historical fic is one of my fave genres and mix it with mystery thriller you have all of my attention and im glad to say that it was not wasted on this one. i did not have any high hopes so i went in with little to no expectation and i think that helped because even though the mystery wasn't really unpredictable or mind blowing, it did manage to keep me hooked till the very end even after i had already figured everything out halfway into it. The writing and descriptions paint pretty pictures and it almost seems like youre one of the detectives running around with the characters to figure mysteries from the past in the late 1960s in the spectacular London. Oh and yes the plot being set around wartime and an english village and London added to the charm i suppose as i really lovee london-
my freedom fighter ancestors must be so ashamed of me smh. lol.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND THE PUBLISHERS FOR THE E-ARC. ALL THOUGHTS IN THIS REVIEW ARE MY OWN.

A village is demolished by the British as war-time practice, 3 young girls have gone missing when being evacuated during the war, and in 1968 another young girl is kidnapped. A young reporter is drawn to all of these cases and sets out on a quest to as least find closure for one of them. An excellent read!

I am embarrassed to say this is the first Rhys Bowen book I have read. It will, however, not be my last. I will be checking out some of her 60 other books. I really enjoyed this one. It is the story of a town taken over by the military during WWII and the secrets it holds. Liz is a reporter, demoted to obituaries and is desperate to be a real journalist. Her roommate is a police officer who is working on the case of a missing girl. Liz decides it would be a great way to get a real article written, if she could help find the missing child. She learns of three other girls that went missing over the years in the same area..Because children were put on trains by their parents to get them out of danger during the War, it is hard to determine where the missing children may have ended up. As Liz follows the leads, she has strange memories and becomes concerned that her own life might not be all that she thought it was. As all the stories come to conclusions, we find that families come in all different varieties and sometimes secrets are better left undiscovered.

The beginning is a little hard to stay with, but the more Liz got into reporter mode, the better it got! I especially loved the throwback chapters and the last few chapters! 😲‼️This is the first Rhys Bowen and historical fiction mystery I've read, and I will definitely be reading more!

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the eARC.
In 1968 London Liz Houghton, a newspaper reporter, is eager to solve the cases of 3 missing girls from WWII and a little girl missing recently in London. Her roommate is a policewoman and the 2 of them, both of them risking their jobs, are determined to follow up any leads they find.
This is a great book, I loved it. It's an excellent mystery and has a great feeling of the time: no cell phones, no Internet, no Google - just dogged research, instinct and worn shoe leather. Plus, it's got a bit of romance too!
Don't miss this read, highly recommended.

i had such a great time reading this book!! it was so fun. the characters were amazing and sweet and wonderful. it was just such a pure joy and i'm so very thankful to netgalley for letting me read this one early!!!

I enjoy Rhys Bowen books. Her stories are usually pretty captivating. This book is no exception. It is about a little girl’s disappearance and then leads one of the main characters Liz ends up finding three additional children missing. These three girls were being evacuated from London. The story kept me very interested and a couple of nights I read later than I intended. It will not be long before I am looking for another Rhys Bowen books to get lost in. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy for my honest review.

I devour each and every one of Bowen's books and this one was really good! It was a little different than her typical wartime reads. The Rose Arbor is more of a mystery and told in the present POV of Liz during the year 1968. I was expecting maybe dual timelines, but there were only brief mentions of the war and its destruction. The main focus of this story is discovering what happened to the missing girls from the past and little Lucy from the present. It was a fast, easy read that hooked me like a fish from the first page. Instead of trying to solve one mystery, Bowen served us up with quite a few. I felt like I was playing detective right alongside the characters. My only disappointment was that the story ended too soon without giving me the closure that I wanted. Not all of the mysteries were solved with finality, and I desperately need to know about Tottie's book and Ben. Despite the ending, this was an enjoyable read and I would definitely recommend it.  

Thank you to the author, Lake Union Publishing, and NetGalley for granting me digital access in exchange for my honest review!

Liz is a journalist in 1968 London whose career is at a standstill. She decides to accompany her flatmate Marisa, a police officer, on the search for a missing child in an effort to find a good story and jumpstart her career. Their search takes them to a village abandoned after World War 2 when it was used for livefire military drills. Liz realizes several unsolved cases from the 1940s could be linked to the current missing child, and she starts to question her own family history.

The plot was well-constructed, with flashbacks to illuminate both the cold cases and the current search. The author included interesting details about life during WW2 and in 1960s London. There are several plot threads brought together neatly at the end, and Liz and her friends must confront moral dilemmas about how much of the past should be left undisturbed for the benefit of the living - questions with no easy answers. Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC.

The Rose Arbor is a wonderful historical fiction. While a small part of it takes place during World War. 2, the majority of the book is set in the 1960’s. The story is about journalist Liz and her quest to figure out what happened to a missing child in London. This book is an excellent mystery that will keep you reading to see what happened to little Lucy.

The Rose Arbor is a haunting and suspenseful mystery spanning decades set in the aftermath of World War II in England. Following the disappearance of a little girl, Liz Houghton, a newspaper reporter, follows the mysterious story to the small village of Tydeham and uncovers a string of events that would change the course of her life forever.

