Really enjoyed the gunpowder plot of this book and an insight into Robert Catesbys life.

Thanks to netgalley for the opportunity to review this book

Yet another changing timeline book. Nit that it’s a bad thing I really enjoy them and this is no exception. It’s based around the Catesby family during the gunpowder plot and I happened to be reading it at the beginning of November! Lucy is forced to move away from her job and live in a renovated barn on land in her family home. She keeps seeing a ghostly woman who she feels is trying to tell her something. It turns out though that she’s not the only one. It’s a wonderful multiple love story. I cried quite a few times.

I have enjoyed Nicola Cornick’s timeslip mysteries before, so I was really excited to read The Winter Garden, and I was not disappointed.

Both stories are filled with interesting characters, and it’s interesting to see the similarities between them.

Lucy is looking to hide away and recover from a recent illness that has changed her life. She heads to Gunpowder Cottage, a house formally owned by Robert Catesby, a man who was part of the infamous Gunpowder Plot. Lucy begins to have visions of a woman in Tudor style clothes.

The historical timeline focuses on Anne Catesby, mother of Robert. As the matriarch of a Catholic family in protestant England, she fully understands the dangers and hardships that come when you have enemies in high places. She desperately wants her son to be happily and purposefully married and is overjoyed when he marries the beautiful Catherine.

Lucy and landscape archaeologist, Finn, start investigating the history of the house to uncover Catherine’s story and understand the grief that still haunts the house.

This is a well-researched and evocative novel. The Winter Garden sounds absolutely stunning and is richly described. The writer weaves the different threads of the story together so that you understand Robert’s motives and the choices that Anne has to make to protect her family.

Lucy and Finn are drawn to each other from the first time they meet, and their relationship helps them both heal from the pain of their pasts.

Overall, this was a compelling read that is a real treat for fans of historical fiction.

Thank you to HQ and Netgalley for a gifted advanced copy of The Winter Garden.

I romped through this book in a few days, coincidentally in the run up to Guy Fawkes night which made it all the more enjoyable. Highly recommended.

The Winter Garden of the title refers to a Tudor garden laid out by the wife of Robert Catesby the instigator of the Gunpwder Plot. When Lucy retreats after a period of illness to her ancestral home in Oxfordshire she starts to have flashbacks to a time when the house was first created and its oringinal owners the Catesbys. She becomes aware that she is in the body of Anne Catesby, the mother of Robert Catesby. She sees events unravelling and is aware that she also sees the garden as it was once develpoed. Adding the dual story lines Lucy is aware that because she is in a period of changing circumstances and she feels Anne Catesby's terror as events begin to enfolded. A fast paced novel that holds the reader until the very end. Ironically I was visiting in the same area and visited the other Catesby related house. Brilliant storytelling!

I particularly like Cornick's books because she weaves together a present day story along with one from Tudor times. This books centres on the years surrounding The Gunpowder Plot at the beginning of the 17th century. When Lucy is receiving from an illness at a beautiful period home in the Berkshire Downs she sees a woman who appears to be from the 17th century. Lucy then goes on a quest to find her story. The house Lucy's staying at used to be lived in by Robert Catesby, chief instigator of The Gunpowder Plot and here Lucy's story and that of Robert's mother Anne intertwine. Not only just a good story but I learned some history too!

This is a historical fiction that is set around the gunpowder plot. It is told in a dual timeline.
The historical period centres on the Catesby family.
The present day story centres on Lucy, who is having paranormal experiences and dreams.

This is a compelling book which is a great historical mystery.
A great atmospheric book for this time of year.

I enjoy time slip novels, it feels as though you get two stories for the price of one.
The Winter Garden moves between events of the Gunpowder Plot in 1604 and the present day house in Oxfordshire where Robert Catesby once lived.
I enjoyed this book very much, the characters, the settings and the storyline were alL very very described. Sometimes it is forgotten that it was a group of men who planned the gunpowder plot not just Guy Fawkes.

Oh, I loved this timeslip novel around the story of The Gunpowder Plot and in particular, Robert Catesby.

