Abbi Waxman - The Garden of Small Beginnings

Lilian Girvan has been a single mother for three years ever since her husband died in a car accident.
One mental breakdown and some random suicidal thoughts later, she's just starting to get the hang of this widow thing. She can now get her two girls to school, show up to work, and watch TV like a pro. The only problem is she s becoming overwhelmed with being underwhelmed.
At least her textbook illustrating job has some perks like actually being called upon to draw whale genitalia. Oh, and there s that vegetable-gardening class her boss signed her up for. Apparently being the chosen illustrator for a series of boutique vegetable guides means getting your hands dirty, literally. Wallowing around in compost on a Saturday morning can t be much worse than wallowing around in pajamas and self-pity.
After recruiting her kids and insanely supportive sister to join her, Lilian shows up at the Los Angeles Botanical Garden feeling out of her element. But what she ll soon discover with the help of a patient instructor and a quirky group of gardeners.

Comment: Back in March I've read another book by this author which didn't wow me as much as the first one I had read by the author had. With this third attempt, I was more in sync with the expectations of a woman's fiction story and it ended up being sweet although predictable.

Lillian is an illustrator who works for a small but consistent firm and she likes what she does, even though her personal life took a dive after her husband was killed in a car accident. She has to raise her daughters and she has many other worries but things once again offer her a change when a work project demands her to attend a gardening class. For a few weeks, she and a small group of other participants, including her daughters and her sister, will learn how to plant a vegetable garden and the reward will be to have a meal out of the produce that would result. At first it seemed it would all be quite boring and uninteresting but there is more to gardening than anyone in the group imagined... and perhaps even a possible romance for Lillian...

I would say this was good woman's fiction story. Lillian is a likable heroine and the writing style somehow felt on point in this story, making several passages more than pleasant to read. I might not see it as positively as I did the first book by the author I've tried but it was definitely more engaging to me than the one I've tried in March. By now I can say this author doesn't dazzle me, but her work is competent and I like it quite well in general.

The plot is quite simple. Lillian is an illustrator, has two daughters, a sister who is very different from her but with whom she has a great relationship and a mother who isn't always as supportive as she would like. Her work is fulfilling and the gardening challenge one she embarks on with ease, especially since she can take her children too. I was quite interested in seeing the scenes and dynamics of the gardening group because each chapter begins with instructions on how to plant this or that, being most suggestions things the group plants on their garden.

I'm not a fan of plants, well planting them, but those sections were interesting and I assumed we would have more garden scenes as well as certainly gardening metaphors for Lillian's life. In fact, this wasn't as visible as that and the focus wasn't as much on the elements I assumed we would see. Since the group only meets on Saturdays and the class will last for only a few weeks, the actual gardening part isn't as highlighted as I would have liked, but I think the proportion between this and the rest probably will appeal to most readers who don't like gardening at all.

Everything is hared by Lillian's POV. I liked her and I empathized with her, which made the reading experience a positive one. A huge part of this story is about her journey in the time it takes for the plot to take place and in this time she needs to face several situations, and some aren't easy to deal with. I think Lillian is very calm and she reacts to more negative situations in a very moderated and mature manner... I think this makes her quite gracious but perhaps a bit too perfect.

Lillian is also in mourning, although her husband has been dead for three years now. I could sympathize with her state of mind and her way of thinking of what goes n around her, but this book also includes a suggestion of romance. It's really just a suggestion... part of me wishes this had been heavier in the romance department because it would be an easy job to go in that direction and make this a stronger book overall, to me. The way things happen, it can be enough but the potential is a little bit wasted too...

As expected, before the end where everything is solved and the characters go on to their more or less happy lives, there are some conflicts and difficulties to overcome. Somethings felt exaggerated or, perhaps, dealt with in a boring way. If a few details were not to be included, I've felt, nothing major would have been lost. This ended up being a good read and one I'd re-read years in the future, if I were to feel like re-reading. At the moment, too many books waiting for me to re-read full stories.

Grade: 7/10