I first found The Rose Garden on Overdrive, our e-book app. It begins with our heroine Eva, returning, after the death of her sister, to the place she feels most at home. She travels to an Trelowarth House on the Cornish coast in the extreme southwest of England where she spent her childhood summers. Early in her visit, she begins to experience strange visions. Although at first she chalks them up to grief and fatigue, the visions continue to become more and more real to her and she gradually comes to realize that they are, in fact, actually happening. She is slipping through time to an era almost 300 years before her own.
The early 1700's are a dangerous time. England is dealing with the Jacobite uprising and Eva meets Daniel Butler, a man working as a free-trader, or smuggler. He lives in Trelowarth House and uses a cave in the coastline as his headquarters. I won't give too much away, except to say that eventually Eva must decide whether to remain in her own time or live permanently in the 1700s with Daniel.
The Rose Garden is difficult to review because of how complex it is. The characters from the Jacobite era are based on real historical figures. The writing is smooth and transitions seamlessly between time-periods. The earlier time flows smoothly in part because of the descriptions of clothing and food and food preparation. And in spite of a premise that seems unbelievable, I fell into the story without hesitation. There were no moments that caused me to "come out" of the story and question how something was possible.
In short, I devoured this book and immediately looked for more by Ms. Kearsley. Eventually the library purchased all of her books. I immediately recommended them to Christian who became hooked, and together we've been recommending them to all our patrons! You can find most of them on the Overdrive app as well.
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