What a delight! I’ve found myself enjoying magical realism more in books lately and In the Shadow Garden was a great example of just enough without making it impossible for me to suspend disbelief, it never turned silly. I really enjoyed the romance element (love when I can read a novel that features romance but isn’t a “romance novel”) and the multiple points of view work so well. I’d definitely recommend this one!

I absolutely loved this book! I loved the nature work and the multigenerational family aspect. I was worried that with so many characters everything would feel shallow but there was just so much depth. I’ll be thinking about Yarrow, the Haywood’s, and the Bonner’s for a long time.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5

This book, ladies and gentlemen, is the crème de la crème of magical realism. I fell absolutely in love with the imagery of this story, the mystery that slowly unraveled, and the characters who brought it to life. This story was told from multiple perspectives and was filled with beautifully complicated family drama, second-chance love stories, deception, and deceit, all revolving around a magical shadow garden and a bourbon distillery.

This book tugged on all sorts of heartstrings for me. It felt like a mashup of Gilmore Girls and Practical Magic and it was absolutely perfect. At first, I was a bit thrown by all the different perspectives, but eventually, I was able to grasp the different characters and their relationships with one another. I don’t want to give too much away, but do yourself a favor and give this one a read. I can guarantee you’ll be swept away just as swiftly as I was.

In the Shadow Garden was published on September 13, 2022.

Thank you to Liz Parker, Forever Publishing (@readforeverpub & @grandcentralpub), and NetGalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The mystery of what happened in 1997 in Yarrow, KY is what peaked my interest in this book. Add modern day witches and I was hooked.

The Haywood's are witches that can help someone heal by taking their bad feelings and transferring them to a magical garden (Shadow Garden). In turn the Bonner's use the corn grown in said garden to make bourbon which can make people totally forget a bad memory. Every year this small KY town holds a festival where people "offer" their worst memories, because of this an entire summer (1997) is forgotten. However, that year someone died and someone disappeared.

The dynamic (family feud) between the Haywood's and Bonner's really spurs the story on. I also enjoyed how the chapters were told from multiple points of view.

I’ve seen a lot of glowing reviews for this book but I think it’s just not for me. I am not connecting to the character or story. Perhaps the rotating characters isn’t helping but I think the writing isn’t pulling me in for whatever reason. I may be magicked out after a month of spooky reads. I think a lot of people who like magical realism will enjoy this, however.

my favourite debut of 2022 !

This book is so atmospheric and enchanting, its was a stunning read and exactly what I wanted for autumn. One of my favourite authors is Sarah Addison Allen, and Liz Parker reads like her, but in her own unique voice.

I really enjoy a book with multiple POV and didnt find it confusing , but rather it added layers to the story

I'm really looking forward to more from this author.

What a fun book full of magic, mysteries, and tangled family relationships. I enjoyed the family dynamics in this book, the mystery and surprises in the story and the unique magical elements that really brought this book to life. The story is told through the alternating perspectives of the members of the Haywood and Bonner families and the transitions between points of view are so well written, And what a beautiful cover! Highly recommend this book for those who enjoy the weaving of magic and mystery within a family drama. Definitely add to your fall TBR!

In the Shadow Garden by Liz Parker
Women’s Fiction
314 pages
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I had been seeing this book on forevers Instagram and during their talk. It sounded like the perfect October read! This was such an amazing book! I cannot rave enough about this one. The storyline, the characters, the magic and the plot twists throughout.

This is the story of the Haywood family, a family of witches. The family’s shadow garden produces special fruits, vegetables and herbs. Most of the women in the family have the power to take ones heartache. The town of Yarrow, Kentucky where they live is also known for Bourbon. And the Bonner Family who runs the bourbon distillery are the Haywood enemies.

This story tries to find out what happened 20 years ago when the town decide to forgo their memories.

