The Alchemy of Flowers by Laura Resau

 

Le Chateau du Paradis seems magical inside, foreboding from the outside. Three employees to maintain the gardens and get the produce but the chatelaine is an unknown quantity with rigid rules which she will not allow to be broken. Anyone who has broken the rules leaves or disappears. 

Eloise takes up a job there leaving her entire past life behind, to make a fresh start. Numerous failures to start a family, and the breakdown of her marriage has made her an ideal candidate for this job, where one of the conditions is that no children can be seen or entertained on the premises. From the beginning, it is obvious that all the rules are going to be broken, and chaos results. 

The story had a mix of magic and realism and the story of many lives - the ones seen and the few hidden all sad and complicated with dark history. Elements of love and romance also part of the story.

Sent by Harper Collin’s Focus, for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.