"In The Light of the Garden" by Heather Burch was a beautiful, heartfelt novel. Well written story about uncovering the past, painful as it may be, while making a new family unit, made up of friends. I really enjoyed this book. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the copy for review, all opinions are my own.

I´d say that this is a pleasant romance about the family, past hurts and the chances for the new beginnings. But the plot is also slow and predictable. Yet, it depends on your reading tastes and the mood for the book - if you do not want complicated psychological drama full of modern angst and hopelessness and wish for the enjoyable read with some depth - this one might be for you. Simply, there is time for the every read :)

An enjoyable read and very well written. It is the first time that i have read a book by Heath Burch and do hope to read more. Although i rarely write what a story is about as i prefer one to read the book for themselves, i do recommend.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy.

What a pleasent surprise.

The story is captivating and just really grabs a hold of you! Its well written and a wonderful story about love and forgiveness

Charity Baxter arrives on Gaslamp Island after the death of her beloved Gramps with the knowledge that most of his estate now belongs to her. She has been entrusted with his home, his business for the locals and his secrets and magic. Forming friendships doesn’t come easily for charity but with the help of neighbours, runaways and distant family she opens her heart and home. Can they all find forgiveness and peace?

A lovely summer read, this is the first book I’ve read by this author but the characters were written with such depth, it won’t be my last.

I couldn’t make it through this book. It just wasn’t for me. The descriptions of characters and places was excellent but im more of a dialogue fan. Great book for someone who is into it

I didn't know what to expect when I started this book, especially with a SD beginning. It was a very unexpected journey which I loved every minute of. The chemistry between the characters worked really well, and while I thought i knew where things were going for them, I couldn't be more wrong. I was disappointed to see the book end but when it did, it was at a perfect moment. I wouldn't change anything. The writing type was easy to follow and it flowed perfectly throughout the book. An incredible read.

I received this book from NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing, in exchange for my honest opinion. That is all it is, my honest opinion.
Loved this story, made me want to head to Florida! I was frustrated with the heroine, but I like that in a book! Evokes feelings, if it didn't, would not be my kind of book!! I loved all the rest of the characters! They were funny, sweet, complex and some quite frustrating!! This book was very well written and quite descriptive. Sultry, humid nights and sticky, hot days remind me of younger days!
I have read several books by this author and this is one of my favorite. I recommend this to readers, who enjoy great literacy reads. Thank you so much for the journey!!

In the Light of the Garden is the latest offering by author Heather Burch. Set on the fictional west coast Florida island, Gaslamp Island, this is a story of love, loss, forgiveness, and the triumph of the human spirit.

Charity Baxter, a 31 year old social misfit, is returning to Gaslamp Island after twenty years. She spent the happiest times of her childhood during the summers spent with her Gram and Gramps, George and Marilyn Baxter, at their home on the island. But that all changed with the accidental death of her Gram when she was 11. Now she is returning to the island after her grandfather's passing to her legacy of the grand home of her childhood. The only child of self centered single mother Ellen Marie Baxter, Charity has spent her life feeling inadequate. While she is a fountain of forgiveness, she cannot forgive herself of her perceived short comings.

Living next door is Dalton Reynolds, also suffering from his own past. A widower, Dalton lost his wife and child in a freak incident and blames himself for not being there for them. He has come to Gaslamp Island to work for an older couple restoring a cottage although his field is that of landscape architect. Charity and Dalton meet over the garden, him offering to help bring it back to rights. They share their sadness like a silent bond,

Soon after Charity's arrival on the island, she is joined by her great uncle Harold. Harold received a letter from his brother George offering forgiveness, asking him to come to the island to see him once before he died. However, the letter was postmarked after George's death.

As this unlikely "family" gathers members, a new improbable member is found in the weeping tree and the legends that surround it. Some things are gone, not forgotten, and destined to rise again. This is an extraordinary tale of lost people coming together to find their futures. A coming together of love, forgiveness, and release of pain which shows the way to a promising future for all! I found this to be a very enlightening story, one that invoked hope for a future one could look forward to. I do recommend this book!

Chick lit at its best! A terrific story chock full of great characters dealing with love, loss, and their past. Such an entertaining and emotional story - loved it!!

A beautiful read - this book has it all pathos, love, life and forgiveness

In the Light of the Garden was a beautiful, well-written novel by Heather Burch. This novel was a step away from my normal contemporary romance, but the magic within the pages was quite enjoyable. There were a lot of different storylines, that I sometimes had a hard time keeping up with but overall I enjoyed the journey with everyone.

