A Secret Garden Affair by Erica James is an enchanting dual timeline novel about love and life, guilt and grief, and memories that keep us warm at night. Libby has discovered her soon to be husband has been sleeping with her best friend and flees to Larkspur House to stay with her great aunt Bess and her aunt’s friend Elfrida. Libby has gone to decide what to do with her life, but ends up finding out more than she expected. Erica James is an award-winning British author of romance, contemporary, and general fiction stories. She has written several bestselling single novels in her career, including Love & Devotion, Airs & Graces, Hidden Talents, A Breath of Fresh Air, Gardens of Delight, Act of Faith, etc. In addition to these, she has also penned an anthology called What A Woman Wants in collaboration with Maureen Lee and Donna Hay. In 2006, Erica won the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Romantic Novel of the Year Award for her book, Gardens of Delight. After that, she won a lot more success in her career as readers all over the world began noticing her work and reading her novels with more interest. Author Erica was born Erica Sullivan in Surrey, England in 1960. She was brought up on Hayling Island, Hampshire, where her family had relocated when she was 4 years old.

From Erica James, bestselling author of Summer at the Lake , comes an enchanting tale of one family coming together and finding their way. It's the summer of 1939, and after touring an unsettled Europe to promote her latest book, Romily Temple ret... This was an interesting story that explores family connections and the true extent that keeping secrets can have. The characters are all very warming and I enjoyed reading about the three women. They have all suffered in their own ways but grow from their experiences – a lesson we can all learn from.A story of friendship, classism, forbidden love, disappointments and celebrations, losing and finding precious memories and forgiveness. This new story from Erica James is enthralling. Written in both the past and the present, which is a departure for James, it tells the stories of Libby, Elfrida and Bess and the intricate nature of their relationship. Another heartbreaking but glorious tale of secrets and love from the Sunday Times bestselling author Erica James…July 1981. As the country prepares to celebrate Prince Charles’ wedding to Lady Diana, Libby wants to be as far away from royal weddi... A dual timeline book between the 1980’s & 1920’s, a very well written book which drew me in from the start & had me devouring this engrossing read in two sittings. Dual timelines are not my favourite but the author certainly did a very good job of changing my mind. The characters have depth & were well portrayed &the pace is good. There was friendship spanning decades, tragedy & secrets as well as some twists & surprises. A delightful read which I recommend The story is set in the summer of 1981 when the country was gripped by Royal Wedding fever, and also in the 1920’s moving forwards. We see the action in both the first and third person from alternating points of view.

Today, Erica is a divorced mother of two sons, Samuel and Edward. Both of them have now grown up and support her in her writing interests. Erica now manages her time between her homes in Lake Como, Italy, and Suffolk, Cheshire. She claims to have developed an interest in writing romance stories after undertaking a course in creative writing organized by the Avon Foundation. Erica says that she has an insatiable appetite for interfering in the business of other people. That is why she often indulges in a conversation with unknown people with the hope that she will unearth something useful out of it that can be used in her writing material. A gripping novel about how friendships survive the best and worst of times from the bestselling author of SUMMER AT THE LAKE. It was so easy to feel emotionally attached to the three lead women in this story. All are very likeable – actually, that goes for the siblings of Elfrida and Bess and Libby’s mum too – even though they are harridans (and yes, they are cold and emotionally unavailable for a reason). Having caught her own fiancé in bed with her best friend just weeks before they were due to marry, she’s fled London for the comfort of the Suffolk countryside.

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The Secret Garden Affair immerses you in the world of beautiful gardens, and difficult family relationships through the eyes of three women - young Libby who has had her heart broken, and the two characters who have been a steady influence on her throughout her life, Elfrida and Bess. Libby heads to Larkspur House looking for stability as a time when she cannot trust her own feelings, but little does she know that former socialite Elfrida and her close friend (and her former lady's maid) Bess have been keeping secrets from her too. Ellen has been living on her own in a picturesque if damp cottage in Cheshire since her husband abandoned her for the pleasures of another woman in Provence. Struggling to make ends meet, and having married once for love, she is now determined that t...

I always know when I open an Erica James book I am going to be charmed with a delicate and charming novel and her new release A Secret Garden Affair is no exception. All across the USA, people are showing up dead. The deaths don't appear to be connected in any way until one particular death occurs and gets the Secretary of Defense's attention. He arranges for a task force to investigate.

A Secret Garden Affair" is another great family drama from Erica James. It is full of family secrets, lifelong friendships, romance and family rifts. The majority of the key characters are female and, as the action covers about 60 years up to 1981, we see the prejudices and constraints they had to deal with in the earlier parts of the last century. This is a thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking read. Hilary Parker is very happy: she has a kind, caring husband, David, two lively children, and she immerses herself in both family life and life in the village of Hulme Welford, which has been her home since childhood. Larkspur House felt like a character to me. It wrapped its magic around me (much like it did to Libby and Daniel) and I felt sad when I had to say goodbye. Dulcie Ballantyne is prepared to welcome an unlikely mix of people when she founds her creative writers' group, Hidden Talents, and her expectations are not disappointed. Beth King is facing... The story is set in 1981, as Libby flees London to spend time with her great aunt Bess and friend Elfrida, in Suffolk. Whilst Libby stays with them, they remember their pasts full of family secrets and romances spanning 60 years.

Elfrida Ambrose has supported heself and the upkeep of Larkspur House designing gardens in England and overseas for many wealthy people , and over the years Bess travelled with her as her ladies maid. Although I enjoyed the characters and their stories, it did take me awhile to get into the plot and found it to be a little meandering - in the first third of the book I wasn't quite sure what the main story line was supposed to be about.

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When Libby finds her fiance Marcus in bed with her best friend Selina three weeks before her wedding, she flees London for the sanctuary of Larkspur House in Suffolk where her Great Aunt Bess lives with her friend Elfrida. This enticing cover had me excited to read this new release from Erica James. The books I have read by this author (so far!) have all been really enjoyable, but I found that this one didn’t capture my heart in quite the same way. I wonder if it is because it is a little similar to a recent book I have read: following a family over decades with secrets being revealed along the way. July, 1981. The country is working itself into a frenzy in the run-up to the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, but the last thing Libby wants to think about is weddings. Having just discovered, three weeks before their wedding, that her fiancé Marcus has been sleeping with her best friend Selina, Libby heads for the comforting presence of Larkspur House, the home of famous garden designer Elfrida Ambrose and Libby's great-aunt Bess - the only place where she has ever felt truly at home.