Garden Variety: A Novel

If you enjoyed The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, you’ll enjoy this sweetly charming and beautifully descriptive tour through the seasons of life in a community garden. The novel centers on Lizzie, a lover of order and abider of rules who keeps as tight of a hold on her garden keys as she does on the keys to her heart. Coming off of a recent heartbreak with the plot owner next door, she struggles with making connections to her fellow gardeners, especially the handsome new tenant who makes her heart rail against the neat little drawer she’s filed it away in. With a revolving cast of characters with chapters dedicated to their own stories and perspectives on their seasons in the garden, it’s easy to get sucked into the collective social web Wilhelmi has woven throughout the novel. Readers who enjoy slice-of-life-style narrative arcs will enjoy the myriad of personalities and perspectives presented, and seasoned gardeners will love the detailed descriptions of the trials and tribulations of trying to create something beautiful out of nothing but seeds and soil.