Rating: 
Summary: Longing and Love
Review: Helen Humphreys is nothing less than a superb story-teller. The tone of this W.W.II drama is lyrical, wistful and bold, and her characters bend and sway in the nostalgia she so openly releases. It is narrated by Gwen Davis a single 30-something horticulturist who joins the war effort by volunteering to lead a group of girls in growing potatoes on a deserted estate in the English countryside. Used to working in a solitary lab environment, Gwen has to face her shyness and lack of self-confidence as she forms her relationships with the girls in her crew. Her amateur gardeners are young and energetic and would rather be flirting with the soldiers who are also stationed at the estate while awaiting deployment. One of the girls, however, is different... Jane. Since Jane's fiancé has been declared missing in action she's been slowing fading away, just barely holding onto that fragile thread of hope. Jane and Gwen befriend one another, as well as two of the soldiers staying in the estate house. Then Gwen finds the best companion of all... a secret garden hidden within the grounds. With her knowledge of horticulture and some research into the inhabitants of the estate, Gwen beings to piece together the story the garden has to tell... and finds that it is telling her story as well. If someone would've told me that I'd learn quite a lot about gardening techniques while reading this book, I might have passed it up, because I wouldn't have realized that there is a beautiful and sensitive language gardens can speak. I think any reader who enjoys creative expression will find they can relate to this story. Humphreys delivers her tale with perfect timing, swiftly wrapping-up after the climax, yet leaving just enough loose threads to keep you thinking about the characters long after the last page has been turned.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent piece of art
Review: Helen Humphreys is nothing less than a superb story-teller. The tone of this W.W.II drama is lyrical, wistful and bold, and her characters bend and sway in the nostalgia she so openly releases. It is narrated by Gwen Davis a single 30-something horticulturist who joins the war effort by volunteering to lead a group of girls in growing potatoes on a deserted estate in the English countryside. Used to working in a solitary lab environment, Gwen has to face her shyness and lack of self-confidence as she forms her relationships with the girls in her crew. Her amateur gardeners are young and energetic and would rather be flirting with the soldiers who are also stationed at the estate while awaiting deployment. One of the girls, however, is different... Jane. Since Jane's fiancé has been declared missing in action she's been slowing fading away, just barely holding onto that fragile thread of hope. Jane and Gwen befriend one another, as well as two of the soldiers staying in the estate house. Then Gwen finds the best companion of all... a secret garden hidden within the grounds. With her knowledge of horticulture and some research into the inhabitants of the estate, Gwen beings to piece together the story the garden has to tell... and finds that it is telling her story as well. If someone would've told me that I'd learn quite a lot about gardening techniques while reading this book, I might have passed it up, because I wouldn't have realized that there is a beautiful and sensitive language gardens can speak. I think any reader who enjoys creative expression will find they can relate to this story. Humphreys delivers her tale with perfect timing, swiftly wrapping-up after the climax, yet leaving just enough loose threads to keep you thinking about the characters long after the last page has been turned.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: Helen Humphreys' The Lost Garden is a beautiful little gem of a novel, a quick and wonderful read about one woman's perfect moment and time and how it quickly eluded her. Gwen Davis is a lonely woman in the early days of World War II in London when she volunteers to lead a group of women in a war-effort farming experiment on an abadoned estate in the British countryside. She is devastated to leave London, devastated by the war and yet her experiences away from London turn out to be the most rewarding of her life. She finally forms a meaningful friendship and begins to fall in love with one of the Canadian soldiers briefly stationed at the estate. Gwen reflects on the nature of love and happiness, both in her life and in the lives of those around her. This is an excellent, if short, rewarding novel. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: Helen Humphreys' The Lost Garden is a beautiful little gem of a novel, a quick and wonderful read about one woman's perfect moment and time and how it quickly eluded her. Gwen Davis is a lonely woman in the early days of World War II in London when she volunteers to lead a group of women in a war-effort farming experiment on an abadoned estate in the British countryside. She is devastated to leave London, devastated by the war and yet her experiences away from London turn out to be the most rewarding of her life. She finally forms a meaningful friendship and begins to fall in love with one of the Canadian soldiers briefly stationed at the estate. Gwen reflects on the nature of love and happiness, both in her life and in the lives of those around her. This is an excellent, if short, rewarding novel. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Longing, loss, faith, love
Review: Hoping to escape war-ravaged London in 1941, Gwen volunteers for the Women's Land Army and is sent to a remote rural estate where she is to lead a group of girls. En route, Gwen hears of the disappearance and presumed death of her favorite author Virginia Woolf, and this colors her world for months to come. There is a regiment of Canadian soldiers on the estate as well and Gwen finds herself drawn to their commander, Captain Raley, but what is it she feels? What is love exactly to someone who has never felt its essence? Raley himself is adrift as he mourns the loss of his best friend. Gwen finds a hidden garden on the estate and by bringing it back to life, she finds her own journey mirroring the flowers. It is a journey of blossoming through longing, to love, as the war in Europe looms and Gwen's love for Raley may actually be doomed for reasons she never considered. "The Lost Garden" is a joyous bouquet that is both patient and anxious, and whose scent will linger in the hair and clothes of every reader.
