The Unfinished Garden

By: Barbara Claypole White

Narrated by: Ana Clements, Paul Heitsch

Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

A love story about grief, OCD, and dirt

Tilly Silverberg is rebuilding her life with her young son, Isaac, one potted-up plant at a time. Since her husband’s death, gardening has become her livelihood and her salvation. Hiding out in the North Carolina forest, she wants only to be left alone with Isaac and her greenhouse. 

New to the area, successful software developer James Nealy needs a garden. On a solitary mission to reclaim his life from irrational obsessions and relentless compulsions, he has a plan: to conquer his greatest fear. Dirt. One glimpse - or two - of Tilly’s garden, and he knows she holds the key. But when he asks her to take him on as a client, she refuses. 

After a family emergency pulls Tilly and Isaac back to her native England, she’s quietly happy, because nothing has changed in her childhood village. Or has it? Her first love is unexpectedly single, her mother is scheming, and her best friend is keeping secrets. Then James appears on her doorstep. 

Tenuous at first, but gradually taking root, James and Tilly forge an unlikely bond. As they work together to rescue a garden choked by neglect, they unearth each other’s secrets, each other’s fears, each other’s hopes - and maybe, a shared second chance.  

©2012 Barbara Claypole White (P)2019 Spoken Realms

A decent read

Enough to keep me going for the finish, but it left me feeling ready to leave it behind. It does have the makings of a decent YA read, but not quite mature enough for other populations. The topics that were covered (grief, mental health, self acceptance, acceptance, a bit of travel) should have been enough to leave the reader in deep thought. But, nope. Kind of glad it's over.

Beautifully written and performed

This is a love story with an usual twist. Heartbreaking in places and beautifully performed by Ana Clements and Paul Heitsch, sometimes speaking in each other’s voices. No mean feat given one is English and the other American. Their performances were beautifully nuanced to match the story and the combination made me want to keep listening even when I had to stop. Highly recommended.

Beautiful

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful is what I think of this book/story. Having turned into an audio book junkie recently, I jumped at the chance to listen and review this one. With the cover totally selling it to me! Its absolutely gorgeous, don’t you think?! Well so is the story.

With 12 hour plus listening time…dont let that put you off. Once I started this and got sucked into Tilly’s world I honestly couldn’t stop listening to it and ended up finishing it in a couple of days. Trust me that’s quick it normally takes me a week to listen to an audio.

I love how its narrated by a man and woman has the story alternates between Tilly and James. These guys are amazing and so are the friendships in this story. The whole time I felt myself willing Tilly along.

The whole backdrop of the story is Tilly’s OCD with gardening. This is the part would I could smell the flowers and easily sit in her garden for hours. It took me back to my childhood with my Nan and her gardening.

This is one of those stories that will make you smile and pull at your heartstrings if your a fan of Jodi Picoult then you will love this. The Unfinished Garden is one hell of a moving story. Which I highly recommend.