Absolutely glorious, a really enjoyable story.

Its a well-trodden path to tell a story as a timeslip, partly in the present and partly in the past, and this one tackles the history behind a garden first laid during the time of Elizabeth I's reign, involving the Catesby family.

This interested me, as I knew Robert Catesby was one of the Gunpowder Plotters, and the author introduces this with the name of the cottage - Gunpowder Cottage. The result is very informative, and inspired me to read up more about the Catesbys.

The present day character, Lucy, was a musician but can no longer follow her dream and she comes to her aunt's house to recuperate. She keeps seeing a figure in Tudor dress in the garden, and has glimpses and dreams of events from centuries ago.

I enjoyed the story, and seeing how Lucy dealt with her dreams and dilemmas, but found the presence of the ghosts a little unbelievable. Usually the two stories are entwined and resolved without any actual ghostly presence, and I wasn't very convinced that Anne was reappearing to right a wrong. But its a cracking read and if you suspend disbelief in ghosts, it will keep you enthralled.

Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A book with a dual timeline, one in 1600's and the other the present day.
Anne Catesby narrates the earlier story of her handsome son, his beautiful wife Catherine and the garden that Catherine creates in the grounds of their home. Following her untimely death, Robert turns to darker things and becomes part of the gang intent on killing the king by blowing up Parliament.
In the present day, Lucy is convalescing at her aunt's property which was formerly the home of Robert and Catherine Catesby. Lucy is a former musician who, following and illness, has had to give up the one thing that she loved. Woking at the property is Finn, an expert in historical gardens who is trying to restore Catherine's Tudor garden to it's former glory.
The two stories come together when Lucy encounters the ghost of Catherine., firstly in a dream and then an actual sighting. What is it that Catherine wants of Lucy? How can Lucy help this Tudor time woman find peace?
Revolving around the Gunpowder Plot and the treasure of The Knights Hospitallers this book has something for those that enjoy historical fiction as well as those that prefer something more contemporary. If I personally had to pick a narrative it would be Anne Catesby's because of her link to The Gunpowder plot.
I really enjoyed this book. and I thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"Remember, remember, the Fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot,
For I see no reason why gunpowder treason,
Should ever be forgot"

There are different variations on this rhyme, but that’s the version I grew up with. It refers, of course, to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, a failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament. The name most often associated with the plot is Guy Fawkes, the man caught in the cellars below Parliament on November 5th preparing to ignite the gunpowder, but the leader of the conspirators was actually the less well known Robert Catesby. Nicola Cornick’s new novel The Winter Garden tells the story of not just Catesby himself but also his wife, Catherine, and mother, Anne.

Like Nicola Cornick’s other recent books, this one is set in more than one time period. In the present day, we meet Lucy Brown, a young woman suffering from the long-term effects of a viral infection that have left her unable to continue her promising career as a violinist. Not yet ready to return to her home in London and face up to a life without her beloved music, Lucy accepts an offer from an aunt to go and stay in her cottage in Oxfordshire while she recuperates. Gunpowder Cottage, as it is now known, was once the home of Robert Catesby and almost as soon as Lucy arrives she begins to have visions of a woman dressed in Tudor clothing. Could this be Catherine Catesby and if so what is she trying to tell Lucy?

The other thread of the novel begins in the late 16th century and is written from the perspective of Anne Catesby. The Catesby family are recusant Catholics – they remained loyal to the Catholic church after the Reformation and refuse to attend Church of England services. In 1593, Anne’s son, Robert, marries Catherine Leigh, the daughter of a wealthy Protestant family, who begins to create a beautiful garden in the grounds of her new home. Anne is pleased to see her son and daughter-in-law settling into married life, but the happy times don’t last for long and soon Robert is deeply involved in treason and conspiracy.

