Review: The Victory Garden by Rhys Bowen

The Victory Garden

by Rhys Bowen

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Pages: 305

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  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 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.

Kritters Thoughts:  I love a solid historical fiction and this one is. Set during World War I, Emily Bryce is turning 21 and is ready to be a part of the efforts of the war despite what her parents want her to do - find a suitable boy and marry him!  She goes against her parents wishes and enlists to be a land girl where she helps out on farms where the men have gone off to war.  

I love it when I read a historical fiction book set in a time and a place that I have read about before but takes a unique viewpoint and makes me think about the time and place in a whole new way.  I didn't know anything about the land girl program before this book and didn't even think about how the farmers survived while their sons and even the husbands went far to fight the war.  I know I have said it before but I love it when I learn something when reading a historical fiction but it isn't obvious until I am done reading the story!

Before reading this book I was a Rhys Bowen fan and I will continue to be after reading this one.  There are a few times when I wouldn't mind a sequel to see where these characters are a few years after I close their story and this was one of them!  I wouldn't mind checking back in on Emily Bryce a few years from now and see where she is and what is going on with her a few years after this story concluded.  


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from LIttle Bird Publicity.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.