The Victory Garden

By: Rhys Bowen

Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld

From the best-selling author of The Tuscan Child and the Her Royal Spyness series comes a beautiful, heart-rending novel of a woman’s love and sacrifice set during the First World War. The tender tale is exquisitely performed by Saskia Maarleveld, a narrator with over 325 audiobooks—including multiple AudioFile Earphones Award-winners—to her name.

As the Great War continues to take a devastating toll on the globe, Emily Bryce meets Robbie, a cheeky and handsome Australian pilot who is set to be deployed to the frontlines. After a whirlwind romance, the two fall in love and marry. After Robbie ships out, Emily volunteers as a land girl, tending to the neglected grounds of a large Devonshire estate. Not long after, however, Emily receives devastating news; Robbie has been killed in the line of duty. Grief-stricken, Emily—who has just discovered that she is pregnant—turns to an unexpected source of hope. In the pages of a long-forgotten journal from a medicine woman who devoted her life to the gardens she now tends, she finds not only comfort and solace—but perhaps a path to her destiny.

©2019 Janet Quin-Harkin (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

Not literary genius, but very sweet!

Just a sweet story with lovable characters. Bowen does a great job of researching the time period and offered interesting information on herbs and healing, as perceived by earlier generations. I loved the descriptions of the cottage and the grounds - painted a beautiful picture of a lovely place. Don't expect more than a pleasant time-passing experience and you won't be disappointed.

Great Story

This is not my usual reading genre, but Saskia Maarleveld is my favorite narrator so when this book was the Deal of the Day I couldn't turn it down and I am not disappointed. It took a few chapters for the characters to build, and I would have loved the loose ends wrapped up at the end or maybe even a follow up book. Overall, I enjoyed the book.

Wonderful!

I would like to use a more sophisticated word, but the only thing that comes to mind is “awesome”. There are more twist and turns in the story than the road to Hana. I fell in love with all the characters and was delighted every chance I had to listen.
I had purchased this book many months ago but just got around to listening to it. Before reading I did not read any of the summaries because I wanted everything to be a surprise or unknown to me. I am glad that I did that because the story doesn’t follow a predicted path and it made it more interesting. I suggest to anyone looking at the book, especially if you enjoy that era, to purchase it.

One of Bowen's Best

I've read several of Rhys Bowen's series and all of her standalone novels, this one is one of the best if not the best. Emily Bryce is a "land girl" coming of age during WWI and wanting to do something useful to support her country and the war effort.
Emily faces opposition from many fronts as she tries to follow her heart and her conscience.
Great characters, a compelling story and good narration.

Enjoyable & Inspiring

Another enjoyable Rhys Bowen book with an admirable heroine. This doesn't have the humor of the Royal Spyness series but is uplifting. The heroine's creativity and positivity in difficult living circumstances reminded me a bit of the old Grace Livingston Hill novels.

The narrator is wonderful.

Enjoy!