There’s so much going on in this novel: an archaeological dig aimed at finding and restoring Catherine’s vanished winter garden, rumours of hidden treasure dating back to the days of the Knights Hospitaller, and a mystery surrounding the death of one of the experts working on the garden project. There’s also a romance for Lucy, which, although it was completely predictable as soon as the love interest made his first appearance, felt believable and never came to dominate the plot. If you’ve read Nicola Cornick’s The Forgotten Sister, there’s a small part in this book for Johnny Robsart, whom you’ll remember was Amelia Robsart’s psychic brother. There are some paranormal elements in this novel too, but they provide the link between the two time periods and again, don’t really dominate.

When a book has two separate storylines set in different periods, there is usually one I like more than the other and in this case it was the historical one. I felt a stronger connection with Anne Catesby than I did with Lucy, maybe because Anne’s story was narrated in the first person while Lucy’s was written in the third. Although there wasn’t as much focus on the actual Gunpowder Plot as I’d expected, I found it interesting to read about the female influence on Robert Catesby’s life and how events at home may have led to him becoming involved in the conspiracy.

A story that kept me guessing all the way through, the switching between modern and historical times was interesting and intriguing. Main protagonist Lucy is tormented by having to give up the profession she loves due to post viral weakness and this grief opens her up to a connection with a ghost who is similarly in turmoil. I identified most with Anne Catesby, who was a strong woman held back by the role of women in her time but despite this makes some hard decisions that are very much for the greater good, at the expense of her own son.

This clever time-slip novel combines both a strong sense of history with a compelling modern day mystery. Set during the latter part of the sixteenth century we are introduced to the Catesby family whose connection to the aptly named Gunpowder Cottage gives a clue as to where the story is going. In the present day Lucy, due to a debilitating illness, is coming to terms with the loss of her musical career and recuperates at her aunt's converted property in Oxfordshire. Gunpowder Barn shadows the original Tudor buildings and it is here where Lucy feels an affinity with those who once lived in the shadow of the Gunpowder plot.

The Winter Garden moves effortlessly between past and present without either time periods overshadowing the other. I was equally engrossed in the Tudor world, getting to know the Catesby’s and Robert in particular, whose mercurial and reckless nature, would lead him along the path of insurrection and danger. There’s a distinct air of melancholy in the Tudor sections but this is offset beautifully by the supernatural elements in the modern day mystery and especially Lucy’s determination to uncover the secrets of those who once called Gunpowder Cottage home.

The Winter Garden is an engrossing dual time story which captured my imagination from the start and as it’s such a perfect autumnal story I am delighted to make it my Featured Book of the Month for November.

This time slip novel is set in the final years of Elizabeth 1 reign and James 1 reign. It’s based on the conspiracy we know as The Gunpowder Plot and Robert Catesby is central to the story. He is driven to his crime as a result of grief when he eldest son and wife die. The modern storyline has an archaeologist searching for a garden and a young musician who is recovering from a viral illness. This was an entertaining and engaging read. With thanks to netgalley and HQ publishing for the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to HQ Stories for the opportunity to join the blog tour and for a copy of the beautiful paperback book. I’ve enjoyed reading Nicola’s previous books and you can find my last review here : https://mentoringmumof2bookreviews.home.blog/2021/07/09/the-last-daughter-by-nicola-cornick/

I have a confession – I don’t enjoy Halloween (I’ve been avoiding the trick or treaters today) but I do enjoy a good story with ghostly happenings and this is an excellent example of that, perfect for a dark autumn evening reading session.

I had little knowledge about the history of the gunpowder plot so found the history element of this dual time slip novel fascinating. As a mother, the stories about Anne and Catherine were heartbreaking in places.

The modern day part of the story was equally interesting as Lucy tries to move forward with her life after discovering that she could no longer continue with her career and her passion. As Lucy starts to find out more about the history of the house and garden with the help of Finn, she discovers more about the tragedies that hit the Catesby family.

I loved how the two stories, four hundred years apart were woven together. It was also good to meet a character from one of Nicola’s earlier books, Johnny, who was helping Finn in the garden. As mentioned earlier, there are numerous sightings of a ghost, a mysterious death, and plenty of strange dreams and events to send a shiver down your spine. Nicola has also deftly woven romance, friendship and family into her mystical story, and I found myself struggling to put out the book down.