I highly recommend this book! It gives me Practical Magic vibes with some added family rivalry. There are some good twists and I just wanted to tend a garden and drink a glass of bourbon while reading it. This is the perfect fall book!

This was a wonderful debut for a new author! I really enjoyed this magical mystery. It takes you to Yarrow Kentucky which is known for Bonner bourbon and Haywood shadow garden, both have a magical element to them. The bourbon aids in forgetting while the garden aids in healing. But no one in this town remembers a summer that happened 20 years ago. Kade Bonner comes back to town after 20 years. There are two families who are trying to remember but it’s causing tension, that’s the eating the town! This book had so many levels and enchanting parts to it! I loved having flashbacks as we price together the puzzle! I also liked that the auras with different plants indicated someone’s emotions. Plus the different POV’s! All in all a wonderfully magical debut!

Magical garden, love lost, love found, family drama and small-town drama, this book has everything to keep you hooked. I loved this book; it was a magical journey I did not want it to end.

Welcome to Yarrow, Kentucky, where magic can cure heartache and fruits the garden bring special quality to bourbon distillery. One day every year a shot of bourbon will make your worst memory disappear. But twenty years ago, the town gave up more than memory they forgot entire summer. Why? What happen that summer and who would want that summer removed from their memory?

This book will take you to loveable small town and a magical journey of what it means to love, and the love of family. I can't wait to see what is next for this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever publishing for a copy of this book for my honest review.

The book, In the Shadow Garden, takes place in Yarrow, Kentucky where two feuding families, the Haywoods and the Bonners, reside, neither trusting the other to do the right by the town. Their families both utilize the magical shadow garden that absorbs the heartaches of the town, turning it into nourishing produce. The Haywoods are witches who facilitate this magic and use the shadow garden's products to sell to the local townsfolk as well as run the tea house, where they siphon off the grief and sadness of customers while reading their tea leaves, and then return those sorrows to the shadow garden. The Bonners use the shadow corn to make magical bourbon, a mainstay business of the town. The two families are connected through love, loss, magic and mystery as they try to figure out what happened one summer that the whole town forgot. The descriptions of the plants, teas, herbs, tea leaf readings and the bourbon process was very interesting and helped the story come to life. The shadow magic was intriguing but also a bit confusing at times and also complicated, which sometimes hindered the story as there was often repetitive explaining about how Addison's magic was different and uncontrollable. The dialogue and some of the characters sometimes seemed a bit stilted, but other characters such as Kaden and Irene were more fully developed and brought love and humor. It was a quick and enjoyable, fun read!

I don't have the words to say how much I loved this book. The town, characters, and magic hit all the right notes and pulled me into this world. I especially liked the tone which felt reminiscent of Practical Magic or Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen (both personal favorites, especially in this genre of fabulism).

The only complaint I had was that with such a large cast having so many point of views it took me a while to keep everyone and how they were connected straight (I referred to the chart at the beginning of the book many times!). But once I got further in it wasn't a problem and I understand why they kept all of them since they all would hold different pieces for the ending.

I think this is the perfect book for those of us who love the fall season, but aren't horror fans.

After reading her review and talking with @nuclearfiction about how incredible this book was for her, I knew I needed to get my hands on a copy for myself. And let me tell you, this book was everything Kelly said it was and more!

You guys, there is magic, founding families of a town, a mysteriously forgotten summer, a forgotten murder, tons of bourbon, tea reading, and a magical shadow garden. What else could you possibly need? Every single aspect of this book had me clinging to every single word on the pages I was reading.

If you need a book to kick off your fall reads with a bang, this is the book for you! There are multiple povs and honestly, without them, the book wouldn’t read the same. Having all of the different insights just made it fit together so perfectly! Each character is uniquely their own and you can’t help but love them.

There is mystery, there is romance, there is healing, there is growth, there is magic - what more could you possibly need?! Honestly, go do yourself a favor and pick up this incredible book as soon as you can. This is a must-read in my books!

