Having loved The Reading List I was looking forward to reading this book but it failed to hit the spot. I didn't feel attached to any of the characters nor feel that I got to know them very well at all. The sense of community and belonging that shone through Reading List is missing from this one. It is also quite repetitive.

This is such a heartwarming novel. It is a slow burner but is totally worth persevering with. I found I really cared about the characters and, although this book took time to get into, I really enjoyed the journey.

A quiet, heart-warming about friendship and community, and our connection with the natural world even in urban areas. An enjoyable undemanding read.

After The Reading List, Sara Nisha Adams offers a delightful novel of the joys of gardens, the weaving of vibrant human connections and the building of a diverse community in London in the past and the present, at Eastbourne Road in Stoke Newington, and the guilt of a promise made, but never kept. Winston lives with Lewis in their rented home, but he can feel their relationship begin to fray, matters are exacerbated with the rising conflict with his new neighbour over noise and their large overgrown shared garden, a recently divorced Beatrice. He refers to her as the Queen of Sheba, who has moved in with her young son, Seb, determined he should have a safe garden to play in.

Out of the blue, they both receive some strange mail that includes pictures of their garden from so long ago, this results in Winston being inspired to clear it and plant with echoes of its past, a project that has an enthusiastic Seb join him. So begins the birth of the twilight garden and relationships that starts to heal the scars between the neighbours, but will they be able replicate the sanctuary and spirit of community that once thrived there? We are immersed in the lives of Prem and Maya from the early 1970s, arriving from Kenya, becoming acclimatised to a new country, learning to knit a new life built around their growing relationship with their initially chilly neighbour, the garden obsessed Alma that will become as close as family.

Through the years, amidst the background of British history, including the troubling policing, the dark racism, the protests, and the Grunwick strike, we follow the establishment of their community garden, and the experience of all that life encompasses, such as family, dementia, birth, loss, love and grief. In this engaging read, there is a garden party and the two timelines eventually connect beautifully, as do the lives of the numerous characters I had come to root for, past and present. This is a gem of a book, highlighting the wonderful opportunities for community through gardening and gardens, buttressing mental health and providing invaluable support in a London and a world that appears to become increasingly fragmented to our detriment. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Winston and Bernice are neighbours who do not see eye to eye, but who share a garden. Winston wants to make something of it and open it to the public, Bernice wants to make sure it is safe for her young son Seb, and keep it private. Through this slow burning story, and through flashbacks and mysterious letters arriving to both Winston and Bernice, we see a tale of friendships over the years. Will the neighbours both learn to co-operate and really listen to each other, or are they destined to be at loggerheads?

As mentioned above, this is a slow burner. However, it does feel like the pace matches that of the garden. A lovely story about friendship, with some tragic moments.

The Reading List was such a brilliant read and I was itching to get my hands on this.
Sadly, this didn't quite meet the mark for me. Slow pace, characters I wasn't rooting for. So wanted to love this, but it didn't go anywhere for me.

I loved The Reading List so when I heard that there was a second book from Sara Nisha Adams, I was thrilled, and, having read it, I was not disappointed at all.
Winston lives in a rented house with his partner Lewis. They have a huge garden, that is shared with their neighbouring house, that has been empty since they lived there, The garden is overgrown, but a solace to him, as he ponders his life; not quite what his parents envisaged, when they sent him to London from India.
Then one day they have new neighbours: Beatrice and her young son, Seb. Beatrice is a recently divorced woman, who wants the best for her child, and is excited to have this home with a large garden for her child, only she isn't quite sure of the shared part.
Animosity brews, then a set of anonymous letters start to arrive, first for Winston, then to Beatrice, which cause a chain reaction that changes their lives in a huge way.
There is a dual timeline, showing the history of the house, with the POV of the previous residents, Maya and Alma, which gives the story a solid background.
I loved learning about Maya and her start in England, as well as Alma, the grumpy neighbour who becomes family to Maya, her husband, Prem and their daughter.
The anonymous list/letter seems to be a device in both Adams' books, and it has been used well this time, too.
A crew of flawed characters who you come to care about.
A good read.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for an ARC.

Two neighbours bond over their shared garden, opening it up to the community. Fast forward a few decades and the garden is now a wilderness overrun by foxes.

Neighbours Winston (renting) and Bernice (divorcee and new owner of the house next door) are at loggerheads. Both have personal problems and the shared garden is the focus of their anger. But then mystery flyers start to arrive, showing the garden in its heyday. And gradually Winston and Bernice start to reclaim the garden and their own lives in the process.

