A Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Amazon Charts bestseller.
From the bestselling author of The Tuscan Child comes a beautiful and heart-rending novel of a woman’s love and sacrifice during the First World War.
As the Great War continues to take its toll, headstrong twenty-one-year-old Emily Bryce is determined to contribute to the war effort. She is convinced by a cheeky and handsome … effort. She is convinced by a cheeky and handsome Australian pilot that she can do more, and it is not long before she falls in love with him and accepts his proposal of marriage.
When he is sent back to the front, Emily volunteers as a “land girl,” tending to the neglected grounds of a large Devonshire estate. It’s here that Emily discovers the long-forgotten journals of a medicine woman who devoted her life to her herbal garden. The journals inspire Emily, and in the wake of devastating news, they are her saving grace. Emily’s lover has not only died a hero but has left her terrified—and with child. Since no one knows that Emily was never married, she adopts the charade of a war widow.
As Emily learns more about the volatile power of healing with herbs, the found journals will bring her to the brink of disaster, but may open a path to her destiny.
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I found it pedantic, predictable and wordy when not necessary.
This is a decent, reasonably well-written book, though thoroughly predictable.
This book gives background information about the life of the land girls that labored the farms during WWI. Through their strenuous efforts, they provided much needed food for Great Britain. The characters were well portrayed. I truly enjoyed the book and I plan to read more from this writer!!!
Just a wonderful view of life for many English citizens in the country during WWII
Great book and would recommend it.
I enjoyed reading this book and seeing the main character come into to her own.
Enjoyable light reading.
This was a really engaging, very emotional, and overall sweet historical fiction novel. I loved the main character, Emily, as she made her way from a sheltered upper class girl to an independent woman in a difficult situation, all in the last months of WWI, when all of England was drained from the war that had stolen so many of their young men’s lives. I loved all the little historical details about the time period, the friendships developed between Emily and the other women in the Women’s Land Army, and the bit about the journal Emily found of a “witch’s” herbal remedies. Definitely would recommend to readers who enjoy lighter WWI or WWII fiction.
Except for the various almost anti Christian views of the characters, I completely loved this book. It is so different from what I normally read (Historical Sweet Romance and Historical Christian Romance). It’s set in England during WWI. All the scenes are in England and are mostly the stories of the women left at home. It definitely had a romance for the first half of the book and then the second half was really the best part for me. It was about a few different women over various years, who grew herbs and made different remedies with them! I’m very interested in home remedies from herbs. It ended with a feel that there could be another book to continue the tale, without having a cliff hanger.
The narrator was spot on! Not that I’m personally familiar with British, Australian or Irish accents, mind you. But each character was distinct and easily identifiable. There’s a wide range of various walks of life from being a house maid all the way the a Lady and her grandson the Viscount.
Sensitive Trigger warning. The main character becomes an unwed mother but that scene is not described.
I love Rhys Bowen’s books, and this one didn’t disappoint. At the beginning, however, I did wonder if it would be as good as her others, but then a complete turnaround happened for me in the middle. What an intriguing story.
WWI England – The Women Left Behind
4.5 stars
No memorable harsh language, if any
Sex – happens, but in no detail
No Violence – references to it and its consequences – after all, it’s wartime.
Plot no spoilers:
While many English women volunteered as nurses, others became what was called Land Girls. Since virtually all able-bodied men were at war, someone had to work the farms, and there were those young women who volunteered to do so. Most of these were of the working classes. Our main character, Emily, however, is the daughter of a judge. Because of the strain in her family due to the loss of her brother and because they don’t approve of the young man she has fallen in love with, Emily decides to go against her family’s wishes and joins.
The work is hard and complications arise. When winter comes she and several others take work for an upper class elderly woman in a very small village. Their job is getting the gardens back in order. The young women occupy a cottage on her land. Eventually the other girls get work elsewhere, but Emily stays on to work with the lady of the manor cataloging her possessions as well as gardening.
In the cottage where Emily is living she finds old journals that tell about herbal medicines. She studies these and puts her knowledge to work.
There are many more complications than I have shared here, making the story much more involving and real for the reader.
I didn’t really know about the Land Girls, and found that piece of quite interesting.
Good story. Realistic. Recommended.
I took off 1/2 star because on some level I just didn’t find it quite as good as other books by this author. Don’t let that stop you. You might disagree entirely.
The Victory Garden by Rhys Bowen was the first stand-alone I’d read. I’ve read a few of her books in series, but this one is one of my favorites. This perspective into women’s movement was insightful. How class, work, stigma of unwed mothers came to life. The isolation and loss of family gave food for thought. I did learn of the Women’s Land Army and the Victory Gardens in high school, but never did this come alive like this. Recommended.
I love Rhys Bowen’s “Royal Spyness” mysteries, and I also really enjoyed “In Farleigh Field,” which was a much more serious historical novel set in the WWII era. So I’m now pretty much just following her as an author. “The Victory Garden” is also a serious novel, though it is set in WWI. It’s also either quite episodic, or else about 3/4 of the book is backstory for what turns out to be a very different sort of tale in the last quarter. I still enjoyed it, but it didn’t hook me the way a more cohesive story might have done.