⚠️TW: alcohol, child abuse, domestic abuse, alcoholism, grief, death of a parent, murder

Well, living in the town of Yarrow sure would be interesting, though I would want to live in it after all the hullaballoo of the missing summer and the Shadow Garden that is running amuck. This was a fun book to read, despite all the people in it that can use magic on your emotions and memories. That would make it hard to trust people. As Addison finds out.

I liked getting the viewpoints of several of the characters, it made the story more complete. ANd I liked how the story focused more on Irene and Kaden, the older couple. There is sweet romance and betrayal and magic and I had fun reading this book! The magic of the Shadow Garden was cool,

Twenty years ago, the town of Yarrow, Kentucky, gave up more than one memory for the year; they forgot an entire summer. One person died. One person disappeared. And no one has any idea why. Now, three generations of witches must discover where their magic went wrong as secrets resurface that could solve that twenty-year-old mystery.

Mystery, romance, magic, and booze all intertwine to deliver a story that is compelling, authentic, witty, and enchanting. The cover will draw you in, the characters make you stay, the mystery keeps you turning the pages. The author delivers little explanations through the story to help satisfy the "instant gratification" so many want these days while waiting until the very end to unravel the full mystery.

It boils down to one question ... If you could forget your worst memory, would you?

HUGE thank you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is not my typical read— magical realism and I are not really friends. If a friend hadn’t tell me to read it next, I probably would’ve let it languish on my TBR.
I’m so glad that’s not how things worked out because I really enjoyed this one!

In the Shadow Garden is a magical tale of full of family drama and rivalries. It’s a sweet story that makes a great palate cleanser between heavier reads. Definitely a great read for the spooky season!

Fun book for spooky season if you are not a big horror fan! I do wish it focused more on magic than the mystery, but it was still entertaining all together !

It's hard to say too much about this book without revealing at least some of the twists and turns it takes along the way. So I'll say this -- Sylvia is one trippin', magikal bi-otch. And karma... If you love a good mystery, you definitely have to pick this one up for a long weekend!

One Sentence Summary: Years ago, something happened in Yarrow, Kentucky and everyone forgot an entire summer, but when Kaden Bonner suddenly returns, the truth slowly comes to light.

My thoughts:

In the Shadow Garden immediately made me think of Garden Spells with a darker edge. But, while the garden was magical and fascinating, it was less about the magic of it all and more about the mystery of what happened that summer and a blossoming mature romance. It follows various members of the three founding families: the Haywoods and their magic garden, the Bonners with their magical bourbon, and the Bakers. It was difficult to tell who was supposed to be telling the story and who the primary character was as it started out strong with one and then switched to another telling most of the story. The mystery was probably the most interesting part, even if I felt the characters danced around it far too much. The romance felt too sudden and easy, but it had an interesting twist on a Romeo and Juliet story. It was also fun to read about two warring families.

In the Shadow Garden is set in the sweet Southern town of Yarrow in Kentucky. Appropriately, one of the families produces bourbon. But it’s a special kind of bourbon, one that can take a person’s worst memory. Their bourbon is only made possible by the corn gifted to them from the garden of the Haywood family. Their garden is darkly magical and utterly fascinating, though it did fall into being little more than a generic magic garden. It offers its bounty to whomever it wishes and imparts some magic to those who eat from it, but was most fascinating in terms of what makes it grow, which is closely tied to the unique magic of the Haywoods. Otherwise, Yarrow feels very much like a quaint Southern town. There were many times where I wondered where, exactly, all the people were. It seemed populated mostly by members of the three founding families, a couple of important personages like the mayor, and tourists. But it was fun to wander Yarrow with the characters, even if I did find myself wanting more of it.