It sounds as if it might be a syrupy concoction but the characters are both flawed and real. In Adams's skilful hands we flit between the present - Winston and Bernice - and the garden's custodians of the past, in the 80s and 90s. Linking the two periods is one common character, but that person's identity is a mystery for quite a long time.

I liked the way gardening is used as an allegory for bringing people together and for giving people hope and purpose. Gardening is often dismissed as an older person's activity, but here we have Bernice's young son getting passionate about planting; Winston experimenting with gardening to try to alleviate his guilt and heartache over not seeing his mother's wonderful garden for many years, and an old lady finally finding peace again.

My blog review will be published on 16 June at https://www.isthismutton.com and promoted on Instagram and Twitter (exact link to follow).

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the ARC of The Twilight Garden by Sara Nisha Adams. This is my first NetGalley review!

I've read Adams' debut novel The Reading List with my book club and I enjoyed it very much. So when the author announced her next novel was up on NetGalley I knew this would be the first book I wanted to request, even though I wasn't so sure about the gardening theme. A book about books like The Reading List, what's not to love? But a book about gardening? I can't even keep a plastic cactus looking fresh... but I was not disappointed. In fact, I think The Twilight Garden is better than her first.

The book is about two neighbours, Winston and Bernice, who do not get along at all. Unfortunately, they share a garden so having to deal with each other is unavoidable. At first, the garden is (yet another) reason for them to despise each other and the arena for their frustrated battles. Things start to change when they each receive letters and photos in the mail about the previous residents who turned the garden into paradise. Not just for themselves, but for all the neighbours in the street. Organizing parties and events that made the garden the heart of a strong community that looked out for each other.

The letters and photos are like seeds planted in the heads of Winston and Bernice. Slowly but surely, they not only start to grow plants and vegetables in the garden. They start to grow towards eachother and towards their neighbours. They also grow within themselves as the act of gardening and their growing relationship helps them overcome heartache and grief. Both Bernice and Winston learn to shed what no longer suits them and they start to bloom.

Summarized like this, it may sound a little tacky but in the book Adams uses this metaphor in such a subtle way it never gets sentimental or too obvious. In fact, I very much appreciated Adams' realistic take on live in that it is not an all's-well-that-ends-well book. Though topics like racism, grief and serious illness play an important part in the book and things aren't made to look easier than they are.

There is one thing that worried me. As in her first novel, the plot is driven by an anonymous letter writer who sets the actions of the main characters in motion. Although in this book it is not such a mystery who the letter writer is (which worked better I think). I do hope Adams won't turn this into a gimmick and that her next book will be about a secret letter writer who gets people to start knitting or cold water swimming or something.

That said, if Adams were to write another book like that, I would definitely read it. The Twilight Garden is heartwarming, uplifting and made me appreciate the beauty of very different people connecting through a shared activity. How important it is to connect with the people surrounding you, how meaningful it is. How meaningful small acts can be, even if you don't realise it at the time.

The Twilight Garden describes paradise, but one that is quite possible to create wherever we are. It just takes one little seed, a bit of sun and love...

A small seed can lead to the most amazing things and heal the soul.

Between the two houses in London's multicultural neighborhood, lies a neglected community garden. A garden that is magical in its own way and that may once again become a place of healing and new friendships.

Winston is perfectly content that the garden is abandoned, he already has enough problems with the obnoxious neighbor. One day, however, a strange mail awaits him at home.

The story is heartwarming, charming, and well-written. It reminds us that it's the little things in life that matter.

Excellent reading.

i found this book a little bit difficult to get into. i don’t think i will remember much about it later on in the future, but while i wasn’t the biggest fan of the book, i can guarantee that someone else will love it. in my opinion, there is no such thing as a bad book - one book may not be one person’s cup of tea, but to someone else it could be everything.

i felt like it was far too long for what it was, it could have easily been around 100 pages shorter as some parts tended to drag on for me. the cover is absolutely beautiful, but sadly it wasn’t enough for me.

this is a very heartwarming book which is centred around friendship and shows how kindness can be shared and effect everything and everyone - and how bad things can occur also. the humour in the book was ok, and there was multiple characters who i enjoyed. but sadly, this book didn’t hit the mark for me.

The beautiful cover of this book drew me in. The story of neighbors, friends, community, and gardens kept me turning pages. Winston and Bernice live in a neighborhood with a shared garden space between their houses and at first, were at odds about what should be allowed in the garden. When mysterious photos of what the garden looked like in the past start showing up at both of their houses, they finally start working together to include the whole neighborhood. This is a touching novel about making new friends. Thanks to author Sara Nisha Adams, HarperCollins, and NetGalley. I received a complimentary copy of this ebook. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

The Twilight Garden is the story of a neglected community garden, shared by two neighbours that can't really stand each other. Inspired by some old photographs of how the garden used to look and reminded of his mother's garden, young Winston decides to take matters into his own hands by getting them dirty.

