Garden of Her Heart – Zoë Richards

Published By: UCLan Publishing
Pages: 400
Released On: 20/06/2024

A story of healing and recovery that will warm your soul…and get you into the garden.

Garden of Her Heart is the story of one loner, two secrets, and three weeks at the Pinewoods Retreat.

When Holly Bush (yes, she still hasn’t forgiven her mother for that combination) is made redundant with gardening leave, after a brutal attack, she decides to visit a retreat not far from home. There she finds friendship and a garden in need of love, she ends up doing literal gardening leave, bringing the community of guests together. Journaling her way through her holiday, Holly works on both her mental and physical scars and discovers an inner strength as her secrets are revealed.

*****

Thanks to NetGalley and UCLan Publishing for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

I’d been looking forward to reading this book so much. The cover is beautiful, the synopsis wonderful, and I have Zoe on Twitter and she seems delightful, so I couldn’t wait to get stuck in.

I won’t lie, I’d decided I was going to love this before I’d even started reading it. I got to the dedication where Zoe put “to anyone who has every struggled with their mental health – may you find some comfort in Holly’s time at Pinewoods Retreat, and I haven’t been shy on my social media as to how bad my mental health has been and this touched me instantly. And I decided in that moment that I would love this book.

Holly is one of the best main characters I’ve read. Immediately she had my love and my support. I felt akin to her and willed her every step of the way.

There’s so many absolutely perfect characters. Dee and Lorraine who run the retreat who are gorgeous mother hens. Bex, Ruth and San, fellow guests who again are brilliant and work so well with Holly. Hunter, the odd-jobs guy is verrrrry nice and I want to know what garden I can pick him from! There are other characters, some nice, some not so nice. But they’re all fabulously created, layered, honest, real, and they all do such a perfect job to help push Holly’s story on. Even her grandparents, though not with us anymore, take a starring role and I felt like I knew them. This warmth their memories gave Holly gave me such a longing or my own grandparents.

It’s very moving and I found myself welling up at numerous times. For the sad bits, yes, but also for the hope and joy and love and friendship and peace that this book explored.

I love that whilst there is a romantic element in it, and familial relationships, they pale in my view to the depiction of friendships and just how important it is to have friends that you trust. And that sometimes all it takes is a friendly “hello” to pull someone out of the darkness.

I believe this is Zoe’s first book, and if so, then she’s done an absolute masterful job. Rarely is a book perfect from start to finish, btu this is. In every way. The wording, characters, setting, emotion, morals, beliefs – I wouldn’t change a single thing about it. And it means that I will be front of the queue for whatever she writes next.

It definitely deserves to be read by everyone. It definitely has the capacity to change lives, and I mean that from the very depths of everything I’ve got. I even pre-ordered a few copies to send to friends on publication day.

Normally when I have finished reading a digital copy, I delete it to make room for more books on my Kindle, but I can’t bring myself to delete this one. I have a feeling I’ll be needing to pop back in now and then.

As well as obviously going on my “best books of 2024” annual roundup, I’m pretty certain it will be on my “best books ever” list. There’s nothing wrong with it. For me, it was perfect. An interesting plot, fabulously written characters (for good and bad), beautiful settings, an important message about friendship and love and mental health and the feeling of belonging.