The Memory Garden by Rachel Hore

The lives of two women, Melanie Pentrath and Pearl Treglown , born in different centuries and the interweaving of their stories as they face similar challenges.

Melanie retreats to Cornwall on a sabbatical to write a book about painters from the region. She hopes that being there will help heal a broken heart.

A garden that holds clues to the past helps Mel and her landlord Patrick learn the secrets of Merryn Hall and the story of Pearl.

This is a light romantic read and although the story is similar in many ways to the style of Kate Morton’s novels it is in my opinion not written in the same literary vein and therefore I do not think destined to become a literary classic.

Nevertheless it is well worth reading if you do not expect more than just an enjoyable read. Rachel Hore’s atmospheric descriptions of Cornwall and the garden at Merryn Hall are excellent and actually much stronger than the plot itself which might be considered rather weak if you were expecting a literary read.

However, I enjoyed this enough to say that I will definitely look out for more novels by this author.