I said in my review of Bellewether that I would be back for another dose of Susanna Kearsley soon, because I liked her prose and wanted to see her do more with what she had - a good sense of historical fiction blended with romance and a literary touch. I was hoping with The Rose Garden, which was marketed specifically as a time-travel romance (of which I read very few but am always on the lookout for good ones) that this time the romance would have some meat to it.I was mistaken. It was just as flimsy and bare-bones as the last title. Apparently, you can deeply fall in love with someone that you've had a handful of mundane conversations with - no flirting, affection, or romantic overtures required. Also- and this added insult to injury - time travel happens whenever the plot suits, with no rhyme or reason. Seriously- there was no logic whatsoever to the time-traveling mechanism at work in this book. There's a line or two about how the property Eva is staying at after the death of her sister sits on ley lines, as if that is supposed to explain everything. Half the planet doesn't even know what those are. Anyone who watches Dark knows that that's the furthest thing from the truth, the truth being, having the common decency to take a sci-fi concept at least partly seriously. I can't stand people who use speculative tropes in their writing without thinking them through or showing any real desire to do so.
The worst bit, though, was that this plot went absolutely nowhere. Both in the present and the past, there was no sense of urgency in either case. They was some mild exploration of tranquil grounds and a getting to know people who were barely serviceable for the plot.
There are books that I like, and books that I don't. Few make me angry.
K. Rating: 1/5
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