Rhys Bowen’s writing is both engaging and entertaining. I felt myself instantly drawn into the mystery and character as we follow Liz on her journey. However, because there were so many intricate layers to the mystery, I felt that Liz’s development as a character was a bit sidelined. In particular, throughout the entire book, Liz’s relationship with her parents were hardly explored until the last third which felt odd as a reader and left me struggling to feel invested in some of the events that unfolded.

I would definitely recommend this book for lovers of historical mysteries mixed with a little bit of romance, and one filled with plot twists that will leave you eager to find out what happens next.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this eArc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this review are my own.

Having never read a Rhys Bowen book before, I will definitely look out for her in the future! Crime is not typically a genre I read, but The Rose Arbour kept me hooked. I loved the multiple levels of mystery involved including the missing girl, the unsolved cases decades beforehand, and the protagonist's childhood. The flashbacks to those unsolved cases especially kept me reading and I found that I was more interested in the missing children from the war if anything- particularly when Bowen includes the perspectives from the missing children to create more mystery in the plotline. I enjoyed the historical aspect set in 1968 and the main character that stubbornly gets involved with the case despite her job as a journalist and therefore not the sort of person that should have access to information on the cases let alone solve them. Overall, I wouldn't say this is a high tension plot, but rather something I read when I wanted some down time and I like it better because of that! The romance was also subtle and sweet and I'm glad it didn't become a huge factor to the narrative because there was already so much depth to the mystery to get your head around.
The only reason I'm not giving it a higher rating is because it isn't a genre that I usually read and, even though I mostly enjoyed the ending as it certainly wasn't what I was expecting, I think I would have liked more exploration of the relationship between the main character and her parents who, for most of the narrative, seemed a bit too side-lined. Saying that, I'm glad I have read it and it has made me want to read more like it.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC of this book and the chance to write a review on it!

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this book ahead of time in exchange for a review. You should read it!

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union for the opportunity to read The Rose Arbor by Rhys Bowen, an author to be counted on - always - when it comes to Historical Fiction. I loved it.

I loved immersing myself in this mystery book, a masterful fusion of history, romance, and tantalizing plot twists! Set in both WWII and 1968, this was a both a sweet story and a sad one. It is set partially in a real place, abandoned in the 1940s but mysteriously remembered by the main character, Liz. She first visits while investigating the disappearance of a little London girl. It also leads to her researching the disappearance of three other girls and answering questions about her own past.

The infusion of history enriches the narrative, lending it a profound sense of authenticity and depth. With every turn of the page, one finds themselves transported to different eras, exploring the mysteries of bygone times while unraveling the complexities of timeless human relationships.

Romance adds a layer of emotional resonance, infusing the story with warmth, passion, and heartache. The character descriptions made me care about them sufficiently to follow their drama, their struggles and triumphs. Amidst the twists and turns of the plot, the love story between James and Liz develops slowly, which I was pleased about!

And oh, the plot twists! Each subtle turn keeps the reader on the edge of their seat, anticipating the next revelation. While it did seem somewhat predictable, there were enough surprises to keep me wanting to know how it all turned out. After a slow and steady pace, the ending seems a bit abrupt but isn't that how life goes sometimes?

Thank you to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing, and the author for an ARC of this book and the opportunity to provide a review!

I've read and enjoyed several books by the prolific Rhys Bowen, and I also thought that this was an entertaining period piece. Set about 20 years after WW II, the time period allows the main character, Liz, to have some freedom in exploring the cases of missing girls (then and in her present) along with her female roommate, a member of the metropolitan police. This is a cozy mystery as nothing is gory and grizzly, but it does have strong emotional overtones due to missing children and questions about Liz's own family and background. For readers who enjoy English mysteries and explorations of the English countryside.

Interesting and intriguing story featuring a lost wartime village. Flash backs to the past and memories in the present. A good read.

My rating:

Plot: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Writing: 5 out of 5 stars
Character development: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4.5out of 5 stars

Recommended for readers of:

Historical Fiction
Mystery and suspense

Review:

This is a gripping story, with the right amount of mystery,suspense and intrigue, haunting at times. The book is well written and flows well and is in no way predictable, it keeps you guessing till the end.. The characters are interesting and their personalities are explained well this gave them an authentic feel.

Overall and highly enjoyable read that captures you from the start and is hard to put down. You can't help yourself you have to know what happens next.

Review copy provided through Netgalley at no cost to me.

I absolutely loved this story. Then again I love rys Bowens book. Loved the writing and it's a definite recommend

Thank you publisher and netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own and isn't influenced by anyone else

The mystery, intrigue, and suspense pulled me in almost from the very beginning. The book has a dual timeline, one with the demise of a quaint little village and its manor house and three little girls lost during the war, along with another lost little girl in the current storyline and the heroine’s own story, each heartbreakingly poignant. I also love a little romance, and although the love story was more secondary, it was sweet and satisfying with Liz and James, both coming from a heritage of landed gentry, adjusting to post war life. Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing, I received a free ARC copy. These thoughts and opinions are my own.