A wonderful feel good story with several romances twirling around. Liked this one and the characters, however, considering the title I expected a bit more like the classic story and more on the hidden garden. Still though, a fun story that kept my interesting to the end. Would recommend.

I wanted to love this book but I found myself yelling at the characters at times and kept waiting for this secret garden to come into the story. I felt like this story dragged on a little longer than necessary but overall it was still a good book. I loved the setting and loved Lornas job. I also like how the book had people of all ages and the overall setting of the book. If you like romantic fiction that has a little magic in it, this book is for you.

"Step inside this beautiful novel to discover friendships, secrets and romance...

When Philly starts a new job, working with Lorna in the gorgeous grounds of a beautiful manor house, it marks a turning point in both of their lives.

Philly has never been in love before and is constantly disappointing her mother with her unwillingness to settle down. But all that changes when she meets Lucien, a free spirit with an intriguing past...

Lorna is learning to embrace life on her own, until dashing Jack sweeps her off her feet in a whirlwind romance. But is this what Lorna really wants?

When the two women discover a secret garden in the manor house grounds, they are encouraged to restore its forgotten beauty in time for an unforgettable end of summer party. As they work together, secrets are revealed and relationships tested. Will they both find the happy endings they are looking for?

Set against a stunning backdrop, this utterly charming and romantic story is certain to make you smile. Perfect for fans of Susan Mallery, Mary Kay Andrews and Debbie Macomber."

I really like Katie Fforde, and let's be honest, any secret garden will be better than the classic one which I hate.

Katie Fforde writes women's fiction/romance novels that are always easy and fun to read. She had been published in England for many years and Sourcebooks is now releasing the books in the U.S. I enjoy these novels when I am looking for a light read and I have read all of them. A Secret Garden is as easy to like as its predecessors. Country houses, gardens, cooking and baking; how can a reader go wrong? Also, Ms. Fforde creates some "older" characters who also get to experience love and new relationships. So, truly a read for young to "older."

A Secret Garden by Katie Fforde
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 4½/5 stars


Lorna has spent years of her adult life loving her best friend, a man who is essentially clueless and devoted to dating/noticing everyone but Lorna. In light of her friend’s behavior, Lorna has resigned herself to be nothing more than friends and staying in his orbit as master gardener of his lush, if crumbling estate.

Outside of her best-friend, Lorna loves the estate gardens and has worked endlessly to restore them to their former glory. If she could only convince her extremely wealthy friend to loosen his purse strings a bit more, Lorna could hire more help and really kick her efforts into high gear. As fate would have it, through an online dating site and a brilliant first date, Lorna’s friend meets the “love of his life,” a woman who wants to see the estate and the gardens set to rights so that they may be used to highlight the area and save the local parish church. What ensues is a whirlwind of activity that brings friends closer, new partnerships to light, and the revelation of long forgotten part of the estate.

As plans for the estate gardens move forward, Lorna brings her dear friend, Philly, herself a master of plants and botanicals, to help with the planning, planting, clearing, and maintenance. Philly’s love of the work is rivaled only by her infatuation with the new, handsome chef who has blown into town. With nowhere but his van to sleep, Philly’s grandfather invites the young man to lodge with them which allows the friendship and eventual love between he and Philly to blossom.

And so the circle grows . . . .

With the expansion of the gardens, Lorna and Philly spend ever more time together which strengthens their friendship, Philly and her chef spend ever more time together as he contracts with she and her grandfather to renovate one of their outbuildings for cooking and baking, and Lorna becomes smitten with a younger stonemason charged with revitalizing the local parish church. In addition to this group are the Lady Anthea (a delightful surprise!) and Philly’s grandfather who strike up a friendship of their own as they support and guide the younger members of the group.

As the days and weeks pass and the estate gardens come to a beautiful fruition, the group rallies around one another in friendship and burgeoning love to celebrate what they have accomplished. While this may seem like the culmination of their success, all is not right with their world. Thanks to meddling outsiders, miscommunications, and hurt feelings, many of the friendships and partnerships forged during the garden project are torn apart and are seemingly beyond repair. In her despair, Lorna asks the Lady Anthea to poke around the property and see what she knows of a lost garden, a space so beautiful it should have never been forgotten. With broken hearts and a desire to take their minds off their respective situations, Lorna and Philly dive into the restoration of yet another estate garden. What neither knows is that the Lady Anthea’s plans are meant to just distract the two, but right the wrongs that have so recently occurred.


