The Garden by the Sea is a lovely story about finding one’s truest self. Lowena inherits a box from her mom…a box that supposedly has magic powers. What it contains are dirt and seeds that she plants in the garden at her new home. As Lowena settles in the new community the seeds that begin to grow aren’t always the ones in the ground. Author Amanda James has created characters that mirror a lot of current societal challenges. Belief systems and prejudices are explored as each character delves deep inside exploring their own consciousness. There are powerful messages within the pages of this book. I voluntarily reviewed an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. Highly recommend.

Another lovely little read from Amanda James!

This is a very heartwarming story about a small-town community coming together. I enjoyed the varied characters and personalities, and it was nice to see each character having some growth within the book.

It's a cute read that does cover some important topics and I loved the writing style.

Many thanks to the publishers/author/NetGalley for an advanced copy of this

'" So you think I'm in cahoots with old Fagin Ben and the boys are robbers? Zelah's a willing accomplice and supplies us with weed? And the reason you think this is because I'm a woman in my forties, who has no husband to provide for her and a house by the sea, therefore my income is obviously ill-gotten."'

The Garden by the Sea is a book about a small community of unique characters coming together when a new woman, Lowena, moves in, buys a small cottage and starts a community library. The characters, and there are quite a few of them, are all quite vivid (my favorites being moody and quite rude Janet and lovable old Merwyn) and you could easily imagine each of them in a small town community. While in principle Lowena is the central character, each character has their own bit of growth to go through in the book.

And this is immediately my problem with the book, it tries to do too much. As a result, I felt like as a reader, I was kept at a distance rather than being pulled in to experience all the emotions and feelings. There's plotlines about =loss, racism, teenage pregnancy, the issues surrounding winning a big pile of money, suppressed homosexuality etc. etc. etc. It simply felt like a bit much.

That's not to say that this is not a heart-warming story of finding one's tribe and of a community coming together over gardening (a lot of amazing garden descriptions). If you are looking for an inspiring group of misfits finding there way together, this may well be your book!