The story follows Emily, who comes from a wealthy British family. Her mother hopes that she will marry well and take her place in society, but she has become intolerably controlling ever since Emily’s brother Freddie died early in the war. Very much against her mother’s wishes, Emily falls in love with an Australian pilot named Robbie, who considers many of the British cultural values silly. Emily has to go to great lengths to see Robbie without her parents’ knowledge. Wanting to do her part to help in the war, she volunteers to be part of the “Land Army”–essentially as a farmer, since all the men are off to war, and somebody has to plant and harvest the crops so the nation doesn’t starve. Her parents heartily disapprove and threaten to disown her if she doesn’t come home. She defies them; she and Robbie become engaged; she falls pregnant, and then finds out that Robbie has been killed.
In this society, unwed mothers are frowned upon. Emily tries to go home, only to discover essentially that her parents would shun her if she told them her secret. So instead she goes back to the home of a titled lady, whose garden she had worked in as a Land Girl, and asks for room and board in exchange for continuing to work her garden and fields. Two of Emily’s good friends from the Land Army come with her, one as a maid in the grand house and the other helping at a nearby pub. Emily finds diaries of previous women who had lived in the cottage on the property centuries before her, and begins to hear of rumors that the cottage is cursed: every woman who had lived there in the past had come to a bad end. She also hears that the women were witches. When she finds the diaries, she realizes that many of the herbs growing around the cottage are medicinal, and they were “wise woman” or herb women to whom villagers would come for healing. Emily begins to experiment with herbs, reading the diaries as she goes. She finds that both of the previous inhabitants were accused of witchcraft because of their trade, and were falsely accused of murder.
You can probably see where this is going, though it doesn’t get there quickly. Emily has her baby, meets Lady Charlton’s estranged (and presumed dead) grandson, and attempts to reconcile the two. The war ends. She saves the village from the Spanish Flu. She is accused of poisoning Lady Charlton, and history looks like it might repeat itself. This precipitates events that lead to her reconciling with her family (sort of). In the last 2-3 pages there is a twist that is unnecessary and a little too convenient, and it also honestly adds nothing to the story other than to add a nice pretty bow on top of the apparently parallel stories.
“The Victory Garden” is a nice, calm read with a happy ending… good for unwinding at the end of the day, if you don’t want a thriller that might keep you turning pages to find out what happens next.
This is the third book by Rhys Bowen that I have read in the past year. She continues to masterfully create and develop her characters and their interaction with one another. She is a master at developing her plot in a way that makes for absorbing, and wonderfully compelling reading. Two definite thumbs up.
In Victory Garden shows the strong independence of Emily Bryce and how she was determined to make a life for herself during the war. She didn’t want a life of privilege from her parents and she fell in love with an Australian. Although he lost his life he gave her a wonderful present a baby girl.
I would recommend this to anyone.
Wonderful read from an author who delivers every time.
Listened to Rhys Bowen’s latest ‘historical stand alone’ on audio book and it was a real pleasure. Like getting in a sailing boat and gently drifting along. The narrative flows irresistibly, carrying you with it. There are highs and lows in the plot of course, but in general I felt like I was being carried along in a dream I didn’t want to end. Details about life as a land girl in World War I very interesting, and the insight into how a young woman in her 20s felt realising that “all the young men of her generation have been killed” also comes through very strongly. Loved it. Hear Rhys speak about her work at https://thejoysofbingereading.com/rhys-bowen/
This book was absolutely amazing; I didn’t want it to end.
I have never read any of Rhys Bowen’s books before, but I will definitely be reading more.
It was so well written; I was hooked from the very first page to the last.
2.5 stars
As a fan of Rhys Bowen’s various mystery series and IN FARLIEGH FIELD, I was excited to read THE VICTORY GARDEN. It focuses on the last year of WWI in England and the sacrifices and loss that war often requires. Unfortunately, I found it to be overly dramatic, leaning too much into romance novel country, rushed at times, and relatively light on history.
The story follows 21 year old Emily as she struggles to find purpose in a world where it seems war will never end. Wanting to do her part for the war effort, and much to her parents’ consternation, she joins the Women’s Land Army. She soon finds her dreams of the future with Australian Royal Flyer Ronnie destroyed with him dead and her all on her own and pregnant. Readers follow along as she comes of age forging her own future.
I never really felt a connection with Emily and think that a lot of her adversity was a result of her own choices and actions. That might make me sound cold, but there it is. Everything seemed to fall in line for her a little too easily. There was so much potential for a really meaty, excellent tale here, but it fell flat.
I received an ARC of this title through NetGalley and voluntarily shared my thoughts here.
THE VICTORY GARDEN by Rhys Bowen
Wars, disease, family disputes, plots and curses . . . it’s hard to find victories amidst so much struggle. It’s possible, though, with honest affection, devotion, and determination to help one another. I had told myself not to start reading THE VICTORY GARDEN until I finished the book I’d already started, but then picked it up, and it was all over for that book and almost all other activities as the brilliant writing carried me along on a roller coaster of delight and tears. There’s much to learn as well. I’d heard of the Land Girls, of course, but had no idea how hard the work was, and the education involved in the Women’s Land Army to become capable of farm work. The balm of friendship and herbal lore from old journals helps to relieve the staggering grief of so many young men lost, the many war widows carrying on as best they could, the many men invalided for life by the war, and the “war widows” who hadn’t had the chance to marry the men they loved. A bit of hope springs up no matter what, nurtured by good people caring about each other.
This is a most satisfying book, with much to think on, some of which I can’t share because I don’t want to spoil the surprises.
I have often said as does Lady Charlton, “It’s young people like you who give me hope.”
I flinched a bit at the reminder that it was to be “The war to end all wars” . . . maybe someday we’ll get it right.
I definitely recommend reading this book (but maybe clear your calendar before you start).