The Bottom Line: A Secret Garden was my first Katie Fforde book and I have to say, I think I’ll be coming back for more! Essentially, this book is split into two parts, the work and completion on the first known garden, and the work and completion on the second, previously forgotten about garden. Though garden restoration is certainly a theme which ties the two parts of the book together, there are other deeper themes as well including, love, friendship, trust, loyalty, and the value of hard work and dedication to a project. With the exception of one couple, Lorna’s best-friend and his “girlfriend,” each couple is interesting, full-bodied, and so easy to follow and root for. With that in mind, I was thrilled to find such a variety of personalities from the bold and brash (Lady Anthea) to those with a softer, more subtle kind of strength (Philly). The connections between all the characters is one of the highlights of the read followed closely by the descriptions of the gardens and the work done there. In all, A Secret Garden is a fine stand-alone, clean read that will certainly appeal to a wide variety of readers.

A Secret Garden is a stand alone novel by Katie Fforde.

It’s a very sweet story focusing on firm friends, Lorna, a landscape gardener, and Philly, a woman described in the book as a plantswoman. Both are single, Lorna, in her late 50s is a widow with a grown up son, Philly is in her early 20s and is a virgin. They both would love to be in a relationship again and both have somebody in their sites.

Lorna has known Peter, a local Estate owner, for years. They are the best of friends although Lorna has been in love with him for a long time. She works for him, slowly but surely getting the gardens back to their former glory. When she meets Jack, a local stonemason she is shocked to find herself not thinking of Peter, but thinking of Jack instead.

Philly works a market stall to sell her plants and her grandfather’s cakes. Across from her, there is a cheese stall, and the man that runs it, Lucien, is the one that she quite fancies.

The stories of these very two different women and how their relationships develop with their men make for a really pleasant read. The backdrop of their stories being the restoration of the gardens on the large estate is a fascinating subject, especially if you have a liking for either old gardens and/or beautiful plants.

The backgrounds of our couples are explained beautifully and although there are a lot of reasons why they think they can’t be together, there are many more reasons why they should. It’s really lovely to read how they try to overcome their obstacles.

What I really enjoyed about this story is that despite Lorna being in her late 50s she wasn’t written as an old woman. She comes across as a fun loving woman, who is quite capable of things like using the Internet and texting a boyfriend. Most of the time I even forgot that she was supposed to be near retirement age.

Philly on the other hand, sometimes she came across as a child, mainly when she would think about that ‘boy’ that she fancies, Lucien. Both in their 20s I think they could easily be thinking of each other as a man and a woman, not as a boy and a girl.

This story had a lovely message to tell, because not only do we have Lorna and Jack, and Philly and Lucien’s relationships to enjoy, there is also another relationship happening quietly in the background. This whole book says out loud that people can find and keep love at any age, young, middle-aged, or old. There is somebody out there for everybody.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced readers’ copy of this book.
Reviewed by AnnMarie

This was a very enjoyable book to spend time with. I loved the setting and the characters. It all gave me warm fuzzies! Interestingly, Lucien and Anthea were the characters I liked the most. Lucien seemed almost like a brother by the end and Anthea began as a cranky old woman and turned into a lovely endearing woman.

The story itself was interesting and held my interest throughout. As with all Ms. Fforde's books, it was positive and fun to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the privilege of reading and reviewing this book.

A Secret Garden tells the story of three women, warriors and workers who find themselves faced with the challenge of loving and being loved. Philly, Lorna and Anthea are friends and one cheers for the other. Philly takes care of his grandfather flower nursery, Lorna renovates gardens and Anthea is a rich Lady.
The book shows the journey of love of each one of these different characters who united to restore a garden long hidden in one of the properties of Anthea.
With a light and fluid writing, Katie Fforde brings a story about prejudices, challenges and how love is ageless.
I liked the book so much, the kind of book you end up with a smile on your face and a lightness in your heart.

