Winter Bloom by Tara Heavey

Winter Bloom by Tara Heavey

The blurb:
In the heart of bustling modern Dublin is a littered, overgrown garden of tangled weeds and a stagnant, hidden pond.  Belonging to an iron-willed elderly lady named Mrs. Prendergast, who is rumored to have murdered and buried her husband there, the garden draws Eva Madigan, a young mother struggling to move on from the pain of her past.  Eva is joined by Emily, a beautiful but withdrawn college dropout; Uri, an old world immigrant; Seth, his all-too-handsome son; and occasionally even Mrs. Prendergast herself.  But what drives Eva to transform the neglected urban wilderness?  What makes the others want to help her?  Even as Mrs. Prendergast puts the land up for sale, the thorny lives of all the gardeners are revealed and slowly start to untangle.  Overgrown secrets are dug up and shared.  Choices are made; a little pruning is in order.  Now Eva is about to discover that every garden is a story of growth toward a final harvest. . .

Review:
Tara Heavey's Winter Bloom is a book to share with friends.  Like Darien Gee's Friendship Bread, Tara Heavey's book brings strangers together and turns them into friends.  As Eva, Emily, Uri, Seth and even Mrs. Prendergast tend to the garden, they grow into real friends.

I enjoyed reading about how they connected and gradually shared their own secrets. Each character has his or her own tragedy of sorts and Tara Heavey makes it all come together so well.    The book is just the sort to read on a cold afternoon or a sunny day in the park.  Heartwarming and a fun escape!

ISBN-10: 9781439177938 - Paperback $15.00
Publisher: Gallery; Original edition (October 12, 2010), 384 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher.

About the Author:
Tara Heavy was born in London, where she lived until moving to Dublin at the age of eleven.  A former lawyer, she is currently a full-time author who lives in County Kilkenny with her family.