A Bittersweet Garden

A Bittersweet Garden
Caren J. Werlinger, 2019

Premise: Spending the summer connecting with her roots in Ireland is already an adventure for librarian Nora before falling in love... and discovering her rental cottage is haunted.

I've been on a bit of a romance kick. Relatively fluffy and light happy-ever-afters are just what my brain needs right now. This one combines just enough paranormal and historical touches with a lovely sweet story of a young woman who comes seeking to know more about her family history and ends up falling in love with both the place and one particular Irish girl.

Said paranormal element involves an unsolved mystery from the past and a ghost with unfinished business. It isn't the distant past, just a few generations back. There are a few chapters about those characters that give a fuller picture of what life was like during the potato famine.

This is a very women-centric book, which shouldn't be surprising. Nora and her sweetheart Briana are the main characters, but there's also a wise woman with supernatural abilities as well as many supporting female friends and relations.

I really enjoyed both the modern romance and the family drama that played into the ghost story. I thought the elements blended well, and the book was an easy read.

3 Stars - A Good Book

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