A beautiful sweeping story with gorgeous gardens, wonderful writing and outstanding characters. This story swept this reader into the beauty of the location and gardens, the story is magnificent and i read it cover to cover . I highly recommend this book . A very enjoyable read .

A delightful story having my favorite components of romance, humor and happy endings! Restoring a secret garden in its original splendor and beauty has characters revealing secrets while testing their relationships---each looking for the happy ending! A truly fun and romantic read that will keep the reader smiling throughout the book. Thank you for the opportunity to have read this title prior to publication!

A Secret Garden by Katie Fforde is the story of three couples of various ages as they work their way towards a hopefully happy ending. It is exactly what readers of Katie Fforde expect.

In all of the books I have read by author, Katie Fford, I have found the characters are the story; however, in A Secret Garden the estates gardens are part of the plot until Lorna and Anetha stumbles across a secret garden and decide to restore it to it's original beauty in time for Anetha's birthday party. I will admit that these were not my favorite Katie Fford characters, but they are definitely people deserving of a happy ending.

I love the locations this author chooses and the way everyone solves their own problems to get together. This is definitely a book to tuck in your wicker basket for a trip to the beach.

3.5 stars

Light, fun romantic read that is perfect for a vacation. Typical Katie Fforde in whimsical style with a couple of eccentric characters and some not-so-lucky-in-love moments to blend with the lucky love ones. A secret Garden was fun in that the love stories involved all ages and not just the typical 20-30 somethings. It isn't going to be my next favorite KF book, but I definitely had fun while reading it, enjoyed it, and recommend to readers of this genre and fans of her books. The newly released kindle editions of her books are so well priced that it is worth the money for what you get! :)

PS--I love the new cover!

--Thanks to NetGalley, Bookouture, and Katie Fforde for an ARC to read and honestly review!--

The plus on this for me at least was that this was a romance with older characters- both Philly and Lorna have lived a bit. The setting, a manor house with a secret garden will appeal if you like classic British chick lit. It's not too hard to figure out where things will go with Lucien and Jack but that was ok. This wasn't my favorite of Katie FForde's books (and I've read a lot of them) but it made for a nice break among the more serious reading and bad news in the world. Thanks to nertgalley for the ARC.

A quick read, this book is a delightful romantic romp with a variety of characters. Philly and her grandfather leave Ireland to get away from the rest of their overbearing family. Lucien comes into the picture, and Philly is smitten. There are many other characters, with basic story lines. Fun.

a truly fun, light read that intertwined generations of people and families together in one beautiful story. Although the you know at the beginning who will wind up with whom, it's a lovely, fun, light journey to get there. Very enjoyable. RA for those ladies who assure you they don't want to read smitten -- a great choice!

Philly (Philomena) and her Grandfather Seamus have run away from Ireland and settled in England. He has become a baker and Philly has green houses and produces lovely plants. They sell their wares in a weekend market. Also working at the market is Lucien, he works in a cheese stall and Philly thinks he is a really lovely boy.
Philly also helps Lorna who is the gardener for an estate. The estate is owned by Peter, Lorna has a crush on him until she finds out he has just met the woman of his dreams, Kirstie. His mother, Anthea, lives in the Dower House on the estate.
Kirstie is a dynamo who has plans for the estate. She believes there should be tours of the garden and they will raise money to help restore the ancient Abbey in town. Leading up to the garden tour, Lorna meets Jack who is a stone mason. He is a younger man but he seems quite enamored of Lorna.
Lorna does not trust the world enough to believe that a successful younger man such as Jack could be interested in her. She is drawn to him because of his intelligence and humor. She has no idea why he wold be drawn to her.
Philly is a young woman who feels guilt at leaving her family in Ireland. Her mother works hard to make sure she never gets over her guilt. She has little experience with the opposite sex and her budding relationship with Lucien is very sweet and charming. Lucien's parents feel certain that an Irish girl is not in the same class as their son. They also have no idea why he has chosen to be a chef/baker rather than a banker.
Both of these women are intelligent, hard working and very loving. They are deserving of finding happiness and romance.
I am a huge fan of Katie Fforde. She creates women who always deserve happiness. Her stories are sunny and bright. This story is sunny and bright if you ignore Lucien's snobby parents and the really mean former nanny. There are a great number of characters. There are a great number of both large and small plots. It is not difficult to follow everyone and all the events, but it does seem to be a wee bit busy.
The characters are interesting. Philly is in her 20's, Lorna is in her 50's, Anthea is in her 70's. Each of them feel a connection to one another and there is no generation gap. In fact, everyone seems to feel a connection and a sense of caring for one another. The reader becomes immersed in their stories.
I enjoyed the book. I feel that things could have been simplified a wee bit and it would have been even more enjoyable. Ms Fforde writes beautifully. Her characters are warm and wonderful people who draw the reader in.
I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley. I am voluntarily writing this review and all opinions are my own.

