secrets.
A story that begins with the garden restorer, Emma, in 2021 and draws the reader back in time to 1907 to meet Venetia, the garden designer and in 1944, we meet Stella, a cook at Highbury , Beth, a land girl employed at the farm and Diana, mistress of Highbury. Each woman and her connection to Highbury and the gardens becomes a part of the mystery as it is unraveled through time. Love and romance bloom and grow. Don't miss this lovely book out January 12, 2021!

Whirlwind romances and years of history, all held in the careful arms of a beautiful English garden— “The Last Garden” will leave you feeling wistful, hopeful, and totally enthralled by the women of Highbury House.

The novel is both a romance and historical fiction. Author Julia Kelly paints a beautiful landscape of Highbury, Warwickshire— a quaint, quiet town in England with a rich cast of characters. We read of rolling fields, wide stretches of farmland, and cottages peppered along the road. Highbury House feels like a grand character totally in itself.

The story observes the history of Highbury House and the people whose lives are intertwined with the home at three specific points in time.

We’re dropped into 1907, where we meet Venetia Smith— a progressive designer who is creating the home’s expansive and intricate gardens for a wealthy and powerful family.

The story picks up again in 1944, where readers find Highbury House in the middle of World War II. The home has now been converted to a hospital, to temporarily house and care for the soldiers who have been wounded in war. We are introduced to Beth Pedley, a land girl serving at a nearby farm, Diana Symonds- the lady of Highbury House, and Stella Adderton, the home’s head cook. The women are complicated and their stories twist together to tell a side of the war that isn’t often seen.

Finally, the story jumps to modern time: 2021. We meet Emma Lovett, who has been hired to rebuild and restore the garden at Highbury House after years of neglect left it unrecognizable. Through her sleuthing skills and expert knowledge, she tries to craft the garden to what it once was, over 100 years prior.

“The Last Garden” skips between timelines and point of view with every chapter. Kelly carefully reveals the hopes, heartbreaks, and struggles of each woman, and readers slowly begin to see just how interconnected these women all are. Their decisions seem to ripple out and influence the lives of people years beyond them. The women are all tied through time, by one single, fantastic garden.

I found myself rooting for every character, crying for them, and not wanting their stories to end. Thank you to Julia Kelly, Gallery Books, and NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book.

I’m an avid gardener and a lover of Historical Fiction so I was delighted to pick up The Last Garden in England. I’m happy to report it was everything I hoped it would be!

The Last Garden in England tells the story of the Highbury House garden across three different time periods. The first begins in 1907 when Venetia Smith, budding horticultural designer to the new-monied class is hired to design and plant an impressive garden at the Highbury House estate of Mr. and Mrs. Melcourt. Her plans are extensive – tea garden, lovers’ garden, children’s garden, bridal garden, water garden, sculpture garden, lavender walk, and finally, a walled winter garden.

The second story is set in 1944 during World War II. There are three women in this tale; Beth Pedley, a land girl working at a farm in Highbury; Stella Adderton, a cook at the house; and Diana Symonds, recent widow of the owner of Highbury House. This story is centered around the house, its requisition as a hospital, and the three women trying their hardest to hold everything together in such a challenging time. The war efforts have brought all of them together in a time when class distinctions are blurring, and what it means to be a woman is changing.

The third story is set in the modern day. Emma Lovett and her company Turning Back Thyme have been hired to restore the Highbury House garden to Venetia’s original design, the only problem being that they have not found the original plans and must make assumptions based on current plantings, old diaries and photographs, and drawings done by Beth Pedley in 1944. They are also hampered by the fact that the walled winter garden has been locked for almost eighty years and the key is nowhere to be found.

Julia Kelly masterfully weaves all these stories together into a very absorbing novel. Venetia’s story is burdened by class distinctions and the challenges of a woman making her own way in a man’s field. She finds love but at a great cost. Beth, Stella, and Diana are so easy to relate to – they are waiting to hear about the fates of loved ones, trying to keep their spirits hopeful, busying themselves with tasks they never imagined doing, and, sadly, experiencing all the tragedy that war brings. Emma’s story is the lightest of all and includes her discovery of the secrets that tie the women and the garden together.

