The Victory Garden

By: Rhys Bowen

Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld

Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Looking for a good historical mystery? Read this

This is a good story. I felt a little angst all the way through but I expect that from a well written mystery. That edge of your seat feeling.
The characters are well drawn. The life of women left home in England during WWI is painfully accurate but all issues are satisfactorily resolved.

Excellent historical novel

I am a fan of the author and all her books!! She has some good series as well that are fun to read. This is a standalone novel. I know she does her research and it was very interesting to learn about victory gardens and war time. There’s a bit of romance with some realistic twists and turns but overall a positive and happy story that holds on to the goodness of humankind! I also like the story within a story about the herbal woman who lived in the cottage before and her life using herbs medicinally. It was interesting to learn about the different plants and their properties. There are a few little tidbits about history with the Spanish flu and PTSD of the returning war time vets giving the story depth.

The book I started was not the book I finished.

It was like 2 books meshed together. The story was very contrived. If you are wanting a story about land girls this isn't it. I am left wondering why these women didn't just meet anywhere.

Loved it!

At first, I wasn’t sure if I would truly enjoy this book, but the more I read, the more hooked I became. Rhys Bowen has a way of teaching me history in the midst of an awfully good story. I loved the twists and turns she wove throughout the narrative, keeping me guessing all the while. The narrator was very skillful at doing many voices so that I could recognize the characters just by the voice. She was spot on with her accents from “posh” to cockney to Australian. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this one and hope that Emily’s story will continue in a future novel.

another great read

Rhys does such a great job of story telling . The characters are believable and feel real. I didn't want the story to end.

Delightful story of taking charge of one's own life

(As posted in GoodReads)
How delightful! Not exactly a history, but historical in nature. Rhys Bowen is the author of the "Royal Spyness" series, and I already knew that I like her writing and voice, and this book is just another example. She creates a complex and relatable story with complete and well filled out characters. I kind of wish that it were part of a series, because I'm quite attached to both :-)

I loved it!

At first I thought it was long and tedious. I was afraid I would have to return it. But then...I fell in love with the characters and the story. I laughed , then sat heartbroken. You'll see! You'll love it too!

The voice is most important.

The story was good and well preformed.
Yet the voice at the end was disturbingly unnecessary, and harsh to my ears.

The Victory Garden

Excellent, exciting, fun book! congratulations to the author. I've read three of her many books and this one is my favorite so far!!!

Don’t judge a book by its color

This is a very interesting, well written book. I do love books from earlier times and the setting is in England. Enjoy this wonderful story.