The Garden of Lost Memories
Sixty-two-year-old Elsie knows what she likes. Custard creams at four o’clock, jigsaw puzzles with a thousand pieces, her ivy-covered, lavender-scented garden.
Ten-year-old Billy would rather spend his Saturdays kicking a ball, or watching TV, or anything really, other than being babysat by his grumpy neighbour Elsie and being force fed custard creams.
If it was up to them, they’d have nothing to do with each other. Unfortunately, you can’t choose who you live next door to.
But there is always more to people than meets the eye…
Elsie doesn’t know that Billy’s afraid to go to school now, or why his mother woke him up in the middle of the night with an urgent shake, bags already packed, ready to flee their home.
Billy doesn’t know that the rusting red tin he finds buried in Elsie’s treasured garden is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode her carefully organised life. And that when he digs it up, he is unearthing a secret that has lain dormant for twenty-eight years…
I liked the idea of this book. An older person befriending a lonely boy who she Is minding while his mother works. They both suffer insecurities and have a common bond over the garden.
Unfortunately it didn't quite do it for me. Too much thinking by Elsie over her actions and then things are resolved far to cleanly for me.
A slushy feel good book, but not really my cup of tea.
Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for my ARC in return for an honest review.