I have just finished reading this novel, which drew me in instantly.
Claire has separated amicably from her husband of many years, with her children grown-up and flown the nest, and has just escaped to a rented cottage in rural Suffolk, where she needs to apply herself to her career as an illustrator.

She feels ashamed of the failure of her marriage, and does not really know how to carry on, but strikes up a surprising friendship with a gutsy elderly neighbour who connects with her better than her own friends, and encourages her to explore a career as a more individual artist.

The main connection in this new friendship is the completely overgrown garden which needs taming, but Claire has no experience of gardening- and the elderly neighbour Tansy is more than happy to not only instruct her but also explain the significance and uses of all the plants in the garden. The evolution of the flourishing garden is an analogy for Claire‘s own self-discovery in this new phase of her life.

There are two sides to this story, one being a very exploratory tentative new existence as a single 50 something year-old woman, gently exploring the ability to live alone again, however it is also filled with flashbacks to earlier stages in her life and a succession of past loves, prior to marriage and motherhood. Her early adult life as an art student is related along with a disturbing violent relationship which she felt unable to extricate herself from. This is in huge stark contrast to her current peaceful rural existence and therefore even more shocking. There is a lot of sexual content in the flashbacks, in contrast to her current post-sexual stage.
This is a hopeful book which will particularly appeal to women in the post/menopausal time of life, and also to artists and gardeners.

ive been loving seeking out books now with an older generation. and i dont even mean older. just not you snippy things that did seem to be all i could find once upon a time. and ive heard many like me feeling the same. and of course this books does feature and actual older person. and when done well in books they can be the delight you wish for. and this older lady is done just right.
this book gives us a peaceful but loving story of a woman who is coming to us to tell us her story now she is at the later stages. she has done the shifts in life, she has hit milestones society reckons we should. but now her marriage has ended and her children have left home. shes also not feeling what she once did even about her job. where has the joy gone from her life? it seems to have seeped away somewhere.
she isnt sure of what next. she isnt sure of herself. she she moves ,to try and find just that. or just find something.
but things dont come with a predicted course at all when he solace and searching is interrupted u her neighbour. shes had a fall and might just be needing some help right now. but looks to me like they could be doing way more for each other than either imagined and thats only luck for us readers. for we get to read what comes next from the both of them. and what does come next brought my little heart warmth.
there might not be a later stage. just the stage we are in which with courage can be as new as we want it to be. be brave. find out. read this book anyway because that will bring you your next moments of joy to start with.
p.s can i move in and be their other neighbour. just be adopted to sit in the garden there?

Wild Moon Rising by Jenny Knight

DNF for me - beautiful writing and I could see that the friendship between Claire and Tansy was going to be lovely, but I wasn't enjoying the flashbacks to Claire's life before she moved to the cottage at all so I moved on to something else.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

I couldn't decide at the start if I was going to enjoy this book. It was pretty slow at the beginning whilst we started to get to know Claire and her new life renting a cottage in the country. Little did we know that her elderly neighbour Tansy would become such a friend and also a wealth of knowledge about life and all things gardening. I did like the corollary between the seasons of the moon; the seasons of the year in gardening terms and the seasons of a woman's journey but although I am sure they were important from a character building point of view I did find the flashbacks to Claire's sexual exploits/boyfriends etc in her early years a little tedious.
By the end of the book I had however warmed both to her and her friendship with Tansy hence my 3 star review.

I so enjoyed reading about the relationship between Claire and her neighbour Tansy . Unfortunately, the domestic violence scenes unsettled me so much, so I didn’t finish the book.

Jenny Knight’s Wild Moon Rising is a beautifully moving debut about rediscovery and renewal in the later stages of life. Claire’s world has shifted dramatically — her marriage has ended, her children have left home, and her career as an illustrator no longer sparks joy. Unsure of who she is or what she wants next, she moves into Hunter’s Moon, searching for meaning.

Her solitude is interrupted when her spirited octogenarian neighbour, Tansy, suffers a fall. Through their growing friendship, Claire finds herself drawn into the healing rhythms of nature as she helps restore a wild garden. In doing so, she embarks on a tender journey of self-discovery, confronting past hopes and unfulfilled dreams while embracing new possibilities.

This story delicately explores themes of love, friendship, desire and the courage it takes to begin again. It is a celebration of life’s second chances and the beauty in growing beyond what we once thought possible.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

I really wanted to like this novel about a menopausal woman who moves to the countryside. The idea is a promising one, particularly with the often beautiful descriptions of the surrounding nature and the addition of moons at the start of each chapter.

However, for me, the structure lacks coherence, jumping sharply into the past, particularly to explore previous sexual experiences, and then back to various tribulations of the present without warning or signposting. The most annoying thing for me is the overblown style in places, especially the copious hyphenated adjectives, which give the impression of trying too hard, as can happen in some debut novels.

There are some glimpses of insight and understanding of the menopausal state, but the disorder of the timeline, presumably to evoke this, and the rather stereotypical expression of the experience made this rather a disappointment for me.

