Review: The Garden of Lost Secrets

While Kelly Bowen has written a number of historical romances, I hadn’t heard of her until her novel The Paris Apartment was published in 2021. (Review here.) I liked it so much that I didn’t even need to read the description of The Garden of Lost Secrets to know that I’d want to read it. That doesn’t always work out but, happily, it did in this case. I really, really enjoyed this book.

Here’s the book’s description:

1940 - Stasia always found comfort in the idyllic French countryside where she spent her childhood summers, roaming the gardens of an old chateau and finding inspiration for fairy tales full of bravery and adventure. But these days are much darker, and with Nazis storming across Europe, she soon finds herself one of the most hunted agents of the Resistance. The only safe haven she can think of is Chateau de Montissaire. But she’s about to discover that it just may be the center of her biggest mission yet.
Present day - When Isabelle purchases a crumbling chateau in Rouen, it’s not just a renovation project—it’s a chance to reconnect with her sister, Emilie, the only family she has left. What she uncovers instead is an intriguing mystery… As the siblings piece together the incredible truth behind the books written by their great-grandmother Stasia, they discover an exciting story of courage in the face of treachery and an explosive secret that will change everything they believed about their family.

For some reason, even though I knew Anne Frank lived (and hid) in the Netherlands, I never realized how much World War II impacted that country. I didn’t know Nazis moved in and I didn’t really think about how many Jewish people would have been removed from that country. I definitely didn’t know much about the Resistance efforts there nor did I think about how so many people would have said, after the war was over, they were part of the Resistance but, in reality, did nothing to help their Jewish neighbours and others who were being sent to labour or death camps. This is not the first historical fiction book I’ve read this year that featured Dutch characters (though this one was much better) and I think we might start seeing more of these stories soon. It’s another little nugget of WWII history that is interesting and why I will continue to read these kinds of stories. Bowen shared in the historical note that there were 140,000 Jewish people living in the Netherlands before WWII. Around 107,000 of them were deported to camps and 102,000 of them died in those camps. This was, as Bowen writes, the highest mortality rate for Jewish populations of all the occupied Western European countries. It’s sobering and I always appreciate reading these notes, especially when I’ve really enjoyed the fictional story that came out of the research. This might have been a novel I’ve loved reading but I need that reminder that this fictional tale was based in real, horrifying, facts.

Dual timeline historical fiction novels aren’t always done well and are becoming maybe, a little bit, overdone. That said, I’ll defend them when the present day timeline plays an important role. Usually the present day characters can serve as stand ins for the reader as we all go on a journey of learning about the past. That’s somewhat the case in this book. Isabelle’s discoveries and research, with the help of experts which I loved, shed some light on the past while also recognizing that there is so much we don’t know. And so much that we’ve been told - like how so many people had been involved in the Resistance - is more fiction than fact. The truth is, sometimes we just can’t get a final answer to what happened in the past. It’s frustrating but I appreciated Bowen including some of that in this story.

It’s no surprise that I enjoy a love story in all my books so I was really hoping for a happy ending for Stasia and Nicholas. I loved how they met and desperately wanted them both to make it through the war. They had absolutely horrifying experiences and they each thought the other was dead. Oh, the heartache I was feeling for them both! They were both such strong characters and I really loved them and their love for each other.

I don’t want to say too much more about The Garden of Lost Secrets because I feel like it’s best if you go in without too much information. Just know that Kelly Bowen has written an excellent historical fiction novel that is full of interesting and devastating facts and characters that you can’t help but love. If you’re a fan of historical fiction written about World War II, you should definitely read this book.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by Forever via NetGalley and a finished copy was provided by HBG Canada, both in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*