A Garden Grows

Debut author Higgins kicks off the Hills of Harvest series with a heartfelt tale of found family. After meeting in Britain during WWII, Posey and Elliot Bailey, a former U.S. soldier, settled in Seattle, where he promised to build her a six-acre English garden to remind her of the home she left behind. Fifty years later, the garden was never built (life and raising their now-grown kids got in the way), Elliot has been dead for two years, and Posey is still grieving. When she discovers that Elliot left in the care of their lawyer a letter she can’t read until the garden is complete, she begins the project over her eldest son’s objections. She hires sweet and enthusiastic, if inexperienced, landscapers Peter and Lindsey, and Jesse, Peter’s uncle, as an excavator. As the group bond over their work, Posey offers wisdom to help the others navigate their challenges—Jesse’s rocky marriage, Peter’s uncertainty over his career, and Lindsey’s anxieties over finding care for her paralyzed younger brother—and assures them that “God has a perfect plan” even as she struggles to believe it herself. While the use of gardening as a metaphor for renewal can be heavy-handed, the story is buoyed by its charming cast and leaves enough loose ends to make readers eager for the next installment. Anyone seeking a bit of gentle escapism will find it here. (Apr.)