Rating: 
Summary: You will start smelling the roses
Review: I loved her Afterimage which is in my top ten favorite books. I like her prose in both the books, it's sort of poetic and lyrical but uncomplicated. (Although, I liked it better in Afterimage. In this book, at times it sounds a bit pretentious like she is trying too hard to sound deep and flowery but that's just a few places in the beginning.) She has a way with words that evoke an incredible imagery when you read it. I get caught up in her expression of the language that I don't even care if the plot seemed a bit contrived at certain places. This book is a quick read...it's rather short. Like a previous reviewer mentioned, Gwen beings to piece together the story the garden has to tell, which is also her own story...of Love, Longing and Loss. She runs a few metaphors and threads describing past events throughout the book, alongside the main setting, and by the time the book ends, the connection is thrown in and you realize their purpose. They throw a little insight into the main character's thought process and complete the theme - it is much better done subtly this way. Like with the Virginia Woolf thread in this book. It goes with the overall theme of lost chances. The thread with Gwen's mother is also about Loss, though a bit over-dramatic. The thread with the white roses and Raley are tied symbolically by Love. The threads with David's longing for his wife and the Genus and Jane's topiary Angel...the symbolism of longing. If somebody recommended a book to me about gardens, I would have found it drab and boring. And I especially don't read many stories with a war backdrop. I'm not wired to relate to or pick up a book like that. But I'm so glad I read this one. Another reviewer has said, "Anyone who enjoys a creative expression will like the book." I will add that, anyone who normally doesn't care for it should definitely read it. You will start smelling the roses.
Rating:
Summary: Longing and Love
Review: I rarely cry when I read anymore. But I cried almost through the whole last chapter. This is a beautiful book of love lost, memory captured and the beauty of gardens. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Courageous and poetic story of Longing, Loss and Faith.
Review: It is the summer of 1941. WWII makes London a more dangerous place to live every day as bombs destroy sections of the city. The main character is Gwen, a lonely 35-year-old woman living in London and working in a laboratory. Her occupation as horticulturist provides her the opportunity to volunteer to lead a Land Woman's Group - several young girls who will plant gardens for the good of the war effort on a beautiful estate somewhere in the English countryside. A group of young Canadian men live nearby on the estate as they await orders to be sent into combat. Gwen discovers a secret garden that was created in honor of longing, loss and faith. She becomes friends with Jane who is waiting for news of her soldier fiancé reported missing. And she has an attraction to Raley, the CO of the Canadian men.
The language is poetic and often quite lovely. The story is pretty good, but not great. There are a few flaws in the novel. The voices of Gwen, Jane and Raley are too similar. I thought the novel started off a bit pretentious, but as it continued, I found myself admiring the turn of a phrase or a clever metaphor. The author seems to bear her soul in this novel and I found it refreshing and courageous. This book was short, but so full of sadness. This book will linger in my memory.
Rating:
Summary: Discovering love
Review: It's 1941 and London is burning. Gwen Davis (35 and a horticulturist formerly seeking a cure for parsnip canker) must now flee the city she loves, so she's volunteered to lead a team of girls from the Women's Land Army in growing vegetables for the war effort at an old country estate. The estate is beautiful, but it soon becomes apparent the girls have better things to do than plant potatoes -- they have a company of Canadian soldiers billeted in the old estate house right in their backyard. The soldiers are commanded by the bitter, secretly terrified Captain Raley, who immediately snares Gwen's long lost fancy. While the girls dance with the soldiers, she tracks Raley down, seeking to cement a relationship destined to haunt her. Neither can she forget the novelist Virginia Woolf, who's tragic death has left her with fantasized fan letters she can never send. But it's her discovery of a secret love garden hidden behind the orchard, long overgrown and lost to whomever planted it, that truly leads Gwen to explore her dormant longings. While her best friend, Jane, is fiercely trying to keep her missing fiance alive by remembering him and while the land army girls are depicting their former lives in chalk on blackout curtains, Gwen is tracing the meanings of the flowers in her lost garden in search of what she knows of love. THE LOST GARDEN is truly a beautiful book -- straightforward and yet told with such sensitivity and understanding it's impossible not to get caught up in it. Gwen's idea of a drunken orgy is to get "very sincere" and start rhapsodizing on plants, and her incredibly straight view of love and life makes the poignancy all the stronger. Captain Raley's repressed fear, knowing he is just waiting to be sent out to die, had me crying by the end of the book. In fact, I cried all the way through the last chapter. Though Gwen never gets to know the land girls well (she secretly names them after potatoes), Jane and Raley and Gwen herself are excellently developed. I'm the sort of reader who thrives on constant action, yet this touching little book had me from the first word and never let go. A brilliant portrayal of love in a time of war, THE LOST GARDEN is a literary arrangement I could not recommend more highly.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Beautiful Story
Review: Miss Humphreys understands the human need of loving and to be love. The Lost Garden will surely touch the heart of anyone who reads it.
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