I really enjoyed this book! I loved the setting and storyline. Would definitely recommend for anyone looking some escapism.

A beautifully written story of friendship, life’s trials and tribulations and a garden that bonds friends and communities throughout the decades.

Winston and Bernice are not what you’d call perfect neighbours but when notes start appearing through their letterboxes showing them how their shared garden used to look, it brings something into their worlds they needed and the past lives of Maya and Alma and the garden they loved come alive again.

I absolutely adored The Reading List so was really looking forward to this book and I wasn't disappointed. The cast of characters in this story were as easy to fall in love with as the author's previous book and their stories, intertwined with the garden's annual cycle and the passage of time make for a wonderful novel that makes you laugh, but also cry and is a reminder of how good people coming together as a community can feel.

I loved Sara Nisha Adams's first book, The Reading List, and this second book hits just the right notes once again! We follow two neighbours at odds as they try to find a common ground (pun intended) with their shared garden. This is how they end up bonding and finding strength in themselves too for the other obstacles and difficulties in their lives.

Through it all we have the narration of the previous neighbours who lived there decades prior and how the garden brought them together. Just like The Reading List it's a novel that brings human connection and its importance to the forefront!

This book hit differently for me as I'm currently sharing a garden with someone difficult but I don't think Adams's magic of connecting people will work for me haha!

Thankyou to Net galley, Sara Nisha Adam’s and Harper Collins for this arc ebook copy!

I loved this book a lot, especially how the garden was there for everyone on the end not just one. It didn’t care about race, gender, age or anything other than bringing those together. The past becomes the present and give the garden purpose once again. It is a slow gentle read with great friendship and a wonderful community.
Two neighbours come together after a long arguments and being the garden back into a community space!
I loved the characters and the story, very heartwarming and beautiful! Will definitely be recommending to others!
Definitely 4 stars!

Another found family drama from the author who wrote The Reading List, this one aimed at gardening fans rather than book lovers.

There is a nice, diverse mix of characters (in terms of race, age, gender, and sexuality) and a real sense of nostalgia for the closer, village-style communities of the past to unite everyone in an understanding and caring support network. We see the plot and characters via two timelines sharing the same garden: Maya and Alma in the 70s; Winston and Bernice in the 20-teens. Not to mention all of the many friends and neighbours who find their way to the welcoming yard.

In fact, there were rather too many characters for me to keep up with at times and not all of them felt necessary to the plot – I would rather have focused on just the main handful in both past and present (Bernice and Seb, Winston and Lewis, Maya and Prem, Alma, Bob, Jenny, Sal and Angela), although I do appreciate that the side characters do lend to that ‘wider community’ feel.

Unfortunately, they also made the book feel very long and slow-moving. I do feel that if the same story had been a little shorter and snappier, I might have been able to stay more engaged with it than I did. I did really enjoy the themes and messages woven throughout though, all about friendship, platonic/familial/romantic love, community bonds, and working together to create something that can benefit all.

The Twilight Garden is ideal if you’re looking for a slow, gentle read about those heart-warming concepts and, while it is a little too slow-moving for me, it is still a lovely story.

Magical, beautiful book from a great author.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my review.

A real feel good book to uplift your mood. It is a story about how a neglected garden became a haven and hub for a local community , how in later years when it had been forgptten it was made to come back to life again and bring a community together again

Really loved this. Loved her previous book and enjoyed the elements of friendship and community reflected again in this book. Also loved the different times and points of view

Quite light.
I found this novel too long for the content, it could have been shorter.
The two timelines were sometimes confusing.
I liked the parts about the garden and the characters clearing up the mystery of its past.

A small community in London, a small garden but a place with a very big heart. Numbers 77 and 79 in this particular road, have to share a garden. The garden is neglected and neither of the current residents, seem to venture into it other than to argue with each other.

One day a packet of photographs lands on the mat of Winston’s house, rented with his partner.

One day a packet of photographs lands on the mat of Bernice’s house, she shares with her son.

These photographs and letters tell about a time some 25-30 years previously about a garden which helped not just the residents of the house but the community as well. Bernice and Winston are circumspect in why they are suddenly drawn to the garden and as they start to see how the garden can develop and the good it can do, they suddenly become more tolerant of each other.

