The Rose Garden

August 1, 2011
Kearsley (The Winter Sea) beautifully evokes the wild landscapes and history of Cornwall in this pleasant time-travel romance. In the present day, Eva Ward travels to the Cornish coast carrying her sister's ashes, determined to lay her to rest at Treloworth, the estate they summered at as children with the Hallet family. As she reconnects with the Hallets, Eva tries to figure out how to start her life over. Then Eva is transported back to 1715, a time when smuggling was common and hidden Jacobites swarmed the coast. At first she fears she might be hallucinating, but soon she meets and falls in love with widower Daniel Butler, who accepts Eva's time traveling at face value. Kearsley masterfully writes authentic voices for Eva and Daniel as they wrestle with their improbable connection and its implications.

October 1, 2011
More than the heirloom roses defy time in this romance set on the magical Cornish coast. Eva Ward returns to Trelowarth a broken woman. Bearing the ashes of her beloved sister, she has come back to the centuries-old house where they spent their summers to find her childhood friends, the house's current owners, struggling. In return for room, board and solace, she sets out to help them. Mark, who loved Eva's sister, wants to keep the old house a farm, where he grows rare roses. But Susan, his sister, suspects that the beautiful setting, along with the area's romantic history, would lure tourists to a tea house on the grounds. Eva, a PR expert back in Los Angeles, sets out to help Susan and, researching rumors that the estate was part smuggler's den and part anti-Hanoverian hotbed, seemingly starts dreaming herself back to 1715. Except that upon awakening, she finds herself still wearing the dressing gown the handsome Daniel Butler gave her when she showed up in his bedroom 300 years earlier. As repeated time trips deepen their romance, Eva finds herself swinging back and forth through the centuries, playing a crucial role in the lives of Trelowarth's owners in each era, before deciding where her own heart--and her fate--lie. Kearsley (Mariana, 1995, etc.) has made time travel feasible before, and here she matches it with appropriately flowery but light-handed descriptions of the rugged coast and neat summaries of 18th-century politics. It takes some temporal gymnastics to engineer happy endings for everyone--from the mysterious widow Claire to Eva's present-day suitor Oliver--but these are accomplished with some well-placed "local legends" that presage Eva's own future. Although the neat conclusion stretches credibility a bit, this colorful romance peoples both the past and present with characters worth swooning over. A sympathetic woman becomes the heroine of her own fate, both past and present, in this winning romance.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

September 15, 2011
Eva Ward's beloved sister was a famous actress, and her widowed husband asks Eva to spread her ashes where her sister was happiest. Eva decides to return to Trelowarth, in Polgelly, Cornwall, where she and her sister spent their summers. Her arrival is bittersweet. She is welcomed with open arms, and the old manor house and gardens are just as she remembers them. She returns to her old room and, while trying to sleep, hears voices next door. She thinks they must belong to workmen but finds out that no one is next door. While walking through the gardens, she sees a man dressed in costume. Or is he? Strange occurrences keep happening until Eva finds herself ricocheting between time periods and falling in love in 1715, during the tumultuous reign of King George I. Kearsley makes the impossible seem real as she weaves a tale full of genuine characters and a strong sense of place and makes history come alive.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)