This is set in England where an English Manor house is being restored. This book deals with the gardens. As Lorna and Philly work to get the gardens ready for an art exhibit and a birthday celebration they discover a hidden nook that is a very special place. Both women desire love and their wishes are granted when they meet artist a Jack and baker Lucian. A sweet summer read.

Two gardens, three fledgling friendships that could turn into more, all wrapped up in a story that was very pleasurable to read.

Although the book is called A Secret Garden, I had completely forgotten there was meant to be one while reading, as it took so long to be discovered. Instead at first the book is about the grounds of a huge manor house, and the intention to reopen the garden that is being restored, in order to raise funds.

Lorna is the gardener in charge of the garden restoration, and she meets stone mason Jack at a dinner party. It is very obvious very quickly how Jack feels but Lorna seems oblivious and rather lacking in confidence when it comes to men.

Philly is young, grows her own flowers and has a bit of a crush on the man who runs the cheese stall opposite her at the market. And it is Philly and Lucien's story that I loved the most, they are rather different in background, but have plenty of similarities and I enjoyed seeing how their acquaintance develops.

There is one other burgeoning friendship between really unlikely people, but I'll leave you to read and spot that one for yourself, as its rather sweet.

If you know your daisies from your dahlias and your lilies from your laburnum then you will probably be able to picture the descriptions in the gardens a lot more than me, as although the names and colours of flowers were mentioned, unless I had google open while reading I wouldn't be able to get a clear idea of just how pretty these gardens were, although they sounded fantastic.

I read A Secret Garden in an afternoon out in my own garden, and found it to be a peaceful and warm hearted story that drew me in and I didn't really notice the pages go past. This is a good book from an author that I tend to love, which is full just a really pleasant story.

Thank you to Bookouture and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

I just finished reading Katie Fforde's, 'A Secret Garden'. I'd been dying to read this one since I read 'A Vintage Wedding' earlier this month. Apparently Katie Fforde has a huge fan base as 'A Vintage Wedding' quickly rose to be the most favorite posting on my book blog.

But what I found interesting about 'A Secret Garden' is how it's written. This story follows Lorna and Philly. They work together in the gardens of a manor house. It was wonderful to see the passion they had for their work as they spend time talking about notable plants. Their friendship flourishes, and they discover more about each other, as they happen upon a secret garden.

Reader's are soon introduced to their romantic partners, Jack and Lucien. At times, the romance portion, seems to read more Victorian... than present day. Having a love interest whose a stone mason, we learn of the decoration to goddesses, such as Pomona who was the goddess of fruitful abundance in ancient Roman religion and myth. And after meeting the baker, pondering our olfactory system, we can only begin to image the sensational smells at the heritage bread competition.

The details of plantings are wonderful, as well as the talk of a beautifully-cut dress embroidered with exotic birds and plants. The only part of the book I wasn't too thrilled about was the actual restoration to the secret garden did not occur until late in the book but that is because it was completed for an end of summer party. And, we learn it'll be a perfectly enchanting place for a wedding.

If you enjoy a light romance and a little gardening, this may be an ideal read for you.

Classic Katie Fforde, meaning this is a perfect summer read. The plot is fairly predictable and everthing comes to a satisfying conclusion.