The garden they set about creating, doesn’t care about race, gender, ethnicity, age or political persuasion. It brings together a community that has been so busy rushing by with life that it has forgotten to stop. As the garden grows, as the vegetables feed the people that have cared for the garden, the past suddenly becomes the present and the garden once more has a purpose.

That purpose is grown into the characters, and this is a very gentle soulful book which takes the growth of the characters as seriously as the growth of the garden. With a dual timeline between the present day and the 1970s it also shows the cultural shift in London life, in communities and where we all end up as we grow.

Just like her debut novel this author speaks from the heart and shows you that slow quiet fiction as this book is, makes just as much as impact as a pacey thriller. If you like books full of hope and love then this book is for you.

The Twilight Garden by Sara Nisha Adams

Two neighbours in Eastbourne Road in London, Winston and Bernice, have numerous arguments over their shared garden but eventually come together to restore it to the community space that it once was.

Oh what a lovely book - just perfect! I loved the characters and the story, the sense of community, the dual timeline... everything. Sara Nisha Adams has been added to my list of 'will read anything they write' authors. Very VERY highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

I felt everything when I read this book it made me laugh out loud and it made me cry both subtly with one tear slowly running down my cheek and ugly crying. I loved it

Set in a London borough, this is the story of a neglected community garden brought back to life by Winston, a renter and his next door neighbour Bernice. As neighbours, they don’t get along initially but gradually, through working on the garden that sits behind both their houses, they discover things about themselves as well as the previous curators of the garden, which had been open to the community before falling into neglect over time. This is a gentle story about the importance of friendship and community and although not a lot happens, it manages to be compelling and heart warming.

With thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.

Wonderful story of friendship and family. I loved the structure and the characters so much!! This was another excellent book from Sara Nisha Adams, I can’t wait for more!

Winston came to England to become a financier but he is currently working in a shop whereas his boyfriend is progressing up the career ladder. Bernice is a divorced single parent, determined to smother her child with love. They live in two adjoining houses with a shared garden and keep up a frosty relationship.
However when Winston receives a strange set of pictures through his door one day, showing the garden in a previous guise, he decides to tackle the task of restoring the garden to it's former glory.
This is a really quite lovely book about relationships. Set across the 1970s and the 2010s it juxtaposes the lives of people associated with a corner of North London and linked by a love of a shared green space. There's nothing horrible here, it's very predictable but it is a great, gentle read.

Such a beautiful heartwarming book that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Reading about how 2 neighbours constantly argue, come together over their shared garden, inspired by previous tenants.
Definitely recommend . Well written and beautiful

Winston shares a garden with his nightmare neighbour Bernice, they argue over everything including the overgrown mess of a garden. However in the 80s it was different - Alma and Maya who lived in the houses and shared the garden became best friends, making the garden a sanctuary for their friends and neighbours. Winston and Bernice slowly find some common ground and the garden springs to life again. As they both start to feel more grounded in their community their lives change.
This is a nice book about place, friendship, belonging and community. The importance of outside spaces. As Winston says nice isn't bland, nice can just be nice.

It moved me, made me smile and I loved the plot and the idea behind the book.
It's about community, working together and how we can enjoy small things.
A lovely and well written story that remained with me.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

A totally heartwarming read from Sara Nisha Adams, such a treat to discover this wonderful new author.

The twilight garden is a shared garden in Eastbourne Road, Stoke Newington, once beautiful and a space loved and enjoyed by the neighbourhood but now overgrown and unloved.

However a little nudge and a lot of magic may see the garden flourish again.

Winston is unhappy in love, Bernice is newly and angrily divorced. Both have nothing in common apart from being new neighbours who share a back garden.

Bernice wants the space to be safe for her young son to play in, Winston need somewhere to think and grieve.

Random photos and newspaper clippings begin to arrive through both neighbours doors and a seed is sown to recreate the magic of the past and learn the history of the neighbourhood.

A beautiful read with loveable characters, this heartwarming read is an absolute joy and a must for anyone’s summer reading list.