Review: A Casterglass Garden (Keeping Up with the Penryns #2) by Kate Hewitt

Meet the Penryns…

The Penryn family have always been eccentric—living in a dilapidated castle in the wilds of Cumbria with an orchid-mad father and a classicist mother who likes to re-enact Greek myths, who wouldn’t be? Penniless and proud, Walter Penryn refuses to give up his birthright—until taxes, bills, and the need for a new roof force him to reconsider.

Now the family is restoring the castle, and Olivia Penryn is in charge of reviving the once-profitable garden. Nursing a broken heart and a guilty conscience, Olivia longs to lose herself in roses and lavender, but she’s filled with doubt. She’s never handled a project this massive. When Olivia hires the gorgeous Will Turner to help with landscaping, her bruised heart begins to heal—and hope.

A widower and father of two, Will has plenty of his own problems. Is he strong enough to take on Olivia’s? As his children become attached to this loving, ethereal beauty, he wonders if their wounded hearts can blossom like the flowers surrounding them—or will hidden secrets and old mistakes cost them a second chance at happiness?

 

My Review:

A beautiful tale about learning to love again.

Reading a Kate Hewitt book is like hanging out with old friends.  The Penryns are the kind of fun, quirky people I would want to know.  They have issues, like anyone else, and they learn how to move past them.  Sometimes, it’s a bumpy road, but they always land where they should.  

In this book, Olivia Penryn returns home to Casterglass Castle in Cumbria, to help restore the castle to its former glory, so it can become a public attraction.  She left York after a relationship ended badly and doesn’t want anyone to know the details.  Dating is the last thing Olivia wants.  When Olivia meets Will Turner, a widow raising two little children on his own, she can’t help but be drawn to him.  Will is not looking for a relationship either.  He is still mourning his wife.  As Olivia and Will work together on the Castle gardens, they become good friends.  As fate would have it, they start to fall in love, but are afraid to move forward. 

This book is part of a series and each book can be read on its own.  But I would recommend reading from the start so you get to know the family better.  The are many memorable scenes in this book, but my favorite is when Will and his son have a conversation about Olivia and it convinced Will to finally make his move on Olivia.