Often, stories set in multiple time periods are a little disjointed or the reader is more interested in one of the stories rather than all of them. That was not the case here. All three narratives are engaging and very different. Ms. Kelly writes the tales against the backdrop of the gardening season and the transitions between the narratives are well executed. Each story could stand-alone but the questions raised in one storyline are creatively answered in another, and the reader feels all the richer for having puzzled out the clues deftly placed by Ms. Kelly.

The Last Garden in England has the best of everything Historical Fictions offers. It’s a gem of a book and I wholeheartedly recommend it!

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent retailer
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This is the first Julia Kelly historical fiction story I've read, and I really enjoyed it! Three timelines following five women sounds overwhelming, but Kelly navigated the storylines quite well. The scenery Kelly created was wonderful and my favorite part of this book. I'm looking forward to reading her other books in the future!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early e-reader copy!

"From the author of the international bestseller The Light Over London and The Whispers of War comes a poignant and unforgettable tale of five women living across three different times whose lives are all connected by one very special place.

Present day: Emma Lovett, who has dedicated her career to breathing new life into long-neglected gardens, has just been given the opportunity of a lifetime: to restore the gardens of the famed Highbury House estate, designed in 1907 by her hero Venetia Smith. But as Emma dives deeper into the gardens’ past, she begins to uncover secrets that have long lain hidden.

1907: A talented artist with a growing reputation for her ambitious work, Venetia Smith has carved out a niche for herself as a garden designer to industrialists, solicitors, and bankers looking to show off their wealth with sumptuous country houses. When she is hired to design the gardens of Highbury House, she is determined to make them a triumph, but the gardens - and the people she meets - promise to change her life forever.

1944: When land girl Beth Pedley arrives at a farm on the outskirts of the village of Highbury, all she wants is to find a place she can call home. Cook Stella Adderton, on the other hand, is desperate to leave Highbury House to pursue her own dreams. And widow Diana Symonds, the mistress of the grand house, is anxiously trying to cling to her pre-war life now that her home has been requisitioned and transformed into a convalescent hospital for wounded soldiers. But when war threatens Highbury House’s treasured gardens, these three very different women are drawn together by a secret that will last for decades.

In this sweeping novel reminiscent of Kate Morton’s The Lake House and Kristin Harmel’s The Room on Rue Amélie, Julia Kelly explores the unexpected connections that cross time and the special places that bring people together forever."

Besides sounding right up my alley, you just named-checked my favorite Kate Morton book!

It has taken me a few days to try to articulate the words that can adequately describe this novel; I am sure I will fail in the attempt. While only in the second week of January, I know this is a contender for, if not, my favorite book of 2021. This is a poignant, beautifully written piece of art. Set during 3 times periods, 1907 , WWII, which is common for many historical fiction novels, Kelly does not take us to the battlefields, but rather to the English countryside where estates were taken for use as hospitals and the land to cultivate crops, and the present day from three different points of view. The novel interweaves the story of Venetia Smith, a female landscape architectural artist that was ahead of her time, both in her accomplishments as a female as well as her eye for design and talent along with the families who lived at Highbury House in the generations after Smith's work was created. The three POV characters are written with depth and it is the strength of each of these women along with the connecting symbolism of Highbury House that marries the entire novel so well. This was a book that I did not want to put down and was sad when I reached the final page, not because of the way it ended as it was perfectly executed, but rather that I was finished reading. This is a book that will tug at your heart and allow for your own self-reflection. I look forward to re-reading it again as I am sure I did not catch the all the symbolism that Kelly planted among this beautiful garden.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this.

I was totally and delightfully transported to the country estate created by author Julia Kelly in The Last Garden in England. Many of the historical fiction books I’ve read and enjoyed take place in dual timelines. This book immerses us in three periods of time where we meet five fascinating women all connected by the massive garden of Highbury House.