Another excellent book by Nicola Cornick and I recommend adding this to your book shopping list.

The Winter Garden by Nicola Cornick
Earc:NetGalley
Publisher: HQ
Publication Date:27th October 2022
Genre:General Fiction, Historical Fiction

Very interesting plot i like how we go through two different time period and it related to the gun powder plot. We see this through the eyes of Anne in the past whearas in the present day we are following Lucy experience.
The year is 1592. Anne her Catesby and her husband wished to find a suitable wife for her son Robert to marry and found the beautiful Katherine her Lee whom her parents approve of. She has her grandmother who is very open and makes me laugh.
Their marriage was successful and two sons were born. Catherine built a summer house in her backyard and devotes herself to beautifying her garden.
Unable to cope when disaster strikes, Robert flees to London and joins a conspiracy to kill the king.

Today Lucy lives in her aunt's converted barn. The barn was built on land occupied by the Catesby family. She recently contracted pneumonia and is now suffering consequences that will change her life.She has to accept the fact that she knew her life had changed completely. She ended her life as a professional violinist. she is devastated.
An archaeological excavation organized by Lucy's aunt is underway to restore the gardens and may uncover treasures said to be hidden within the grounds.
Lucy begins having her strange dreams, seeing things through the eyes of others. She begins to suspect that Katherine Catesby's ghost is haunting her mansion and Katherine needs her help.

#NetGalley #bookstagram #bookreview#goodreads #generalfiction #historicalfiction @hq

Ania Seton's Green Darkness is one of my favorite mix of historical fiction and paranormal, something in this book made me think of that beloved story.
This is a strong and gripping novel, a mix of fictional and historical characters with a pinch of paranormal.
It's a well plotted story and the characters are fleshed out.
It kept me hooked and it's my favorite by this author.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Nicola’s novels are always a delight to read. Amazingly descriptive and I jump right into the story.

I was lucky to be able to read an advance copy of this, Nicola’s most recent novel. The historical part is a retelling of the life of Robert Catesby leading up to his part in The Gunpowder Plot.

The year is 1592. Anne Catesby and her husband are hoping to find a suitable woman for their son, Robert, to marry and they find the lovely Catherine Leigh who’s parents agree to the marriage. She has a grandmother who is very outspoken and made me giggle.
Their marriage is successful and they have two sons. Catherine puts her heart and soul into building a summerhouse in their garden, and making the garden beautiful.
When disaster strikes, Robert is unable to cope and disappears to London where he joins the plot to kill the king.

In the present day, Lucy is staying at her Aunt’s barn conversion, built on the land which had been occupied by the Catesby’s. She has recently had pneumonia, and is now living with the life changing after effects. She needs to come to terms with the fact her life as she knew it has changed completely. Her life as a professional violinist is at an end. She is devastated.
At the property, there is an archeological dig, organised by Lucy’s auntie, to try to restore the gardens and perhaps find the treasure which is rumoured to have been hidden at the property.
Lucy begins to have strange dreams, and to see things as if through someone else’s eyes. She begins to feel the property may be haunted by the ghost ofCatherine Catesby, and Catherine needs her help.

An absolutely addictive read and I loved both timelines. The ending was unexpected!

Nicola is a talented storyteller and this is the perfect book to read around bonfire night.

Highly recommended.

Thank you to HQ for my spot on the blog tour.

The Winter Garden is a dual timelined tale, split between the turn of the 16th century and present day, with the past timeline based around the family of Robert Catesby, who masterminded the gunpowder plot of 1605.

I particularly like reading timeslip historical fiction that is also based on factual events or people, so it was no surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I usually prefer the past timelines, but found this present day story just as captivating thanks to the addition of the paranormal. The writing is beautifully descriptive and full of historical detail and really transports you back to Tudor England.

This is one of the best dual timeline stories I have read in a long time and I will definitely be reading more by Nicola Cornick very soon! 4.5*

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy in return for an honest review.