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The Unfinished Garden

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The Unfinished Garden

By: Barbara Claypole White
Narrated by: Ana Clements, Paul Heitsch
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About this listen

A love story about grief, OCD, and dirt

Tilly Silverberg is rebuilding her life with her young son, Isaac, one potted-up plant at a time. Since her husband’s death, gardening has become her livelihood and her salvation. Hiding out in the North Carolina forest, she wants only to be left alone with Isaac and her greenhouse.

New to the area, successful software developer James Nealy needs a garden. On a solitary mission to reclaim his life from irrational obsessions and relentless compulsions, he has a plan: to conquer his greatest fear. Dirt. One glimpse - or two - of Tilly’s garden, and he knows she holds the key. But when he asks her to take him on as a client, she refuses.

After a family emergency pulls Tilly and Isaac back to her native England, she’s quietly happy, because nothing has changed in her childhood village. Or has it? Her first love is unexpectedly single, her mother is scheming, and her best friend is keeping secrets. Then James appears on her doorstep.

Tenuous at first, but gradually taking root, James and Tilly forge an unlikely bond. As they work together to rescue a garden choked by neglect, they unearth each other’s secrets, each other’s fears, each other’s hopes - and maybe, a shared second chance.

©2012 Barbara Claypole White (P)2019 Spoken Realms Contemporary Contemporary Romance Romance

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All stars
Most relevant  
Such a good understanding of what OCD sufferers actually go through, combined with delightful love story. I also loved all the gardening pieces, being a keen gardener myself.

I think that anyone who found this book boring missed the point somehow. Good read and I enjoyed it.

OCD made real

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This is a love story with an usual twist. Heartbreaking in places and beautifully performed by Ana Clements and Paul Heitsch, sometimes speaking in each other’s voices. No mean feat given one is English and the other American. Their performances were beautifully nuanced to match the story and the combination made me want to keep listening even when I had to stop. Highly recommended.

Beautifully written and performed

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The story is worth a listen, diagnosis of true OCD well covered. However the female narrator is dire, I felt ‘on edge’ the whole time I was listening and almost gave up three times. The pitch of Ana Clements voice was far to high for me and not enough variation of tone.
Shame because it spoilt a reasonable novel

Good understanding of OCD

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Liked the characters and the plot. very likeable. Good descriptions of the locations and family dynamics.

loved the story. not the narrators

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What a fantastic listen, unconventional and difficult at times I loved the narration at first I couldn’t work out if Ana’s voice was annoying but fell in love with how she spoke in the end … highly recommended

The best love story ever

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This book was a good in sight, as to how it is to live with ocd, to my surprise I really enjoyed it, just goes to show never judge a book by its cover, add to the the narration was really easy to listen too I will be reading more by this author,

Ocd

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Amazing book .. good listen sums up a life as an ocd person.
Well worth it

Sums it up

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I like this author's books.I appreciate the author's grasp on OCD grip on a sufferer's life.

The distracting up lift of the narrator's voice, irritated me throughout.

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Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful is what I think of this book/story. Having turned into an audio book junkie recently, I jumped at the chance to listen and review this one. With the cover totally selling it to me! Its absolutely gorgeous, don’t you think?! Well so is the story.

With 12 hour plus listening time…dont let that put you off. Once I started this and got sucked into Tilly’s world I honestly couldn’t stop listening to it and ended up finishing it in a couple of days. Trust me that’s quick it normally takes me a week to listen to an audio.

I love how its narrated by a man and woman has the story alternates between Tilly and James. These guys are amazing and so are the friendships in this story. The whole time I felt myself willing Tilly along.

The whole backdrop of the story is Tilly’s OCD with gardening. This is the part would I could smell the flowers and easily sit in her garden for hours. It took me back to my childhood with my Nan and her gardening.

This is one of those stories that will make you smile and pull at your heartstrings if your a fan of Jodi Picoult then you will love this. The Unfinished Garden is one hell of a moving story. Which I highly recommend.

Beautiful

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A pleasant story though predictable at time . having said that s easy listen . Thank you

Gardens

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