The Garden on Sparrow Street – Tilly Tennant

Nina is still grieving some two years later for her husband, Gray. She found solace with work in a local charity shop where she met fellow widow Robyn. But the shop is closing and in the run up to Christmas it seems that life is going to be bleak for Nina.

Whilst looking for work, keeping an eye on her widowed father, Nina throws herself into helping her local community and in particular the Garden on Sparrow Street. She thinks that the garden should be a place for people to come and remember and not sold off to the highest bidder by the council.

Gathering other neighbours from Sparrow Street as well as her friend Robyn she sets about making it a garden of memories. Other neighbours, lonely for many different reasons help in the garden but when disaster strikes it seems that the garden is just another thing to be grieved.

However when Colm a local gardener gets involved, Nina finds herself looking forward once more but can she ever get over the guilt of looking at someone other than her husband as she is more and more drawn to the garden and Colm.

As Christmas approaches, it seems that it has come early for some people until the past comes back and makes itself ever so present. Will this Christmas be different for Nina or will she actually let her heart rule instead of her head?

This is an enchanting tale of loss, grief and moving forward and whilst Christmas is clearly featured the book is very much about the characters, their relationships and is not full on Christmas as some books can be at this time of year. The secondary characters are all interesting and amusing and the book moves along at a good pace as you see the heartache that many of them all go through as they rebuild not just a garden but build new memories for the future.

An ideal book to start your Christmas reading season.

 

Thank you to the publisher via netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. 

The Garden on Sparrow Street is published on 9 October.