Blog Tour: The Memory Garden by Mary Rickert

The Memory Garden by Mary Rickert is a story filled with two things I love:  ghosts and gardens.  Stir in three old friends who have a secret that's kept them apart for 60 years and you've got a story that keeps evolving.  

Bay is 16; her mother, Nan, is in her 80's.  Bay came into Nan's life one day when she was left on Nan's porch as a baby.  Up until then, Nan had lived alone, tending to her garden and having a reputation as  a witch.  She's got shoes all over her garden, each filled with flowers.  Somehow these flowers survive and thrive living in shoes. 

 Nan also has a few ghosts:  Grace Winters and Eve.  Each make appearances in the garden, and Nan does all she can to ignore them.  But now Bay is seeing ghosts in the garden--and doesn't realize that's what they are.  Nan gets up the nerve to contact her two oldest friends: Ruthie and Mavis, whom she hasn't talked to in more than 60 years.  It's time they all gathered together to face what happened all those years ago, and to protect Bay from potential bad mojo in the garden.  But can these women find it too impossible to speak about Eve, and what they know about her death?  

I enjoyed this novel.  It took a bit to get into it, but the lure of the garden and ghosts kept me going.  Add into that flower lore that graces every chapter, and once again it's hard to put down.  The secret that is revealed really did surprise me, and was quite powerful.  Guilt can haunt you and keep you from enjoying life.  Nan, Ruthie, and Mavis find out the hard way.  Full of regrets and sadness, they lost their friendship  and never found their way back.  This is their last chance to make things right for themselves and for Eve.  

This book is part of a blog tour, and I'm on this tour with the following blogs:

Blog Name	Blog Link
Linus' Blanket	http://www.linussblanket.com/
Royal Reviews	http://theroyalreviews.blogspot.com
Book Bag Lady	http://bookbaglady2.blogspot.com/
Lesa's Book Critiques	http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com/
The Bibliotaphe Closet	http://zaraalexis.wordpress.com/
Bookalicious Babe	http://bookaliciousbabe.blogspot.com/
Mirabile Dictu	http://mirabiledictu.org/
Story Matters	http://katherinescottjones.com

The Memory Garden will be released in May by Sourcebooks and is available in paperback and e-book.

Rating:  7/10 for flowers, ghosts, and a secret that's a surprise.  

Here's my flower:

Lavender is my favorite!  Hope this novel will reawaken a love of flowers and all their magical properties in you, and inspire you to plant something beautiful in your yard.

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Blog Tour: The Memory Garden by Mary Rickert