But the story is mostly about the Haywoods, Bonners, and Bakers, primarily featuring what felt like a war between the Haywoods and the Bonners with the Bakers feeling like they were just onlookers, so, other than one of the romantic story lines, I couldn’t really figure out what their place was or what they were doing there, other than selling the produce from the Haywoods’ garden. The battle between the two families, though, was interesting and I loved how manipulative the matriarch of the Bonners was, even if I did tire of it by the end. She was just perfectly evil and it was all wrapped in a mother’s warped love for her family and their livelihood. It was a fascinating story of what greed and power can do, and how it can destroy lives and families. But it also spoke to the power and strength that lies in families. Neither of these families was particularly functional, but both still had something to say about family and what one might do for the sake of it.

There’s mystery and romance tied together in this book. The mystery was the more interesting piece to me, so I was frustrated when it kept being relegated to the back seat. It’s all about what happened that summer twenty years ago when a Haywood died and a Bonner vanished and the entire town gave up their memory of what happened the entire summer. I feel like I would have been frustrated about that sometime during those twenty years, but no one in Yarrow seemed to notice or care. Until the man who vanished returns and, even though his mother wanted him to return, opens a can of worms that eventually gets out of her control. There were some nice twists and turns, but I absolutely hated how it used one of the other characters. I also think this plot had most of the magic tied into it. I loved how it was used here. I was less impressed with the romance, as sweet as they were as they’re both second chance romances. One was between mature adults, but they managed to feel more juvenile than the other couple. The emphasis was also on them, but I didn’t care much for their entire relationship as it felt like it started up too quickly and burned too hot too fast. The other was between a couple of the younger characters, and they somehow felt more mature. I liked the pain that was behind it and how they still managed to come together despite it.

In the Shadow Garden felt very much like a soft story of magic and family. While there’s some danger and a whole lot of manipulation and even a gross overuse of family powers, I loved the twists and turns. There are some very nice elements in this book, but too much of it felt too easy and other parts felt like the characters were wandering around the main issues in this book. Overall, it made for a fast, simple read, even if I did get some of the characters mixed up and the fact that each chapter switches to a different character and sometimes their voices were way too similar, it was a pleasant read. The magic garden was my favorite part and I appreciated the mystery, but wasn’t won over by the romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

In the Shadow Garden by Liz Parker is a solid debut women's fiction novel with magical realism and a smattering of romance. The ebook version is 336 pages. We follow a multitude of characters with third-person points-of-view.

The Haywood family has held a symbiotic relationship with The Shadow Garden in Yarrow, Kentucky for as long as anyone can remember. They help ease pain and suffering from the townsfolk, and feed it to the garden. They even helped the local bourbon distillery with seeds for a special dark corn. Once a year, at the Harvest Festival, the townsfolk sip the bourbon and willingly let their worst memory of the year disappear. But twenty years ago, the whole town forgot an entire summer--a summer in which one person died and one person disappeared.

There's a family tree included at the beginning of this book, and it is very important that you keep that handy, so bookmark it if you're reading digitally. I will say that over the course of my read I started getting confused between the names, but the tree really helped with that.

There is a dash of romance here, and I was thankful the author focused on two people who were around age 40 than the romance around the couple who were around age 20. I also really enjoyed the author's expansion of the idea that when you heal from trauma, you can create beautiful things out of pain. This extended metaphor was great.

I'm a big fan of tea, so I really enjoyed reading about the different blends that the Haywoods create, and how they interpret tea leaf readings. There's a glossary in the back of the book with information about the tea leaf symbols described in the book that I really appreciated.

I think the pacing was better in the second half of the book compared to the first, where the story probably could have been tightened up a bit. I ended up reading the entire second half in one sitting!

I would have also loved a bit more worldbuilding here, like more of an explanation about how the magic works and how it came to be.

If you liked Practical Magic you'll probably like this book! This felt like a perfect end-of-summer/beginning-of-fall read.

Tropes in this book include: family drama, small town

CW: grief, loss, stolen memories, child abuse, alcoholism, domestic violence, death

The publisher provided an ebook galley of this book for me to review. All opinions contained herein are my own.