The Wife's Promise + The Daughter's Garden - First Two in the Tales of Goswell Series

 

Goodreads:  The Wife's Promise (Tales from Goswell #1) by Kate Hewitt

Blurb:  Alice looked at the young girl standing alone on the platform, sensing the same vulnerability she’d once felt entering the village she now called home. Then, as the child gripped her hand, the pain and sorrow Alice had held in her heart for so long softened… And in that moment, she vowed she’d always protect her – whatever the cost…
England, 1939: When Alice marries twinkly-eyed, kind-hearted vicar David, it means leaving everything from her old life behind and moving into the draughty vicarage in the beautiful but remote village of Goswell, Cumbria. Though homesick, Alice is determined to make a new life there for herself and her husband.

But soon tragedy strikes, and she is devastated when war breaks out and David chooses to sign up to fight. But everything changes when Alice is asked to take in a child evacuee, and she makes a promise to protect this girl, no matter what it costs her…

Now: When Jane and her family move to the small coastal village of Goswell where her husband grew up, she’s afraid she might have made a huge mistake. Their new home – in what had once been the vicarage – feels a million miles from their previous fast-paced life in New York City, and Jane struggles with her empty days that seem lonely and purposeless.

But then she finds a small note, forgotten behind a shelf in the pantry. A note written in the Second World War. By a woman named Alice, whose incredible story has the power to change everything…

My Thoughts:  This series was originally published under the name Katherine Swartz and is now being republished.  And I'm so glad it is because I'm not sure I would have ever discovered this series and I would have missed so much.  Right from the very start I was pulled in this book and the world of Goswell.  I fell in love with Alice immediately.  She's so young and cares so much and is so desperately trying to figure out where she fits.  Jane is a bit more difficult to warm up to but I fell in love with her world and her family even when she drove me crazy.  These are characters that stayed with me and had me deeply invested in them.  I loved this book from beginning to end and immediately wanted to start the next book in the series.  My Rating: Loved It! (5 Stars)

Goodreads:  The Daughter's Garden (Tales of Goswell #2) by Kate Hewitt

Blurb: England, 1918: As war ends, across the world, people are trying to heal and recover. But Eleanor still feels broken. The loss of her beloved brother, killed just days before the Armistice was signed, feels impossibly unjust. Spending her time in the neglected gardens behind their house, she fears her heart will never recover.
Then her father hires a man to help restore the garden to its former glory. Gruff, handsome Yorkshireman Jack comes from a totally different world to Eleanor, but he understands the nature of her grief more than anyone else seems to. And as they spend time together, even though she knows her family will never accept someone of Jack’s class, Eleanor starts to wonder if – like the butterflies around them – there is any way for her to learn to soar again...

Now: Nearly one hundred years later, Marin is not prepared for finding herself the guardian of her fifteen-year-old half-sister Rebecca, after her father and his second wife are killed in a tragic accident. The sisters are practically strangers, and Rebecca’s grief makes her seem even more distant. Marin too is in need of a fresh start, so when Rebecca begs her to let them move to the picturesque village of Goswell on the Cumbrian coast, Marin impulsively agrees.

But it is only when they find a locked door to a secret garden, and a photograph of a girl with a butterfly alighting on her hand, that the sisters start to realise they have a mystery to solve, one about war, about secrets, and about a love that could never be. A mystery that might just bring them together…

My Thoughts:  I loved the first book was a bit nervous going into this one as the basic framework was so similar.  Both books involve dual timelines with one timeline being wartime and the other being a woman who has recently moved to Goswell.  Instead I found myself back in Goswell and in the lives of two different families and I loved them both.  My heart broke for Eleanor and Katherine who are both trying to find their way after the war ends and changes absolutely everything. As well I loved Marin right from the beginning.  She's doing her best in a tough situation that she has suddenly found herself thrust in the middle of.  I was absolutely thrilled to check in with Jane and her family as they are side characters in a way that flowed naturally. Hewitt makes this world come alive and the characters seem so real that I found myself thinking of them long after the book was over.  I love the little village of Goswell and am so excited to read the next book.  My Rating: Loved It! (5 Stars)