I was looking for an enjoyable engaging read and this book was the answer. I good story that reminds us of who family is and the power on ourselves of forgiveness. Charity inherited her granparents house when her grandfather died. It is a place of love and memories of the many times spent with her grandparents while she was growing up. This is a wonderful story of finding both peace and finding yourself. A powerful book that is a pleasure to read.

This book would good if someone wanted an easy read book with a predictable ending.
I enjoy more surprises and suspense, so it was just o.k. for me.
Thank you netgalley are the ARC, Kindle version!

I received this ARC from netgalley.com in exchange for a review.

Charity Baxter inherits her grandparents estate in Florida. The weeping willow tree in the back yard has calming and healing properties but can Charity forgive herself from the wrongs and guilt she feels? Having a family doesn't necessarily mean blood related.

This is a feel good kind of book, no surprises. Fanciful and whimsical, it was an acceptable read.

3 stars

Nicely written romantic tale of love, secrets, redemption, and magic. There's a lot of compassion here, which is something we don't often see in novels of this sort, for all of the characters. Burch has a good way with plot; this zips along at a fast pace. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Note that there's a bit of magical realism here which enhanced the novel for me. Try this for a positive enjoyable read.

This was a perfectly enjoyable/women's fiction/romance novel with a touch of magic thrown in. Burch does a lovely job of creating relatable and believable characters who interest us and creates enough of a mystery of past events to keep us intrigued. What makes this story special is the exploration of grief - Charity's grief over the loss of his grandfather and Dalton's grief over the loss of his wife and child. Burch does an excellent job of showing how grief affects us and the power of forgiveness.

Review:

The book was surprisingly good. The plot was farely simple, but sometimes the most simplest of things leaves a greater impression behind. There was definitely plenty of drama to keep me engaged, but what I liked was the simple writing style and characters who seamlessly blended with the plot line and yet had a dimension that leaped off the pages. The ending did seem to taper off a bit when it comes to the level of engagement, but overall it still painted a picture of hope and serenity that the writer was trying to capture and convey.

Though I loved the title, the cover image made little sense to me in terms of the plot.

My opinion: Surprisingly a good book that doesn't require too much off hardwork and focus.

My rating: 3.5 out of 5

This book is about Charity, who as a child looked forward to visiting with her grandparents for the summer vacation. This joy ended with a tragedy. The book then skips forward to when Charity is an adult who inherits her grandparents home, and she collects a motley crew who then become her family of sorts. I really enjoyed reading this book, and had trouble putting it down. There was so much going on in terms of family secrets, family disfunction, love, and a little magic. The author did a good job in keeping me interested from page one, through to the end.

This is the first book I have read by Heather Burch and it was such an inspiring, wonderful, magical tale about a group of mixed match characters, along with family members, that made it so good. This book tells about the power of love, hate, and the belief that without hope, there is nothing.

This tale tells of the danger of keeping secrets that have no place in a family that was built on love, as well as love that happens whether it should or shouldn't, however brief, it tells of some love that has been abandoned even when it was real, and the power of that love to bring a person back after twenty years.

Charity Baxter is 31 years old when her Grandad dies and she inherits her grandparents’ island estate on Florida’s Gulf coast, a place that was magical to her simply because she got to go there every summer and live with her Grandmother and Grandfather and get away from her Mother who thought of her as nothing but a nuisance. Her Mother never gave her any love, yet Charity always forgave her thinking she may not have been worthy of her love. When she went to her second home every summer she was swamped with love. She also learned the art of pottery from her Grandad. Charity knew as she got older that her grandparents did not approve of her mother's lifestyle.

When her grandmother dies, she stops believing in the power of the weeping willow tree on her grandfather's property, which everyone knew had a magical healing power. When she gets to the island that summer she is grief struck remembering her wonderful grandmother no longer there and she tries to hurt the tree, and she leaves with her mother.

Charity returns to the island and she feels relief right away, yet longs for how it used to be, so she feels bad she did not keep in better touch. Although she is a millionaire with everything her Grandparents left her, she feels empty.

Then she meets her neighbor Dalton Reynolds who also came to the island, he has been suffering so much, and they form a bond over what they both have lost. Dalton returns her garden to its former glory and then we get a glimpse of the power the weeping willow tree when Dalton stands under it.

There are so many touching scenes in this book that I just want to let you discover them yourself. I loved everything about this book and I know you will too!

I give this book 5*****wonderful heartfelt stars!