In present day, Emma Lovett is hired to restore the once magnificent garden of the large home, which is undergoing a major renovation. Emma’s research takes her back to 1907 when her idol, designer Venetia Smith, created Highbury House’s themed garden rooms including the Winter Garden, which was now locked with no key to access it. The third timeline brings us to 1944 and wartime. Highbury House has been partially converted into a convalescent hospital for soldiers. Diana Symonds, the lady of the house, is newly widowed. Her story, as well as that of her cook Stella Adderton and Beth Pedley, a young woman helping in the war effort as a “land girl,” all intertwine as their stories unfold revealing many secrets including the mystery of the Winter Garden.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Last Garden in England. It has everything I look for in this genre – an engaging story, characters to care about and a connection to the past. The rich description of the garden enhances the story making this a very appealing and entertaining book. Some of the character developments were a bit predictable but that didn’t bother me. Be sure to read the Author’s Note at the end to learn about the people, historical facts and existing gardens that inspired author Julia Kelly. Her website includes a rendering of the Highbury House garden as she imagined it, which was great to see while reading the book.

Rated 4.5 stars.

Emma Lovett lives in the present day and restores old, neglected gardens.

Venitia Smith lives in the early 20th century and designs gardens in England.

Diana Symonds, mistress of Highbury House, has given over her house to the war effort, as a hospital for injured troops, all the while wanting to restore her war torn home and gardens to their former splendor.

All three women have a common goal, and spread over more than a century, this goal unites them in spirit, if not in fact. This is quite a lovely story and the way Ms. Kelly weaves the lives of these women together in time is wonderful to watch unfold.

I highly recommend this book. The knowledge about gardens isn't necessary, but it helped me to look things up as I read. It gives a great understanding of English gardens and their foliage and flowers.

I really loved this story! It is told from the POV of five different women in three different time periods. Each of the main characters had a different story but all stories connected to the garden to varying extents. It was great to see how the stories of each woman connected with the others. I did struggle keeping track of who was who at first but this was really only a problem for the first few chapters.

I do wish I had had some more knowledge of gardening/ plants. I know very little and had a hard time picturing some of the gardens without looking up the plants.

This was my first Julia Kelly book and I will definitely be picking up more!

Julia Kelly gives us a charming, engaging historical told in 3 alternating time periods. 1907 Venetia Smith is hired to design gardens at Highbury House, 1944 and Highbury House is a wartime convalescent hospital. This part of the story centers on Diana, Stella and Beth and their relationship as they are drawn together to protect the secrets of the gardens. Present day....Emma is hired to bring the garden back to its former glory. Told in alternating points of view this book is everything I like in a historical, .A bit of romance, a touch of mystery, and well developed characters make this another engrossing story by Julia Kelly.
Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Last Garden in England is an exquisite historical fiction set around the main theme of grand beautiful gardens in Highbury House Estates in England. The story is woven beautifully around lives of 5 women set in 3 different eras~1907; 1944 & 2021

All the women depicted in the story, Venetia, Diana, Stella, Beth, & Emma have a common interest~ their love for gardens and their desire to create/ restore the charm of the eternal beauty of the gardens.

As present day Emma is hired by Sydney to restore the long neglected gardens of Highbury House, she uncovers hidden truth about the past that has been long buried and forgotten ever since!

Julia Kelly, you have found a new fan of your writings in me!! I really enjoyed reading this book and how the life of each person intertwines with one another even though they are separated by decades! If you are a fan of historical fiction and are an admirer of beauty, you will genuinely devour this novel! It was a 5 star read for me and I highly recommend!

Thank you @netgalley, @gallerybooks & @juliakelly for a free copy of my eARC in exchange of my honest review!

A historical novels tying three women to the Highbury House estate gardens. In 1907 Venetia Smith is hired to design the gardens at Highbury House. It is an ambitious opportunity for the single woman to grow her reputation as the a prominent garden designer. During 1944 Diana Symonds, widow and mistress of Highbury House, clings to pre-war life as her home is requisitioned and transformed into a convalescent hospital for wounded soldiers. She allows the nephew of cook Stella Adderton to be schooled and playmate of her son. She also allows Beth Penley, a land girl at a farm on outskirts of the village, to sketch the gardens. Now in present day Emma Lovett is hired to restore the gardens at Highbury House. As Emma delves into the gardens’ past, she also uncovers secrets intertwining al the women. A very enjoyable read.