What starts off as a ploy to annoy his overly controlling neighbour, Bernice, turns into a way for a friendship to blossom.

A second narrative tells the story of the garden around 1970 and the original gardeners that turned the garden into somewhat of a community hub that brought people together.

Since I like to garden myself, the premise of the book is quite promising and the cover is lovely. But for some reason, I did not really connect with the characters. I also felt the book was drawn out unnecessarily.

Thanks NetGalley & the author for the advance copy.

This is a story about a street in London and the various residents of the houses there. Winston, who tells most of the story, is a lonely man who just wants to live his life quietly but spends much of his time battling with his new neighbour with whom he shares his garden. When someone sends him seeds and photos of an old community garden and he realizes it is his garden which gives him an idea to bring the community together.
I enjoyed the writing style of this author and I will be looking out for other books by her.

3.5 rounded up

Let me introduce you to the occupants of Eastbourne Road in Stoke Newington (London). At number 79, the end Victorian terrace are Winston and Lewis, the new neighbour next door is the Queen of Sheba, otherwise known as Bernice. Currently Winston and Bernice are engaged in an unneighbourly battle which I don’t see ending anytime soon. There’s Sal who owns and runs the corner shop where Winston works and Jenny is one of the more colourful customers. There’s a four generational family at number 78, the red trousered man at number 80 and the piercing voices of a loud tv comes from number 68. Despite the many people around him, Winston is lonely and Sheba’s multiple demands are getting him down. He mysteriously receives an envelope containing seeds and photos from the 1980’s Eastbourne Road Community Garden which proves to be his neglected shared garden with Bernice. Maybe this will end neighbourhood wars but only time will tell. The story is told mostly from Winston’s point of view and by Maya from 1972 onwards with some input from Bernice. Who is behind the seeds???

This is a heartwarming story centred on friendship and relationships set in a lovely community and shows how the occupants are or become connected. It’s a story of kindness and hope with some sadness with the 1970/8O’s timeline having a darker and unsettling side from time to time. There’s some well placed humour interspersed with the themes and there’s joy and energy between Seb (Bernice’s young son) and Winston which is so enjoyable. It’s colourfully and vividly told so that those that live in the road spring to life in all their diversity. There are many characters to really like and even those who don’t endear at the start become transformed like the garden.

It is without doubt a charming story that is well told but .. does it really need to be 416 pages long???? The earlier timeline in particular is unnecessarily over detailed. The pleasure of the novel would have lost nothing by losing 75’ish pages.

I must commend that lovely cover!! It works to perfection.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Harper Collins, Harper Fiction for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

This started off as an interesting read into the life of Winston and his dislike for his new neighbours. I felt I could relate to this and was interested to know more. As time went on it was evident that the neighbours would become friends which they did, and I thought that was sweet.
Then more time went on and Winston and his boyfriend Lewis break up and I completely lost interest. I found Winston to be very selfish and boring character. I didnt like the way he treated the peoplr around him, no consideration for others at all. Never thought of anyone bit himself. It was nice how the garden got opened up again... one time. And there were quite a few chapters just with the characters waiting for the garden party. I just found this book boring and uneventful.

As a reader and reviewer of the author's previous book The Reading List, I was pleased to receive a copy of this new book The Twilight Garden to review. I recognised the style of writing immediately; heart-warming, uplifting, sometimes sad, finding friendship over shared interests and good food and excellent likeable characters. I enjoyed this easy to read book but I preferred the previous book purely due to my love of libraries and reading, but many will identify with the setting of this book too- gardening, flowers and making a beautiful place for others to enjoy. Three and a half stars from me rounded up to four. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for this e advance review copy.

5/5 stars! This is another book that I picked up with no idea what to expect because I only got it based on its cover. I don't read all that much contemporary fiction because I tend to focus my energies on romance or fantasy. I am so glad I made an exception for this book. It was stunningly intricate and sweet, really focusing on growth, friendship, and found family. This book is over 400 pages and I flew through it because it was too enjoyable to put down. Honestly, the worst thing about this story is that it had to end.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

I mean this in the best possible way, this book gave me Mike Gayle vibes.
It has warmth, humour, sadness, a sense of community, and a place that connects them all.
Characters I cared about by the end of the book, and was a little sad to say goodbye.
Very enjoyable