The French Gardener

April 27, 2009
Montefiore's well-crafted, evocative novel is instantly sensual and welcoming. When Miranda Claybourne's seven-year-old is expelled from school, the stylish Londoner, magazine writer and mother of two, ditches her posh Notting Hill digs for the idylls of a country estate. But her simple-life fantasies soon fail. Her husband's preoccupied with his job and his mistress; the kids lash out at each other while Gus, the elder, terrorizes both farm animals and his new classmates. Enter Jean-Paul, a handsome, mysterious Frenchman with an offer to tend her woefully neglected gardens. Cleaning out the estate's rundown cottage for Jean-Paul, she discovers the secret journals of the previous lady of the house—a brilliant gardener, Ava Lightly, and her love affair. As if by magic, Miranda's garden begins to thrive and she owes it all to Jean-Paul, with whom she thinks she's falling in love. The drama of the journals distract from her own failing marriage, and Miranda delights in the idea that her life is running parallel to Ava's—it's a lovely coincidence, until she stops to consider exactly what may have drawn Jean-Paul into her garden.

June 1, 2009
Miranda and David Claybourne purchase a house in the English countryside after their son is kicked out of his London school, hoping that a new environment will solve his aggression problem. David rather fancies being lord of the manor, commuting from the City on weekends, while freelance writer Miranda turns her struggle to adapt to country life into a witty column that hides how much she misses her old life. Both parents are too self-absorbed to notice that their son and daughter are terribly lonely. It takes a mysterious Frenchman, hired to work in their neglected garden, to see just how unhappy this family is and to work to change that. VERDICT With its realistic characters and vividly described world, which readers will be reluctant to leave, Montefiore's ("Last Voyage of the Valentina") charming, moving novel will appeal to fans of "Like Water for Chocolate". A perfect book for a lazy summer day.Elizabeth Mellett, Brookline P.L., MA

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2009
A rambling country estate may have lured Miranda and David and their children from their elegant London lifestyle, but not even the enchantment of once magnificent gardens, or fascination with an abandoned cottage can mend the emotional and physical chasm that is deepening between them. Left alone while David returns to London during the week, Miranda is overwhelmed by establishing a new home, disciplining an unruly child, and maintaining her own career. Her prayers are seemingly answered when a charismatic Frenchman suddenly appears with an offer to restore the gardens to their former glory. As the friendship between Miranda and Jean-Paul grows, so do her suspicions about Davids fidelity, leading Miranda to seek refuge in an abandoned diary that details a passionate tryst between the estates former owner, Ava, and her intriguingly unnamed gardener. Despite the obvious D. H. Lawrence overtones, Montefiore crafts a sweetly provocative romance that transitions seamlessly from Mirandas contemporary marital discord to Avas past affair.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)