FREE: The French Gardener by Santa Montefiore (Paperback)

The listing, The French Gardener by Santa Montefiore (Paperback) has ended.

Large Book in very good condition, approx. 6 X4 with 402 pages, value on back of book $15. Smoke free

Miranda is unhappy with her move to the country, even if the new house is a mansion immersed in what was once a glorious garden. Her young children, her son especially, are troubled, and her husband's work takes him away for weeks at a time. Miranda feels like a cast away.

Then a mysterious Frenchman, Jean Paul, appears and offers to return the garden to its former magic. He looks more like an aristocrat than a worker, but she hires him. As she prepares the cottage for his stay, she comes across a journal, kept by the former owner Ava. The journal tells about a forbidden love, and Miranda wonders who it could have been.

The author keeps no secrets from the reader. We know both Miranda's story and Ava's. We learn why Jean Paul has come to work for Miranda. Two love affairs thread their way through the story, and we want the best for the protagonists. Which affair ends in tragedy? Which ends in joy?

The author tends to leap from one point of view to the next, so sometimes we don't always know who's talking. Nevertheless the story is lovely and gratifying.