I tried and tried. Started this three times and the third time persevered to about half way. But then decided life is just too short ....
I found this very introverted without being a good stream of consciousness. There was far too much sex and swearing for my liking; and the style seemed to be that of a new writer trying too hard.

The 'plot' is that of a middle aged woman, Claire, who is post=menopausal and trying to adjust to a new single life, while being guided by her elderly next door neighbour Tansy. There are also long descriptions of her relationships and sex life prior to her marriage, one with an abusive partner. The storyline jumps around without warning and sometimes it was difficult to remember who was who or who had thought what. It is atmospheric in places, but in a trying-too-hard style. It all became too much!

While others may enjoy this, I personally find it too rambling and in need of a good edit.

with thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for the ARC.

Thank you to Akan Books and Netgalley for access to this ARC.

“Life is nothing if not a garden of possibilities”.

This is a really beautiful book about a woman coming to terms with everything that has happened in her life and grieving for that which hasn’t. The friendship which develops between Claire and Tansy is really lovely and the novel sheds a wonderful light on an aspect of womanhood which we don’t often see reflected in fiction.

The timeline does jump about a bit while Claire is reflecting on her past which can be quite difficult to follow, but that’s the nature of memory — it’s all a non-linear jumble. Some of these sections would have benefited from a tighter edit to aid the flow of the novel. But there is some truly beautiful, insightful writing here (“How her throat had felt for so long, in motherhood, marriage, like it would choke on all the unspoken”) and I’m very glad I read this novel.

Claire is having an identity crisis - she is in the throes of menopause, her children have grown and don’t need her any more, she has moved to the countryside and her work as an illustrator isn’t going well. All leading to lots of introspection, memories of past crises and lots of sex. Who knew that menopause makes you mourn every sexual experience you ever went through? Luckily, there’s a neglected garden and a cranky but
Knowledgeable old lady next door to distract Claire from all the sexual deprivation. Tansy wants to be dead but, failing that, passes on lots of couthy country wisdom and tips about how to resurrect the neglected garden and also, luckily, how to get Claire’s life back on track.
Actually, this is a very readable book ( despite the preoccupation with sex ) and you can’t help but cheer Claire on as she battles her demons and overcomes the obstacles life throws in her way. Go Claire!

Thank you to Akan Books for an ARC. This really is one of these books that will sit with you a long time after reading. Jenny Knight’s Wild Moon Rising debut is so vital and I am sad to say, a story often unheard and needed now more than ever. Protagnist Claire is returning to her working-class roots in Suffolk; now with grown up sons, post-divorce and grappling with her identity and the loss of her creative passion. Finding herself unrooted, outside of London and all she has shaped her life around. - Knight deftly takes the reader on this journey; it's both a lyrical unravelling and remaking of a creative life. What makes this book unique is how it deals with such common ground women face, once all those labels of wife, mother, homemaker are stripped back; what becomes of us in later life? Before she faces the future Claire looks back and there is a beautiful (and erotic) reflection on the phases of her body; her desire; her relationships; her joys, her anger. Joyfully written by Knight with dream-like reflection on the natural world. Her narration is thoughtfully poetic - juxtaposing past and present; the natural and social, while she toils in the garden she looks to nature, the moon, the wilderness of the sea, all creatively told through moon cycles. It is an important alley about sisterhoos as Claire also develops a wonderful friendship with an elderly neighbour Tansy.. I will be pressing a copy of Wild Moon Rising into my female friends hands as required reading. This book gives us courage to understand the unique ways we age, we desire and, just like the moon, we rise over and over again.

Claire has moved back to Suffolk, where she spent her childhood. Her new home is a cottage with a sorely neglected garden which she vows to renovate. Then she rescues her elderly neighbour Tansy, who has fallen over. The two women become firm friends. An enjoyable story.

Claire's' perspective on life is an interesting read with resonance to key stages in a woman's life. For me however the voice got muddied with the jumps between timelines and her interactions with Tansy, and the gardening knowledge she gained were far too brief. I think perhaps some editing to separate the time jumps in the narrative would help with the flow of this otherwise excellent story.

The storyline of this novel, a menopausal woman and an older woman helping to guide her into a new phase of life was a potentially interesting one. While it's possible for any story to be complex and to cover a wide range of areas, I found this book to be overly long, to jump from place to place, and be unnecessarily wordy, to not quite find a direction or focus. As if the author wanted to cram everything she had in her head into one place without editing. The areas of exploration don't flow well into one another, the storyline demands that you follow a rather jumpy, meandering and lengthy path. This comes across as a debut novel where the author hasn't fully found their voice or style. It would have benefited from being edited down to a more compact form. I know I'm speaking only for myself, others may find it more engaging, but sadly this was not for me. I found myself skimming much of it in the hope I would finally become fully connected with it, but that didn't happen. The writing is of good quality however.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book. A gorgeous 4 star read book from me. What an exciting plot, vivid storytelling and relatable, rich characters. I could put this book down – absolutely loved it.

A strange read. Loved the moons at the beginning of each chapter. It did not flow for me. It’s about friendship and finding yourself after your children go. Can’t mark it down. Read it